TITANIC: A 25th Anniversary Celebration and Retrospective

Introduction

Released on December 19, 1997, and earning $2.2 billion worldwide, Titanic (1997) truly made director James Cameron ‘King of the World.’ The film went on to tie All About Eve (1950) for the most Academy-Award nominations for a single film, at fourteen. Titanic also tied Ben-Hur (1959) with the most Oscar wins for a single film, with eleven. A critical and commercial smash hit, Cameron’s epic romance/disaster film also launched its two stars, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, into the stratosphere. 

Titanic is set for a new theatrical release on February 10, 2023. The Walt Disney Company will present the newly restored and remastered version of the film in theaters in 3D, 4K, HDR, and high-frame-rate. Paramount Pictures, who is handling the domestic rights for the film, will also be setting release dates throughout the US. In celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of this now iconic film, Cinema Scholars presents a deep dive into the making of Titanic, its grueling production, and its enduring and timeless legacy.

Beginnings

Dating back to his work on The Abyss (1989), Academy-Award-winning director James Cameron had always been fascinated with the water. A licensed and skilled diver and an expert on all things related to deep-sea exploration, the director saw the opportunity that was there in making Titanic. Cameron would be able to dive and explore the world’s most legendary shipwreck. The fact that he had to also produce a profitable and successful film was merely a means to an end for Cameron. The director would later state to Playboy in 2009:

“I made Titanic because I wanted to dive into the shipwreck, not because I particularly wanted to make the movie. The Titanic was the Mount Everest of shipwrecks, and as a diver, I wanted to do it right…I loved that first taste, and I wanted more. So Titanic was a means to an end. Titanic was about “fuck you” money. It came along at a point in my life when I said, “I can make movies until I’m 80, but I can’t do expedition stuff when I’m 80”

Cameron wrote a script treatment for a Titanic film and subsequently met with several 20th Century Fox executives. His goal was to try and pitch the $200 million production. When the director referred to the story as ‘Romeo and Juliet on the Titanic, the studio suits were less than enthused. Coming off the Schwarzenegger-staring spectacle True Lies (1994), 20th Century Fox was hoping for shootouts, fighter jets, and explosions.

Still, the studio heads knew that Cameron could deliver the goods based on the monster box-office success of his previous films. The Terminator (1984) – $78 million on a $6 million budget. Aliens (1986) – $180 million on an $18 million budget. The Abyss (1989) – $90 million on a $40 million budget. Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) – $520 million on a $100 million budget. King Cameron knew how to turn a profit. The studio backed him and financed the film. The most expensive ever made, up to that point.

Pre-Production

In 1973, James Cameron decided to study physics at Fullerton College in California after High School. However, he quickly grew bored of this and switched his major to English. He ultimately dropped out of college in 1974. The future Oscar winner held a number of aimless jobs, including that of truck driver and janitor. It was during this transitional period in Cameron’s life that he became obsessed with film technology and special effects. This is especially true after the twenty-three-year-old Cameron saw Star Wars (1977). Cameron subsequently quit his job as a truck driver and dove headfirst into the film industry.

Like so many other directors of Cameron’s generation, he largely made his bones as a junior apprentice for legendary B-movie filmmaker Roger Corman. Working in Corman’s miniature model shop, Cameron impressed Corman by designing a ‘spaceship with tits’ for a Star Wars knockoff that Corman was putting into production. Throughout all of this, Cameron always maintained a love for the ocean and, specifically, shipwrecks.

Cut to fifteen years later and the release of Titanica (1992). An astonishing IMAX documentary, the film focuses on footage taken at the wreck of the HMS Titanic. Along with interviews with several survivors of the Titanic disaster, Mir deep-sea submersible vehicles had been used to convey the enormous tragedy and loss of life that took place on April 15, 1912. Cameron, now an established A-list director in his early 40s, knew that he was running out of time to pursue his dream. He wanted to lead a high-risk expedition to the world’s most famous shipwreck. Cameron wanted it and he was going to make Hollywood pay for it.

Sherry Lansing

By 1996, Sherry Lansing was at the apex of her career. Running Paramount Pictures after years as a successful producer, Lansing was looking for new material that might turn a profit. She had heard of a script that was making the rounds that might be just what she was looking for. Lansing got her hands on a copy of the Titanic script via Paramount Pictures production chief John Goldwyn. She loved it. Specifically, she appreciated the contemporary and empowering feel that the script had. This is especially true considering the story took place in 1912. Lansing stated to The Hollywood Reporter in 2017:

“It was a great love story, with an underlying message about female empowerment…Rose was strong and feisty from the beginning — she’s an independent woman who breaks with her class to be with the man she loves. People underestimated the strength of those characters and how unconventional they were”

The problem was that Cameron had already made a deal with 20th Century Fox. However, the executives at Fox started to get nervous when the rumors spread about the film’s out-of-control budget. It was at this point that 20th Century Fox started to look for a partner to split the bill with. When Universal Pictures wavered, Lansing and Paramount Pictures jumped at the opportunity. After five intense days of negotiations, the two sides agreed to split the initial budget of $109 million straight down the middle.

This was when the real problems started. Lansing and her head of Production Fred Gallo realized the film would cost a lot more than $109 million. She and her team grew angry and felt that they had been deceived by 20th Century Fox. When Lansing threatened to sue and leave the project, 20th Century Fox agreed to a new deal. Instead of a straight split of costs, Paramount Pictures was allowed to “cap” its investment. This meant that it would pay a set dollar amount for half the film, with 20th Century Fox covering the rest. It turned out to be one of the most one-sided deals in film history.

Going Down

Cameron had begun pre-production work on Titanic back in 1992. This was long before the final shooting script was finished. The director needed to get in the right frame of mind as well as get elite-level underwater footage of the sunken ship. As a result, Cameron and his crew dove down to the real RMS Titanic a total of twelve times before filming started. It was during these dives, that Cameron would feel the incredible emotion and sense of loss that would eventually incorporate itself into the final film. 

The Titanic had sunk over two miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. As a result, this was not an easy ship to reach. At the time, there were only five submersible crafts in the world that could dive below twelve thousand feet. Two of the crafts, Mir 1 and Mir 2 were contained in the Russian research vessel, Akademik Keldysh. Its science director, Dr. Anatoly Sagalevitch, initially detested loaning the use of his vessel for a Hollywood production. However, the subsequent fall of the Soviet Union had presented Sagalevitch with a unique opportunity to earn some much-needed American dollars.

In September 1995, Cameron began to film his dives down to the Titanic. With the water pressure achieving 6,000 pounds PSI, these were dangerous missions. One small crack in the vessel’s structure would result in killing everyone on board. Unfortunately, due to various conditions, Cameron was never able to truly get all the high-quality footage that he needed for the film. The director would make up for this via miniature models and special effects. Cameron spoke to Mr. Showbiz in 2017 about the importance of seeing the Titanic wreck up close:

“…It was sort of like going to Mecca first, and getting religion. We went there with very specific objectives, and I took two things away from the experience. One, get it right. Do it “exactly right”. We’ve got the “real ship” on film–everything else has to live up to that level of reality from this point on…There was another level of reaction coming away from the real wreck, which was that it wasn’t just a story, it wasn’t just a drama. It was an event that happened to real people who really died…There probably aren’t going to be many filmmakers who go to Titanic. There may never be another one…So it sort of becomes a great mantle of responsibility to convey the emotional message of it–to do that part of it right, too…”

Filming

Principal photography for Titanic began on July 31, 1996, in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Initial filming took place aboard the science vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh. These scenes involved the bookend sequences with an elderly Rose (Gloria Stuart) telling her story about Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and the Heart of the Ocean jewel, as Cameron regular, Bill Paxton listens on. On the last day of filming in Nova Scotia, someone had laced the seafood chowder with PCP at a cast and crew wrap party. Numerous people, including Cameron and Paxton, had to be rushed to the hospital. This was only the beginning.

20th Century Fox had acquired over forty acres of waterfront property about twenty miles south of San Diego, in Santa Rosarito, Mexico. It was here that the majority of Titanic and all of the ship and water scenes would be filmed. A seventeen million gallon ‘horizon tank’ was built for exterior shots and the sinking of the RMS Titanic, the largest ever built. Shooting in Mexico was seen as a way to cut costs on labor. Additionally, in order to achieve maximum realism and authenticity, the Titanic was built nine-tenth to scale. As constructed, the Titanic replica was almost eight hundred feet long and ten stories high.

While filming on Titanic was only scheduled to last approximately four-and-a-half months, the daunting production grew to a bloated 160 days. Throughout the shoot, numerous members of the cast and crew came down with colds, flu, and even kidney infections. This was due to the long hours spent in cold water. Kate Winslet herself suffered so severely, she vowed never to work with Cameron again, unless she was paid “a lot of money.” Multiple stuntmen suffered broken bones, and several actors and members of the crew quit the production. A subsequent investigation by the Screen Actors Guild determined no wrongdoing.

Evil Jim

While Winslet endured chipping a bone in her elbow and feeling, on multiple occasions, that she was in danger of drowning, Leonardo DiCaprio has stated publicly that he never felt that he was in danger physically during the production. Cameron has never apologized publicly for the brutal conditions that he put his cast and crew through during the filming of Titanic. However, he has acknowledged it on multiple occasions.

All throughout the production rumors of Cameron’s dictatorship-like behavior and rampant disregard for the safety of his cast and crew reverberated throughout the media and Hollywood. Defending himself, Cameron gave numerous interviews to the press, as well as writing letters to the media. The director even took out ads in the trade papers, explaining his side of the story. By the Fall of 1996, the imminent demise of the film’s production was spreading like wildfire. Things got so bad on set that the crew felt Cameron had an ‘evil alter ego.’ They came up with a nickname for Evil Jim and called him “Mij” which was Jim spelled backward.

By the Fall of 1996, the press was trashing Titanic. Persistent reports of a changing release date, abusive working conditions endured by the cast and crew, and the fact that the film was wildly over budget contributed to a negative media attitude towards the film. Principal photography on Titanic was finished on March 22, 1997. Kate Winslet would later speak to the Los Angeles Times on what it was like working for Cameron:

“…I chipped a small bone in my elbow…and at one point I had deep bruises all over my arms. I looked like a battered wife…He’s a nice guy but the problem was that his vision for the film was as clear as it was…He has a temper like you wouldn’t believe…As it was, the actors got off lightly. I think Jim knew he couldn’t shout at us the way he did to his crew because our performances would be no good…” 

Breaking Point

The production delays on Titanic quickly spiraled out of control when it turned out that the replica ship that was being built for production was taking much longer than originally anticipated. On top of that, the film’s director of photography was summarily dismissed and replaced. 20th Century Fox was growing concerned. Subsequently, they sent executive Bill Mechanic down to Baja Studios in Mexico to find out what was going on, and to reel in Cameron. This would prove to be extremely difficult for the executive. 

With a list of budget cuts that Mechanic wanted to be implemented, he confronted Cameron on set in the middle of the night. Cameron, as he was prone to do, exploded and walked off the set. Mechanic shut the production of Titanic down until Cameron could be calmed, and terms could be reached. Mechanic drove back to Los Angeles and waited. Eventually, Cameron and Mechanic settled their grievances, and filming resumed. The on-set issues, however, went on, and the budget continued to balloon. Sherry Lansing was now fearing that the film would be a tax write-off and the biggest disaster in the history of Paramount Pictures.

Add to the list of concerns was the increasing length of Titanic, clocking in at three hours. The studios were nervous that this would destroy any chance the film had to make money as this meant fewer screenings per hour. The studio brass also felt that younger viewers would be turned off at the prospect of sitting in a theater for three hours. As a result, Cameron was asked to make cuts. The director refused and threatened to quit the project altogether if the studios persisted. As is usually the case, Cameron’s vision proved to be correct.

It Was All Worth It

Although principal photography on Titanic had concluded in late March of 1997, the problems and disagreements continued into post-production. Because of Cameron’s obsessive attention to detail, the film’s production budget had hemorrhaged to over $200 million. The largest film budget in history. Cameron paid attention, and spent money, on the most minute of details. This included real silverware, tea cups, and ashtrays, all being stamped with the original Titanic’s ‘White Star Line’ logo. This is why Cameron made sure that the scenes aboard the ship lasted exactly two hours and forty minutes. The exact amount of time it took the real Titanic to sink.

The wallpaper on the Titanic, the carpeting, all of the furniture, all of this was obsessively recreated under the watchful eye of Cameron, thus further increasing an already bloated budget. The director wanted his Titanic to be the most historically accurate version of events ever to be put on film. Cameron even gave all of the film’s extras background stories and names. The director personally met with over one hundred and fifty extras in order to explain who their characters were, and what their backstories entailed.

At war with multiple studios, Cameron was vehemently opposed to their planned marketing of the film. He also was unhappy with the trailer that they were putting together. Cameron cut his own trailer which, of course, Paramount Pictures hated. The arguments continued over everything from the design of the poster to the release date. Cameron had unequivocally stated that the film would not be ready for a July 4th release. Throughout all of this, Sherry Lansing continued to believe in Cameron’s vision. Then, during the Summer of 1997, Cameron asked Lansing to come to his Malibu home to watch a few clips that he had recently put together. Lansing spoke to The Hollywood Reporter in 2017:

“Jim said, Come out, and I’ll show you a few scenes cut together, just a couple of scenes…It was a Sunday, and I’d made plans to have dinner with my husband [director William Friedkin] later on. John Goldwyn and I drove out to Jim’s home early in the afternoon, and we had a little lunch, and then Jim made the room dark and showed us the first scene, and I was speechless…And he showed me another scene, completely different, and that was incredible. Then he said, ‘Another scene?’ And I said, ‘Yes!’ I lost all track of time…I told Jim I was meeting Billy at six…And Jim said: ‘What are you talking about? It’s already 8 pm”

Release and Legacy

After years of pre and post-production and countless disputes, Titanic finally made its public debut on November 1, 1997, at the Tokyo Film Festival. The reviews that were coming in were less than stellar. However, positive reviews started soon appearing in the United States after its premiere in Hollywood on December 19, 1997. The main complaint that critics had with the film was its screenplay and characters. Still, Titanic topped the domestic box office that weekend, taking in $27 million, narrowly beating out the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. While this was a strong showing, especially for twenty-five years ago, the studios were nervous because of the film’s enormous budget.

The big difference between Titanic and other films up to that point is that most films’ box office declined in the ensuing weeks after its release. Not Titanic. The film managed to gross between $25-30 million every weekend for more than a month after its initial release. Astonishingly, Cameron’s epic managed to take the top spot at the domestic box office for fifteen consecutive weeks. Only one other film in cinema history had done this before, Steven Spielberg’s E.T. (1982). By the time Titanic had ended its North American run in October 1998, the film had earned $600 million domestically and $1.2 million globally.

After all of the drama and all the people who were convinced that Cameron and Titanic would bankrupt them, Sherry Lansing and James Cameron had the last laugh. On March 23, 1998, with Titanic still ruling the domestic box office three months after release, Cameron would truly be crowned king. He personally received and accepted three Academy Awards for the film. Best Editing, Best Director, and Best Picture. His subsequent acceptance speech for the Best Director Oscar has since gone down in history as one of the more polarizing and memorable speeches as he yelled to the audience DiCaprio’s famous line:

“I’m the King of the World!”

Looking back at Titanic, there’s no denying that James Cameron knew how to appeal to a wide-scale audience. He utilized tactics during production that studios and directors had been doing successfully for decades. Cameron delivered to the viewer a level of escapism that had not been seen since the days of Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and The Ten Commandments (1956). Cameron put you on that ship. As a result, people went to see the film again and again.

The scope of Titanic was so massive that people simply HAD to see it more than once. Therein lay the key to the film’s box-office success. Titanic remains one of the greatest examples of a film and a director being able to successfully transport an audience to another time and place. Much like Cecil B. DeMille and David Lean, Cameron created an epic film that has stood the test of time. Titanic remains one of the defining films in cinema and pop culture history.

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