Culture news This sci-fi film is the most expensive in the history of cinema. With its budget of 450 million dollars, it surpasses James Cameron’s Avatar
James Cameron is known in Hollywood and the rest of the world for being the director who placed three of his films in the TOP 4 of the biggest hits at the world box office. His film projects are extraordinary and have huge budgets. Avatar: The Way of Water cost a lot of money, but it’s not the most expensive science fiction film in cinema history.
The most expensive sci-fi film in history
Avatar: The Way of Water, directed by James Cameron, cost a minimum of US$350 million, making it de facto one of the most expensive films ever made in Hollywood. Some people mention a sum reaching 460 million, but nothing formally attests to these figures. Avatar 2 spent lavishly, as John Hammond likes to point out in Jurassic Parkbut the title of “most expensive sci-fi film in the history of cinema” goes to a Star Wars project.
In October 2012, the North American entertainment giant Disney purchased Lucasfilms for US$4.05 billion, acquiring the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. Barely three years later, the first film in the saga produced by Disney arrives in theaters and causes a real heist. Star Wars, Episode VII – The Force Awakens brought in $2.071 billion for the company (the 5th biggest success at the global box office). To achieve such a feat, Disney printed money.
The budget for the seventh installment of the Star Wars franchise is US$447 million (excluding marketing costs). The Force Awakens has achieved the status of the most expensive science fiction film ever produced in Hollywood, a real tour de force compared to James Cameron’s Avatar saga. The bill will be lower for the two sequels: 300 million for Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi and 416 million for Star Wars, Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker.
Avatar and Star Wars: two opposing strategies
Disney has made up its mind and decided to put an end to the expansion of the Star Wars license in cinema. The failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story cooled the enthusiasm of the big-eared firm which has since seen Disney+ as the ideal environment to relaunch the machine. Subscribers to the SVOD service were able to discover the series Andor, Visions, Ahsoka, The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi and many others on the small screen. Next June, The Acolyte will be entrusted with the difficult task of reconciling fans once and for all with the saga before it makes a notable return to the cinema in 2026 with The Mandalorian & Grogu.
On the other side of the galaxy, the Avatar franchise is ignoring Disney+, except for broadcasting its films 17 months after their cinema release in France. After Avatar: The Way of Water (December 2022), Disney has already started work on and planned three sequels all directed by James Cameron : Avatar 3 (December 2025), Avatar 4 (December 2029) and Avatar 5 (December 2031). Avatar 6 and 7 would also be considered but without the Canadian filmmaker.