James Cameron Tells Off Critics Who Claim His Scripts Are Cringe: ‘Let Me See Your Highest-Grossing Films — Then We’ll Talk About Dialogue Effectiveness’

James Cameron joined Empire magazine for a discussion about the 40th anniversary of “The Terminator,” and he had the perfect clap back for moviegoers who sometimes complain about the cringe dialogue in his movies.

“I don’t think of it as some Holy Grail, that’s for sure,” the filmmaker said about “The Terminator.” “I look at it now and there are parts of it that are pretty cringeworthy, and parts of it that are like, ‘Yeah, we did pretty well for the resources we had available.’”

“I don’t cringe on any of the dialogue, but I have a lower cringe factor than, apparently, a lot of people do around the dialogue that I write,” Cameron added. “You know what? Let me see your three-out-of-the-four-highest-grossing films — then we’ll talk about dialogue effectiveness.”

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Cameron was referencing his box office record breakers: “Avatar,” the highest-grossing movie of all time with $2.9 billion, “Avatar: The Way of Water,” the third highest grossing movie of all time with $2.3 billion, and “Titanic,” the fourth highest-grossing movie of all time with $2.2 billion. He makes a point in saying that his scripts, even though some find them to be cringe at times, have not prevented his movies from being box office powerhouses.

The Oscar winner is often quick to defend his movies. Speaking to Empire magazine in 2022, he railed against moviegoers who were complaining over the three-hour runtime for “Avatar: The Way of Water.”

“I don’t want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch [television] for eight hours,” Cameron told the magazine. “I can almost write this part of the review. ‘The agonizingly long three-hour movie…’ It’s like, give me a fucking break. I’ve watched my kids sit and do five one-hour episodes in a row. Here’s the big social paradigm shift that has to happen: it’s okay to get up and go pee.”

Cameron also had strong words for moviegoers who continuously troll on the first “Avatar” movie. Even with a huge gross, nine Oscar nominations, and three wins, “Avatar” is often made fun of for not being culturally relevant (even though its long-delayed sequel still became the third highest-grossing movie of all time).

“The trolls will have it that nobody gives a shit and they can’t remember the characters’ names or one damn thing that happened in the movie,” Cameron said. “Then they see the movie again and go, ‘Oh, okay, excuse me, let me just shut the fuck up right now.’ So I’m not worried about that.”

Cameron’s third “Avatar” movie, “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” is set to open in theaters Dec. 19, 2025 from Disney.