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2008 – Fox decides to have faith in the outrageous ideas of their former abused directors and lets James Cameron do whatever he wants for his next movie. They’re just happy to make any money at all, even if they have no control over the product because whenever they do they screw things up.

2009 – James Cameron and 20th Century Fox release Avatar. It earns $2.8 BILLION worldwide. It claims countless box office record titles and Oscar nominations. It’s a great time for George to start writing for Box Office Prophets because he loves movies.

2010 – Avatar wins three Oscars. James Cameron loses Best Director and Best Picture to his ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker). Fox wipes away their tears with billion dollar bills. George stops writing for BOP because he’s 25, earning decent money and wants to spend his time drinking and fornicating. Cameron and George are losers. Except Cameron is a billion dollar loser.

2011 – Fox successfully reboots the X-Men franchise with the prequel First Class. What else in their closet can they bring back from the dead? Fox decides to do an Alien prequel/reboot and have learned that consistent creative talent benefits a franchise. They get Ridley Scott to direct and produce. Prequel reboots are all the rage. Their plan is an origin story of the aliens with loose ties to the originals.

2012 – Prometheus is released. It earns over $400 million worldwide, becoming the highest domestic/international earner of the franchise. It cost $130 to produce plus marketing. The movie is considered… profitable? I mean, biggest Alien ever! At the time, George is 27. He still hasn’t seen any of the movies besides AVP. He considers this the perfect time to enter the franchise. He loves Prometheus. He also loves movie production news. Disney buys the Star Wars franchise from George Lucas, who retires on mountains of money. Fox still has Avatar with plans for sequels.

2013 – George watches Alien and Aliens, not Alien 3 or 4. They are amazing. Meanwhile, Fox wonders, “Should we make a Prometheus sequel?” They decide to wait. Scott is taking his time with plans for the series. He thinks he wants to direct something else, reminding audiences he is the king of sci-fi and not just the Alien franchise. Fox is smart now and lets him do this. They will wait for Scott and Prometheus 2. They will make whatever movie Scott wants.

2014 – David Fincher finally returns to Fox for the first time since Fight Club. They release Gone Girl. It cost $61 million and earns $369 million worldwide. It is Fincher’s biggest hit. Fox has learned many lessons and starts seeing the rewards. Naturally, this gets them eager for more. Should they do Prometheus 2 or a sequel to Alien 4? Maybe both! Scott is on hold at the moment so they hire sci-fi filmmaker Neill Blomkamp (2009’s Oscar nominated District 9) to write/direct Alien 5.

2015 – Disney releases Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It earns $2 billion. Disney claims the title of biggest opening weekend and domestic earner. Fox still has Avatar as biggest global hit. Ridley Scott releases The Martian with Fox. It cost $108 million and earns $630 million. It gets nominated for seven Oscars. All wounds are mended. Fox still misses Star Wars but is doing fine without it.

2016 – Fox goes crazy with their lessons learned and decides to let Cameron make FOUR sequels to Avatar. This will delay production and profits on Avatar 2. Cameron wants all or nothing, producing every sequel at the same time. Avatar 2-5 will be released from 2020-2025. It’s okay. Prometheus 2 is in production because Scott was super successful with The Martian. Sorry, Blomkamp, Alien 5 gets scrapped. What Scott wants, Scott gets.

2017 – Fox continues their X-Men legacy with Hugh Jackman’s final outing as Wolverine. It earns stellar reviews and over $600 million worldwide. Fox is also releasing Alien: Covenant with Scott directing. It’s currently 77% positive on Rotten Tomatoes, better than Prometheus. It’s expected to earn less but also costs 25% less. Early word is it’s the third best Alien movie after the first two. With 2017 off to a good start and Avatar 2-5 on the way, it’s a great time to be Fox - as long as they keep learning lessons and having faith in creativity.

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