A TITANIC SUCCESS

Having grossed $10 billion at the box office across his career, James Cameron is now in the most exclusive club in Hollywood.

- MATT CRAIG

Over the course of his 40 years in the movie business, director James Cameron has increasingly made big bets on his projects while facing sky-high expectations to always produce a mother lode of box-office gold. Beginning in the 1980s with The Terminator and Aliens and extending through Titanic and the first two Avatar films, the 71-year-old Oscar winner’s movies have collectively earned some $10 billion at the global box office; his share of that forms the bulk of a personal net worth that Forbes now estimates to be $1.1 billion.