When everyone thinks you're crazy, but then you make the biggest movie of all time

How did a movie about 10-foot-tall blue alien cat people become the most successful film in history? Welcome back! Today we are diving into the unbelievable behind-the-scenes story of James Cameron’s Avatar (2009). Long before it shattered box office records, Avatar was widely expected to be the biggest flop in Hollywood history. 20th Century Fox was terrified, Matt Damon famously turned down a $200M+ payday, and the revolutionary 3D technology required to shoot it literally had to be invented from scratch. In this video, we break down: The 15-Year Wait: Why Cameron sat on his script from 1994 to 2005. The Studio Panic: How Fox almost fumbled the movie to Disney. Cameron’s Obsession: Building the Na'vi language, Pandora's ecology, and the Simul-Cam. The "Smurfs in Space" Backlash: How a leaked trailer almost ruined everything, and the brilliant IMAX strategy that saved it. The Ex-Wife Showdown: The historic 2010 Oscars battle between Avatar and Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker. Timestamps: 0:00 - The $250,000,000 Catastrophe 1:15 - Rewinding to 1994 (Why Cameron Waited) 2:30 - The $10 Million Permission Slip 4:15 - Inventing Cameras & Languages 6:00 - Casting a Complete Unknown 7:45 - The "Smurfs in Space" Disaster 9:30 - Making Box Office History #Avatar #JamesCameron #BehindTheScenes #MovieHistory #BoxOffice #Cinema #SciFi COPYRIGHT NOTICE: The Copyright Laws of the United States recognize a “fair use” of copyrighted content. Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act states: “Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.” This video and our YouTube channel, in general, may contain certain copyrighted works that were not specifically authorized to be used by the copyright holder(s), but which we believe in good faith are protected by federal law and the fair use doctrine for one or more of the reasons noted above. Fair Dealing: Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988 (UK) section 30 states “Fair dealing” with a work for the purposes of criticism or review, of that or another work, does not infringe any copyright in the work provided that it is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement. Copyright in a work is not infringed by the use of a quotation from the work (whether for criticism or review or otherwise).