14 DAY TRIAL // James Cameron is sitting on a mountain of money – literally. The director, who was already in a league of his own as regards the money he made, has officially become the one person to get an estimated $350 million for a single film. This is explained by the fact that Cameron acts as director, producer and writer on “Avatar” and that he was smart enough to come up with just the right deal for him, Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood has learned.
As the entire world knows, “Avatar” is Cameron’s baby project, but that’s not to say he got to pocket the over $2 billion it made in ticket sales in theaters alone. However, he did get a pretty fat check for it, since he saw the potential the film had and made sure to include a clause in his contract that gave him a percentage of the profits. This means not only ticket sales, but also DVD and Blu-ray sales and, of course, the grossing generated with the re-release (“Avatar” will arrive in theaters again with 8 minutes of extra footage this August).
“I’m told this will be the biggest financial haul ever for a movie director from a single pic because James Cameron had a significant gross percentage of the Twentieth Century Fox megahit as helmer, writer, and producer. Though Hollywood pay experts tell me that the $350M all-in figure is largely attributable to his directing deal structured as ‘first dollar’ gross or more likely ‘at cash break’ gross. It’s certainly bigger than either he or the studio – or anyone – thought he’d make from Avatar which, after its December 2009 release date, has grossed a best-ever $2.7 billion worldwide at the box office,” Deadline Hollywood reports.
“‘But Cameron is making $350 million because the DVD did beyond expectation,’ an insider tells me. Indeed, its 2D DVD and Blu-Ray worldwide sales smashed records in all categories. And still to come is the release of its 3D DVD in November. Meanwhile, yesterday, Twentieth Century Fox and Cameron announced that a ‘Special Edition’ Avatar will be released in theaters August 27th as a limited engagement and exclusively in Digital 3D and IMAX 3D. This version will include more than 8 minutes of new footage. ‘With Cameron making $350 million, can you imagine what Fox and Dune Entertainment and Ingenious Media are making?’ one of my insiders wondered, referring to the three companies that together bankrolled Avatar. And let’s not forget there’ll be an Avatar sequel... and maybe a threequel as part of what Cameron has been calling a ‘trilogy-scaled arc of story.’ And the production costs on the subsequent films should be far less because they’ve honed the 3D filmmaking technology process,” the same publication writes.
Reports circulating prior to the theatrical release of the film said the film had cost a cool half a billion dollars to make, before marketing costs. It was, clearly, one of the biggest and most ambitious productions ever made – and it also stood great chances at being a flop, as some industry insiders believed at the time. As it turns out, it didn’t do so shabby.
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