Titanic, the epic success of a movie

Surely you have watched Titanic, the Hollywood movie starring Leonardo Di Caprio as Jack Dawson and Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater, the romantic tale between a drifter/artist and an upper social class member on board the ill-fated Titanic. Released on 19 December 1997, the movie became an enormous success, both commercially and critically and won an amazing eleven Academy Awards, including the much-coveted Best Picture Award. Titanic also catapulted and furthered the careers of its two main stars, Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet, especially Di Caprio who reached a level of superstardom, capable of garnering high box-office gross despite starring in less than favorable or mediocre movies, later on in his career.

Directed, co-produced and written by James Cameron, the award-winning Canadian director, producer and screenwriter, Titanic was originally slated for release on July 2 1997, as one of the summer blockbuster hits but delays in post-production pushed back its release to December 19 1997, a release that coincided with the Christmas holidays. The delay proved to be a blessing in disguise for Cameron and Paramount (USA/Canada distribution) and 20th Century Fox (International distribution) as it became a worldwide monster hit, the highest grossing film of all time, before inflation.

Titanic opened strongly in the box-office during its opening weekend and by word of mouth, it increased popularity and even weeks after the opening, theaters showing Titanic continued to sell out. Six weeks after its opening, during the Valentine’s Day weekend, Titanic made the biggest single day gross with over 13 million US dollars. The movie continued its strong showing and in another record, stayed on the number one spot in the box office for fifteen consecutive weeks in the US and Canada, a record still yet to be broken. It broke the one billion dollar mark in March 1998 and by October 1998, when it finally closed in theaters; it had accumulated over 1.8 billion US dollars worldwide, a record yet again.

A large factor that brought monumental success to Titanic is the soundtrack of the movie. My Heart Will Go On, sung by Canadian star Celine Dion, topped music charts worldwide, just like its movie counterpart and the song won the honor of the world’s best selling single in 1998 and is still one of the best-selling singles of all time. Not only did the song push Celine Dion into superstar status, My Heart Will Go On won a huge amount of accolades, such as an Academy Award for Best Original Song, it won five Grammy Awards, the Golden Globe award and substantial number of Billboard awards. It was featured in VH1’s 50 Best Movie Songs where it topped the chart and is considered to be one of the greatest songs in Songs of the Century.

For its amazing run in the box-office worldwide, Titanic has amassed over 90 awards worldwide, where it was nominated for a record-tying 14 Academy Awards and won eleven of them, tying with Ben-Hur and later The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King for the most Academy Awards won in a year. Titanic has also broken the American Film Institute’s (AFI) list in many sub-genres, particularly the Top 100 list for romantic, thrill and movie quotes ever made in the past century of movie history.

Recently, Cameron has announced the re-release of Titanic in 3D. During the 2009 Comic-Con convention in San Diego, Cameron stated that Titanic was undergoing conversion into 3D and a re-release date of 2011 has been targeted. Could Titanic 3D re-capture the hearts of its audience like it did in December 19 1997 again? Only time will tell.