Not only is “Avatar” not the most expensive movie ever made — its total budget and marketing costs fall somewhere below $400 million, according to Fox — but it looks well-poised to turn a profit.
For James Cameron, a man who seemingly doesn’t like to be less than No. 1 at anything, maybe it’s bad news that “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” “Spider-Man 3” and “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” each apparently cost more than his 3D interstellar adventure epic.
And despite claims that the production and marketing costs of “Avatar” have sailed north of half a billion dollars, Fox insists that the math is fuzzy.