The Biggest Surprise Hit

The Biggest Surprise Hit - Titanic

Рет қаралды 17,930

Күн бұрын

James Cameron's Titanic was the highest grossing movie of all time for 12 years before being dethroned by his next film Avatar. But Titanic was actually a surprise box office hit. It was expected to be the biggest flop since Waterworld as it became the most expensive film of all time. It was being destroyed in the press way before its release, being written off as a failure. The delays, production issues and the over-inflated budget were all very public. 20 hour work days, cast and crew injuries, and their food getting contaminated were just some of the issues in this troublesome production.
In this video we'll be going over how Titanic proved everyone, especially the critics and news sites, wrong. Starting with the initial dives to the real Titanic and up to the theatrical release and VHS sales. With how successful Titanic was, it's easy to overlook the difficulties and pessimism involved to get there. Many had to experience the worst of James Cameron on set to get there with no bathroom breaks and the constant yelling, earning him the title "scariest man in Hollywood". But no-one had it worse from start to finish than James Cameron himself.
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:08 - Before Filming
04:13 - Filming
08:00 - After Filming
10:23 - Success and Legacy
Titanic. James Cameron. Avatar. Leonardo DiCaprio. Kate Winslet. Terminator 2. True Lies. Production Issues. Highest Grossing Movie. Celine Dion. Shipwreck Dives. 20th Century Fox. Paramount. TitanicWatch. Mij. Most Oscar Wins. Best Picture. Jurassic Park. Best 1997 Film. Leo-Mania. Most Rewatched Movie. Best VHS. Avatar: The Way of Water. Controversial Filming.
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#titanic #jamescameron #filmhistory

Пікірлер: 61

@PanteraRossa 7 ай бұрын

Gravity had a similar story getting made and Cameron was even consulted during the theoretical testing for the shoot. He even said something like "they were way ahead of me, I don't know how much I helped". Though only made for a third of Titanic's budget and box office, Gravity remains a wildly impressive and influential original vision that was a huge gamble, long production, moved from studio to studio and eventually won 7 Oscars and made a quarter billion.

@FilmStack 7 ай бұрын

Didn’t know that, that’s interesting! Very similar type of film to Avatar and even gets the same backlash these days. I guess that’s what happens when you make a must watch in theaters experience where it doesn’t translate as well to watching it at home

@bobcobb3654 5 ай бұрын

A $70 million movie with George Clooney and Sandra Bullock doesn’t seem like much of a gamble. Especially during a time when studios still made up any potential losses through broadcast licensing and DVD/Blu Ray rentals and sales.

@reptongeek 6 ай бұрын

Even more insane, Tomorrow Never Dies started main unit photography one week AFTER Titanic wrapped. They even used the Titanic tank for some of the model shots of the Stealth Boat and the HMS Devonshire

@MelloMood1 6 ай бұрын

I remember that 25 years ago, I saw Titanic in theaters 3 times (once with a date and twice by myself). It was a really good movie and ever since I was a kid, I was always fascinated with the Titanic story.

@cyberpunkchloe9 3 ай бұрын

Watching Titanic in theaters must be a next level experience, I mean I just watch Titanic on my phone and I really felt it.

@HorseArcherGuy 6 ай бұрын

I was in middle school when it came out. It was huge, lots of people saw it multiple times and one girl in my class saw it 13 times . “My heart will go on” played everywhere. You couldn’t escape it. It was an experience back then. Like how so many young people responded to Squid Game, it was an emotional rollercoaster that really transported you to another place. I don’t remember many other films doing that.

@skywalkerhunter95 6 ай бұрын

so true😄! it fascinates me how Titanic manages to charm people across generations and for such a long time; with Squid Game or Marvel, it often the younger generations who are super excited, and it was super viral at one time then fades away. but with Titanic, o boy... teenagers as well as their parents and grandparents were voting unanimously for it then, and even today...

@Kusanagikaiser999 6 ай бұрын

never...EVER...bet against James Cameron, this film literally start that.

@DarthWinterMadness 3 ай бұрын

There is so much nostalgia surrounding me when it comes to this movie. When it came out, my family (Mom, Dad, my sister and me) came to Paris. My parents dropped my sister and me at our aunts home, then they went to a screening in the biggest theater in France (Le Grand Rex). What I remember is that the adults left us kids for more than 3h, so I ended up playing a video game I wasn't supposed to be playing: Die Hard Trilogy on the first PlayStation. I really love this game, but it was 18+ and in '97 I was 8yo. Yet, I loved the Rail Shooter part of the game, which was inspired by the second movie in the trilogy. Which is, in my opinion, the worst movie in said trilogy. So I do remember when this movie was released due to the things I ended up doing while my parents were busy watching the movie. Then it came out in VHS and my sister and me were allowed to watch it and it was amazing! There's so much things this movie does that made us (my sister and me) locked to the screen, even though we were kinda too young to really absorb every aspect of the movie. Now that I'm older, the last time I've seen this movie was a really good experience. A love story upon a tragedic historical event is really intriguing. It shows you that even if you don't understand every aspect of the movie because you're too young to understand everything, you still get attached to the characters and still relate to their struggles. Then you grow up and understand the themes and everything about the movie better. Which makes it a better thing to experience. Sorry I'm lost in my ranting. To sum it up, I enjoyed the movie the first time I saw it as a kid, then rewatched it older and it ended up enhancing my experience and appreciation of the movie itself, and the filmmaking craft. I'm sorry if I'm not making total sense, I'm typing off the cuff and sometimes I lose my vocabulary. I'm a French guy who often forgets how to speak French, and I love English but sometimes forget how to express things in my mind. And I use alcohol to help me sleep, but doesn't help my memory whether long or short term. Anyways, that was a great video. I'm not sure why I wanted to comment, because of the previous issues mentioned about my memory, but I don't really care. If you got the gist of it, good. If not, reply to my comment and ask me to clarify what you want to be clarified. With that said, I love movie essays and wanna keep learning through this medium. Cheers from France! 🍻

@shaneforshort 7 ай бұрын

I watch A LOT of these movie breakdown/analysis type vids and this has to be the best in recent memory. Great job ❤

@FilmStack 7 ай бұрын

Thank you, it means a lot! 🙂

@SpencerJ289 6 ай бұрын

Love your channel dude. You give great information and have a very soothing and concise voice to listen too.

@FilmStack 6 ай бұрын

Thank you! ☺️ I'm glad you enjoy the videos!

@Novastar.SaberCombat 6 ай бұрын

Cameron has maintained that absolutely EVERYONE (including him, to some extent) was expecting the "Titanic" film to... uh... sink. The obvious jokes were strewn about articles before even a frame of footage was seen. But test audiences were left blown away. The rest is pretty crystal clear. "The Abyss" was a legendary accomplishment as well, although it definitely nearly destroyed both cast & crew. WATER FILMS ARE HEYYYLLL. ⚔️☠️⚔️

@ultimobw 6 ай бұрын

Insanely underrated video, pls more of these what went wrong behind the scenes of movies and you will reach 1 million + views. More if these pls

@phillinsogood 6 ай бұрын

Great video 🙌🏽🙌🏽. Also 10 months in the theaters is a very long run. No wonder why it made over 1 billion

@curiousreader5358 3 ай бұрын

I'm from India..this film became a phenomenon when it was released here..as a kid, this is the first Hollywood film I watched..though I can't able to understand English that much at that time, I loved the film.

@greghuffman3061 6 ай бұрын

there's something of an inverted irony in everyone expecting Titanic as a movie to... let's say "sink"... and yet in spite of everything it not only stayed afloat but flew

@GreenFalcon926 6 ай бұрын

We all know Cameron is a vicious and brutal director, could you imagine him working with someone like Klaus Kinski? The horror.

@raghunandansinghcharak1830 6 ай бұрын

film would be who kills who first

@phillinsogood 6 ай бұрын

The 80’s & 90’s were epic literally everything looked & felt like a big event. Too bad I was born in 95 and didn’t get to fully experience it lol

@collecticus 7 ай бұрын

Scream movies were so big, Titanic's release was moved.

@raghunandansinghcharak1830 6 ай бұрын

this making deserves a movie of its own

@asky-ne7yz 2 ай бұрын

The budget of this movie was more expensive than the actual Titanic. They knew it was gonna be a hit.

@VidtopiaEntertainment 7 ай бұрын

A funny story about Titanic’s release: 20th Century Fox also had another movie released in 1997 which was The Wiggles Movie a film based on the Australian kids music group but Fox released the movie in Australia on December 18th the same day Titanic was released in Australia. I bet when The Wiggles found that out and Titanic was a box office historymaker they were peeved.

@FilmStack 7 ай бұрын

Haha that’s funny! Yeah even though people were expecting Titanic to flop they were still scared of having it released close to their other films. No movie wanted Titanic to release any time later in the summer so it got pushed pretty far back. Also for that holiday season money.

@nrgao 10 күн бұрын

I always thought the negative press around the film was all a PR plan to lean into the negative reception it initially received. I think they leaned into it and it worked. Everyone wanted to see the shipwreck, pun intended. Everyone wanted to see the cursed film about the cursed ship. I was like 7 or 8 and remember everyone in class being obsessed, which was a rarity at our age with a movie back then.

@homanism6438 6 ай бұрын

i read so many unproduced scripts, especialy James Cameron's Spiderman (it is available online).there's a lot of awesome unproduced screenplay like Paul Verhoeven's Crusade, Tim Burton's Superman Lives, Kubrick's Napoleon, and many more. i hope you'll make a video about an unproduced script

@mandar13579 3 ай бұрын

Please share the link to the relevant websites? Thanks 😊

@nannerpie6184 2 ай бұрын

They started filming on my 3rd birthday. That's wild

@octasian 7 ай бұрын

Same thing is going to happen with The Marvels. Inconceivable!

@brick6347 7 ай бұрын

I'm in two minds about this film, on the hand he did a beautiful job recreating the Titanic herself. Almost autistic levels of detail that few viewers are going to notice. Aside from a few dated CGI shots I think visually I think it's hard to beat, even today. On the other hand the Jack/Rose love story was pretty lame, and I didn't think Leonardo DiCaprio was all that good in it (he's a good actor, but in Titanic I didn't feel it).

@FilmStack 7 ай бұрын

Yeah it’s definitely a great of example of how much better James Cameron is at directing than at writing

@Wfalen 7 ай бұрын

The love story might seem a bit dumb, but I remember how it hit the teenage audiences back in the 90s. I mean, that and Celine Dions song...holy crap it was big. If you didn't live it you can't imagine how big it was as a phenomenon. Remember that during this time DiCaprio was just one good looking hollywood hearthrob among many.

@tronam 7 ай бұрын

Love stories don’t always work for everyone. Personally I love Leo/Kate and thought they had amazing chemistry that still holds up today. Sorry it didn’t work for you.

@danacordice932 2 ай бұрын

Hersey. Jc is a genius

@mohsenbayati3627 7 ай бұрын

Production hell

@blushslice 6 ай бұрын

It’s such a great film and I’m happy public opinion has swayed back to loving this movie ❤

@user-mi6wp3tb8m 5 ай бұрын

הלוואי שיעשה עוד סרט איתם ביחד..שליאו ניצל מהים..ופוגש את רוז..כולנו נרוץ לצפות ..מלא כסף יכניס..סוף טוב לכולם

@KittySnicker 7 ай бұрын

My favorite film of all time

@FULANODETAL 6 ай бұрын

now KEVIN FEIGE SPEND 300 millons on disaster THE MARVELS..and somehow still got his job...in the 2000s a producer career ended for flopping with "the fight club"

@specialkcitizen6263 3 ай бұрын

Waterworld is an excellent film. I saw it the moment it was released on DVD and knew it was great. It was still being panned hard by critics but many years later now recognised as a cult classic as is the Postman, another Costner movie. Costner has made some great interesting movies imho. PS and just to add that. Whilst Waterworld was being made there was fishy presss going on. It was beong slammed long before it was released. I mean, it was still in production. I remeber thinking hmmmm, something is up with that. I heard years later some on Hollywood started an anti Costner campaign. Bascailly fund your own movies and the zionists wont like that one bit

@rodneycooperjr3223 7 ай бұрын

I just wish I understood the "science" of why his 'Titanic' and 'Avatar' movies are so successful. Like, what are those movies "doing" for the viewers of those films? I just don't get it, and I really want to understand it. To me, many of Jim Cameron's movies are just good visuals with bad writing. He's like Michael Bay with more prestige. I think I just answered my own question 🤔

@jleigh329 7 ай бұрын

@rodneycooperjr3223 I get what you mean. As great of a spectacle that Titanic was, in hindsight it did have some "cringe" dialog and sometimes acting. It does have a sort-of campiness to it. So I have to agree with you there.

@chrisjfox8715 7 ай бұрын

World building and spectacle means a lot, especially from the standpoint of worldwide marketability. In fact, a fairly simple story has a greater chance of reaching a wider demographic since more people can connect to it on a gut level.

@Wfalen 7 ай бұрын

Well Cameron is at best an average writer. But he is the guy who knows how to make stuff look good. I mean, no other director would actually have built that incredibly big Titanic-set. When Avatar came, he got people into the 3D craze for a while. He is still probably the best techical director(though I think Christopher Nolan is coming close)

@rodneycooperjr3223 7 ай бұрын

@@Wfalen I appreciate you and the other people here being open to having a conversation about it, instead of doing the whole "internet outrage" thing 🙂

@Casarzino 7 ай бұрын

I understand your question about Avatar. That movie only has visuals going for it. Titanic however is a brilliantly crafted film in every way. It is still the most intense moviegoing experience I've ever had. The romance worked and the recreation of the ship and the sinking was absolutely stunning. It was a huge success because it something to appeal to everyone, and teenage girls went back to see it again and again. I remember everyone talked about it. Avatar's huge success is more mysterious to me. I don't remember it being that huge in the zeitgeist when it was out. It's also a much more 'niche' film than Titanic was.