James Cameron effects. The film was originally scheduled to be released in May 2009 but was pushed back to December 2009 to allow more time for post-production on the complex CGI and to give more time for theatres worldwide to install 3D projectors. Cameron originally intended "Avatar" to be 3D-only. "Avatar" broke several box office records during its initial theatrical run. It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, surpassing Cameron's "Titanic". "Avatar" also became the first movie to ever earn
Titanic (1997 film) Gloria Stuart), The Directors Guild of America Award, and Broadcast Film Critics Association Award (Best Director for James Cameron), and The Producer Guild of America Award. It was also nominated for ten BAFTA awards, including Best Film and Best Director; it failed to win any. The film garnered fourteen Academy Award nominations, tying the record set in 1950 by Joseph L. Mankiewicz's "All About Eve" and won eleven: Best Picture (the second film about the "Titanic" to win that award, after 1933's "Cavalcade"), Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best