Yes, Matt Damon (“The Departed”) lost A LOT of money when he decided to turn down the lead role of Corporal Jake Sully in James Cameron’s mega blockbuster “Avatar” – about $290 million to be exact. Damon allegedly waved a 10% profit share of the movie’s box office receipts. The Oscar-winning actor clearly didn’t expect the fantasy adventure to gross more than $2.8 billion (excluding re-release) at the box office.
Since Matt Damon is currently working with Avatar star Zoe Saldana on the Let’s Do Dinner project for beer brand Stella Artois (yes, you can spend a night with the stars and all proceeds will be donated), we spoke to Entertainment Tonight about the “Avatar” disgrace by Matt Damon is unpacked once more. There he even boasted that his rejection of “Avatar” is “certainly the dumbest thing an actor has ever done”.
Would “Avatar” with Matt Damon have been just as successful?
But as Zoe Saldana rightly points out, Matt Damon’s career has been going pretty well without Avatar. Today, the hero of “Jason Bourne” is one of the biggest Hollywood stars of all time and not only did an outstanding performance in Ben Affleck’s “Air”, but will soon play one of the main roles in Christopher Nolan’s atomic bomb epic “Oppenheimer” are visible.
However, Matt Damon isn’t sure if “Avatar” would have been a similar hit with his involvement as well: “Do you know what kind of movie it would have been if I had been in it? I’ve probably done about 50 movies. I’ve never been in a movie that made a billion dollars!” The biggest hit at the box office for Matt Damon was Ridley Scott’s The Martian, which made $630 million worldwide. So less than the two “Avatar” movies in the US alone (!).
Maybe Matt Damon gets lucky and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” becomes a sensational hit, breaking the $1 billion box office mark. So far, however, the acclaimed director has only managed to do so with “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises” (and in the case of “Oppenheimer,” it’s probably rather unlikely, too). But, as is known, miracles happen again and again. And for Matt Damon’s peace of mind, it would probably finally be necessary to break this sound barrier.