Still, Laila couldn't help but admire Cameron.
Think about it: the production budget alone was over $200 million. Add nearly $200 million more for marketing, and he had pushed the film's total cost to a staggering $400 million. It took nerves of steel to spend that much money and still eat and sleep soundly every day, without worrying about whether the box office would deliver.
Laila admitted she couldn't do something like that. If she didn't have the backing of a major corporation — the Moran Group standing behind her — she wouldn't even consider such an aggressive marketing campaign.
With a cost of $400 million, that meant the movie would need to gross at least $1 billion just to break even, depending on the revenue split negotiated with distributors.
While many people were busy debating Cameron's audacity, Avatar finally premiered!
December 16th — a date destined to go down in film history.
Though the opening day's midnight box office wasn't particularly high — "only" $4 million — the numbers quickly shot up afterward, shocking everyone.
It wasn't that no other film had achieved such results before — several of Laila's films had reached similar heights — but the word-of-mouth and box office grew at such a rapid pace that those who were ready to call the film a flop didn't even have time to react before they were slapped in the face by reality.
From that point forward, Avatar began its box-office domination.
When the second week's numbers came out, people were stunned. Not because it held onto first place with $75 million, but because its week-to-week drop was a mere 2.6%.
And it wasn't just North America — in other countries, it quickly rose to the top of box office charts and stayed there.
The Eastern release was a few days behind North America. Coincidentally, as January began, some areas experienced the biggest snowstorm in over fifty years.
But even that blizzard couldn't cool the audience's enthusiasm for Avatar. Almost every theater was completely sold out. Especially at Laila's newly opened IMAX theaters — scalpers were charging over 100 or even 200 dollars per ticket, and people were still willing to pay. Other theaters saw similar scenes, as moviegoers, drawn by Cameron's reputation and the film's stellar reviews, nearly broke down theater doors.
Thanks to this frenzy, Avatar earned over $400 million in the East in January alone — more than double what it had made there in Laila's original timeline.
But this was only the beginning. In the days that followed, Avatar went on to break record after record. Globally, it reached $1 billion in just 17 days; in North America, it hit $500 million in 32 days and $600 million in just 47 days.
The East was no different. By the time it finally left theaters, it had earned over $2.6 billion locally, staying at number one for ten consecutive weeks and smashing every existing record — even those previously set by Laila herself.
In the original timeline, Avatar earned $1.34 billion in the East. That may seem small compared to North America, but one must remember: in that world, with no new theater chains built by Laila, the entire annual box office in 2009 was only $1.43 billion. Avatar alone accounted for 13.9% of that. Considering how many films are released in a year, the fact that one movie took up such a huge share left little room for others.
That $1.34 billion total was also $1 billion ahead of the second-place film — a record that wasn't broken until four years later by Monster Hunt. At the time, those numbers were simply staggering.
Now, thanks to Laila's theater expansion, the Eastern film industry had grown much faster than in the original timeline, allowing Avatar to double its box office earnings. That also meant breaking this new record in the future would be even harder.
Before the film premiered, many had doubted Avatar. Not because they thought it would be bad, but because its budget seemed impossibly high. While its cutting-edge technology was world-leading, no one knew if audiences would buy into it. Aside from a director like Cameron, no one else would have dared take such a massive gamble.
But now, with record after record falling in such a short time, people began to hope Avatar might even surpass Titanic.
Some film critics remained skeptical. They had their reasons — mainly that Titanic's release circumstances were quite different.
For one, release windows: back then, Titanic played for 100 or even 200 days in some areas. That kind of extended run would be nearly impossible today. Secondly, there are many more entertainment options available now. Whether Avatar could keep drawing such huge audiences was uncertain.
But all doubts vanished after Avatar smashed the $1.8 billion record.
The frightening thing was, it wasn't just breaking records — it still had plenty of momentum! No one, not even critics or the general public, could predict where Avatar would ultimately land.
While the world was going crazy over the film, Laila was already preparing for her new project. Though scheduled for the second half of the year, she was still meticulously fine-tuning the script — down to every punctuation mark, let alone the dialogue.
By the time Avatar finally wrapped up its run with a global total of $3 billion, Laila had just finished a meeting with several department heads.
After the meeting, as they reviewed their preparations, the conversation naturally drifted to Avatar.
"Three billion... I don't think anyone will ever beat that number," one manager said with a laugh and a shake of his head.
For Laila, who still dreamed of claiming the top spot on the all-time box office chart, that figure made her smile wryly. In the original timeline, it had only been $2.7 billion — now it was $3 billion. She was certain that an extra $300 million came from the East's contribution.
Her planning with the IMAX theaters had paid off — every available ticket sold out without a single empty seat.
Now that people in the East were enjoying more prosperity, their demand for spiritual and entertainment experiences had also grown.
Many were willing to spend a little extra for a better viewing experience — after all, for most, it was just the price of skipping a few packs of cigarettes.
Thanks to their contribution, Avatar's global box office reached $3 billion. Laila knew she should be proud of the East's development, but when she thought about having to surpass that number herself one day, even she felt a bit intimidated.
Looking at the films that had made it onto the all-time box office rankings, it was clear: they either relied on spectacular special effects or grand, epic scale. Trying to break the record with any other genre was practically impossible.
If Laila wanted to challenge the top spot, she would have to go for a big-budget special effects spectacle. Sure, money alone couldn't guarantee a great film, but without money, creating a massive blockbuster would be impossible.