The Best Movies Directed By James Cameron

For a guy who’s been directing movies since the early 1980s, James Cameron has a surprisingly low output - but that just means he makes every movie count. After infamously making his (since-disowned) directorial debut with Piranha II: The Spawning, Cameron went on to become one of the most powerful directors in Hollywood history - and arguably the most successful on a per-movie basis.

Both Titanic and Avatar have spent time at the top of the all-time domestic box-office list. Before that, he created a legendary franchise with The Terminator and its even more successful follow-up, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. And he continued his partnership with Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1994 with the smash-hit action-comedy True Lies.

Though he has often left huge gaps in between feature directing gigs, Cameron also has a number of documentaries under his belt. But do those docs hold up against the best James Cameron movies? For that matter, what is the best movie Cameron has ever directed? Is it his franchise-redefining sequel Aliens or his underrated original sci-fi epic The Abyss? And will his Avatar saga go down as his lasting legacy?