When Titanic won eleven Oscars and became the highest-grossing film of all time, I suspect James Cameron’s ego inflated to the size of the Titanic itself, leading him to declare himself the ‘king of the world’. I now suspect that Mr. Cameron’s ego is probably the size of Pandora.

Within the last day or so, Avatar has soared past Titanic’s enormous record of US$1.84 billion worldwide to US$1.86 billion worldwide, with no end in sight. I would wager that Avatar will end up with somewhere between $2.2-$2.6 billion worldwide, which is simply an unbelievable gross in the film industry.

How is it that James Cameron is the only director apparently capable of producing films that make obscene amounts of money? While I thoroughly enjoyed both Titanic and Avatar (admittedly, when Titanic came out, I was only interested in the second half. You know, when it sinks), I found both to be overrated. I doubt Avatar will win Best Picture, though it will definitely be nominated, though Cameron is likely to pick up the Best Director. (If it wins Best Original Screenplay, however, I will have totally lost all faith in the Academy.)

I find Avatar’s monumental and historic gross to be surprising, but I suppose congratulations are due. Cameron has cemented himself as one of the greatest directors of our time (if he actually deserves that honour, I’ll leave up to you), and he can basically walk into any studio now and ask for a budget north of $400 million and they’ll give it to him - no questions asked.

Congrats, Mr. Cameron. You’ve outdone yourself. When Avatar 2 comes out, you’ll probably outdo yourself again.