High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Avatar is an American science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron that was released in 2009. The film was premiered by 20th Century Fox in London, England on December 10, and was released in the United States and Canada on December 18, grossing $27 million on its opening day and $77 million during its opening weekend in 3,461 theaters, ranking number one at the box office.Avatar grossed $2.7 billion worldwide, to become the highest-grossing film of all time, as well as in the United States and Canada. It also became the first film to gross more than $2 billion worldwide.Avatar was also well criticized and accumulated an approval rating of 83% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.