Titanic (1997 film)

Titanic
The film poster shows a man and a woman hugging over a picture of the Titanic's bow. In the background is a partly cloudy sky and at the top are the names of the two lead actors. The middle has the film's name and tagline, and the bottom contains a list of the director's previous works, as well as the film's credits, rating, and release date.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJames Cameron
Written byJames Cameron
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyRussell Carpenter
Edited by
Music byJames Horner
Production
companies
Distributed by
  • Paramount Pictures
    (United States and Canada)
  • 20th Century Fox
    (International)
Release dates
  • November 1, 1997 (1997-11-01) (Tokyo)
  • December 19, 1997 (1997-12-19) (United States)
Running time
195 minutes[3]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$200 million[4][5][6]
Box office$2.264 billion[7]

Titanic is a 1997 American epic romantic disaster film directed, written, co-produced and co-edited by James Cameron. Incorporating both historical and fictionalized aspects, it is based on accounts of the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet star as members of different social classes who fall in love during the ship's maiden voyage. The film also features an ensemble cast of Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Danny Nucci, David Warner and Bill Paxton.

Cameron's inspiration for the film came from his fascination with shipwrecks. He felt a love story interspersed with human loss would be essential to convey the emotional impact of the disaster. Production began on September 1, 1995,[8] when Cameron shot footage of the Titanic wreck. The modern scenes on the research vessel were shot on board the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, which Cameron had used as a base when filming the wreck. Scale models, computer-generated imagery, and a reconstruction of the Titanic built at Baja Studios were used to recreate the sinking. The film was initially in development at 20th Century Fox, but a mounting budget and being behind schedule resulted in Fox asking Paramount Pictures for financial help; Paramount handled distribution in the United States and Canada, while Fox released the film internationally. Titanic was the most expensive film ever made at the time, with a production budget of $200 million. Filming took place from July 1996 to March 1997.

Titanic was released on December 19, 1997. It was praised for its visual effects, performances (particularly those of DiCaprio, Winslet, and Gloria Stuart), production values, direction, score, cinematography, story, and emotional depth. Among other awards, it was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won a record-tying 11, including Best Picture and Best Director, tying Ben-Hur (1959) for the most Academy Awards won by a film. With an initial worldwide gross of over $1.84 billion, Titanic was the first film to reach the billion-dollar mark. It was the highest-grossing film of all time until Cameron's next film, Avatar (2009), surpassed it in 2010. Income from the initial theatrical release, retail video, and soundtrack sales and US broadcast rights exceeded $3.2 billion.[9] A number of re-releases have pushed the film's worldwide theatrical total to $2.264 billion, making it the second film to gross more than $2 billion worldwide after Avatar. In 2017, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

  1. ^ a b c "Titanic (1997)". Film & TV Database. British Film Institute. Archived from the original on January 14, 2009. Retrieved July 29, 2011.
  2. ^ a b "Titanic". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on September 15, 2020. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
  3. ^ "TITANIC (12)". British Board of Film Classification. November 14, 1997. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Garrett (2007) was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Sandler & Studlar 1999 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Welkos (1998) was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ *Pre-2020 releases: "Titanic (1997)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on October 27, 2019. Worldwide: $2,187,463,944; Original release: $1,843,221,532; 2012 3D Release: $343,550,770; 2017 Re-release: $691,642
  8. ^ "Titanic (1997) - IMDb". IMDb. Archived from the original on February 9, 2023. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference VHS was invoked but never defined (see the help page).