Ranking Every Billion Dollar Movie - From Worst To Best

16. Avatar

Box Office: $2,787,965,087

You'd think that the highest-grossing movie (by some distance) would be the best ever made, but you'd be wrong. Again by some distance.

When it came out initially (the first time), the technical Marvel of Avatar's 3D - rendered properly for the first time - offered such an unprecedented cinematic experience that it was easy to ignore the fact that the film was essentially just a glossy remake of Fern Gully. That's not a fatal problem, of course, as Fern Gully is great, but the socio-political messaging in Avatar is just a little too heavy-handed.

It's still a very good blockbuster, but without James Cameron's stunning commitment to his new technology, it probably wouldn't have been considered a whole lot more than a formulaic sci-fi adventure. But the 3D experience was enough to give it unprecedented staying power at the box office, which it topped for seven weeks, and ensured that we now have to sit through something like 28 sequels. Or at least that's how it feels.