James Cameron

 James has racked up several huge financial gains throughout his career due to extremely savvy business choices. As we detail later in this article, James famously gave up his $8 million salary when Titanic exceeded its budget. Instead, he took back-end points. Those points eventually translated into the sum of $650 million for Cameron when the film became the top-grossing film of all time up to the point at which it was. Cameron graduated from Fullerton College in 1973. He left the school after just one year. He later began working odd jobs as a truck driver and Janitor. He always enjoyed writing, and after watching Star Wars in 1977 he took the decision to quit his job to pursue a career in the film industry. His career in directing officially began in 1978 when he directed, wrote and produced his first short film, Xenogenesis along with a fellow. He later became the production assistant for Rock and Roll High School (1979) and later as the art director of the science-fiction film Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). He was the primary person responsible for the special effects of John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981) in addition to serving the production designer for Galaxy of Terror (1981) as well as advising on the concept of Android (1982).