James Cameron may have shot to fame by directing low budget sci-fi thriller The Terminator, following it up with one of the greatest action movies ever made in Aliens, but since completing work on The Abyss back in 1989 he’s been determined to craft the most expensive, game-changing and commercially successful projects the industry has ever seen.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day ushered in the CGI revolution, and it was the first $100 million production in Hollywood history to boot. Cameron then followed it up by once again helming the costliest film of all-time, with True Lies setting the studio back $120 million.
The director almost doubled down on record-breaking production costs as Titanic became cinema’s maiden $200 million epic, with things spiraling so far out of control that many analysts were predicting that the historical drama could sink his entire career. Obviously, that wasn’t the case and the film went on to become a cultural phenomenon, smashing almost every conceivable box office record on its way to becoming the highest-grossing movie ever, a record it recently reclaimed from Avengers: Endgame.
Leonardo DiCaprio must be sick of people asking him about that goddamn floating door wherever he goes almost 25 years later, but it did shoot the young actor to the top of the Hollywood A-list, where he’s resided ever since. Titanic is now streaming on Netflix, where you can bet those brave enough to risk the three-hour epic will be ready to dive right in.
