Is James Cameron, Like, the Best Director Ever?

Avatar beats Titanic as the world's biggest movie, so what does that say about the man behind both?

Now that Avatar has topped Titanic as the world's biggest-grossing movie, can we finally agree that James Cameron is the greatest director of all time?
—Frank, via the Answer B!tch inbox

Dear Person Possibly Masquerading as James Cameron:

Yeah, no.

Even if we're measuring success strictly via numbers, Cameron is still way eclipsed when it comes to box office success. In fact, another very big director still has a claim over Cameron in the ticket-sales department—for a very different kind of alien flick...

...and that's Steven Spielberg.

But first some basic numbers.

Yes, on Monday, Avatar eclipsed Titanic to become the worldwide highest-grossing movie ever. Per Fox, the worldwide total for Dancing With Smurfs now stands at $1.859 billion, compared to Titanic's $1.843 billion.

But when you start to look at the numbers more closely, Cameron is still far from king of the wooorrrrllld.

Much of Avatar's domestic box office take—at least 85 percent—is thought to come from 3-D theaters, Exhibitor Relations analyst Jeff Bock says. That's important, because tickets to 3-D movies cost more. Fox, which released Avatar, has yet to break out the exact number of 3-D tickets versus traditional theater tickets, Bock says, but if it ever does, the statistics will likely to reveal that Titanic actually is still a more popular box office hit.

"It's going to be difficult to compare it as apples to apples," Bock says, "but if you really look in terms of ticket sales, it's nowhere close. Once we sort for inflation and divide by actual prices, Avatar is going to fall off substantially."

So what about Titanic, then? Can we still say Cameron is king of the world when it comes to that movie? To be honest, it's simply too hard to say. The industry has been following ticket sales domestically for a very long time, but not international sales, Bock says. So any honest historical comparison of worldwide film hits would be next to impossible.

However, if Cameron wants to throw his hat in the ring as king of the domestic box office, he'd better be prepared to settle for...sixth place.

"Gone with the Wind is still on top when it comes to physical ticket sales domestically," Bock tells me. "More people went to see Gone with the Wind than Titanic in terms of tickets."

(In case you're wondering who directed that, it's a guy named Victor Fleming.)

Then comes Star Wars, followed by The Sound of Music, Spielberg's gentle alien flick ET, The Ten Commandments, and then Titanic.

Of course, we haven't even begun to discuss the merits of any of these films or directors beyond money.

Several major outlets have ranked directors in terms of talent and influence, but few, if any, of them have even considered Cameron. Instead, it's older names such as Hitchcock, Kubrick and Griffith who tend to dominate. In fact, even Spielberg tends to get shafted in lists like those. When Moviemaker magazine turned out its most influential director list in 2002, Spielberg came in at No. 10.