Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-

edited by James Cameron. Incorporating both historical and fictionalized aspects, the film is based
on accounts of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as
members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the ship during its ill-fated maiden
voyage. Cameron's inspiration for the film came from his fascination with shipwrecks; he felt a love
story interspersed with the human loss would be essential to convey the emotional impact of the
disaster. Production began in 1995, when Cameron shot footage of the actual Titanic wreck. The
modern scenes on the research vessel were shot on board the Akademie 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 re-create the sinking. The film
was co-financed by Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox; the former handled distribution in
North America while the latter released the film internationally. It was the most expensive film ever
made at the time, with a production budget of $200 million.

Upon its release on December 19, 1997, Titanic achieved significant critical and commercial success.
Nominated for 14 Academy Awards, it tied All About Eve (1950) for the most Oscar nominations, and
won 11, including the awards for Best Picture and Best Director, tying Ben-Hur (1959) for the most
Oscars won by a single film. With an initial worldwide gross of over $1.84 billion, Titanic was the first
film to reach the billion-dollar mark and became the highest-grossing film ever at the time, until
Cameron's Avatar surpassed it in 2010. A 3D version of Titanic, released on April 4, 2012, to
commemorate the centennial of the sinking, earned it an additional $343.6 million worldwide,
pushing the film's worldwide total to $2.18 billion and making it the second film to gross more than
$2 billion worldwide (after Avatar). In 2017, the film was re-released for its 20th anniversary and was
selected for preservation in the United States.
Titanic has appeared on the American Film Institute's award-winning 100 Years... series. So far,
it has ranked on the following six lists:

AFI's 100
Rank Source Notes
Years...100

A list of the top 100 thrilling films in American cinema,

Thrills 25 [156]
compiled in 2001.

[157] A list of the top 100 love stories in American cinema,

Passions 37
compiled in 2002.

A list of the top 100 songs in American cinema, compiled in

[158]
Songs 14 2004. Titanic ranked 14th for Céline Dion's "My Heart Will
Go On".

A list of the top 100 film quotations in American cinema,

[112]
Movie quotes 100 compiled in 2005. Titanic ranked 100th for Jack Dawson's
yell of "I'm the king of the world!"
 A 2007 (10th anniversary) edition of 1997's list of the 100
[159]
Movies 83 best films of the past century. Titanic was not eligible when
the original list was released.

AFI's 10 Top [160] The 2008 poll consisted of the top ten films in ten different
6
10 genres. Titanic ranked as the sixth best epic film.

A 100-year-old woman named Rose DeWitt Bukater tells a story about her voyage on the famous
ship Titanic. She is sharing the story with her granddaughter, Lizzy Calvert, and a crew of men who
are interested in the Titanic shipwreck. The members of the crew are named Brock Lovett, Lewis
Bodine, Bobby Buell, and Anatoly Mikailavich. She tells the story while on the Keldysh. The men are
on the Keldysh trying to find a famous necklace called "The Heart of the Ocean" that they think sank
with the ship. She goes on to explain the whole story from the ship's departure to the sinking of
Titanic on its first (and last) voyage at 2:20 in the morning on April 15, 1912. Most of the movie is not
Old Rose telling the story, but Young Rose actually living the story.

On April 10th, 1912, Young Rose boards a ship called Titanic with the upper-class passengers, her
mother, Ruth DeWitt Bukater, and her fiancé, Caledon 'Cal' Hockley. Meanwhile, a drifter and artist
named Jack Dawson and his best friend Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets to the ship in a game.

After winning a trip on the RMS Titanic during a dockside card game, American Jack Dawson spots
the society girl Rose DeWitt Bukater who is on her way to Philadelphia to marry her rich snob fiancé
Cal Hockley. Rose feels helplessly trapped by her situation and makes her way to the aft deck and
thinks of suicide until she is rescued by Jack. Cal is therefore obliged to invite Jack to dine at their
first-class table where he suffers through the slights of his snobbish hosts. In return, he spirits Rose
off to third class for an evening of dancing, giving her the time of her life. Deciding to forsake her
intended future all together, Rose asks Jack, who has made his living making sketches on the streets
of Paris, to draw her in the nude wearing the invaluable blue diamond Cal has given her. Cal finds
out and has Jack locked away. Soon after wards, the ship hits an iceberg and Rose must find Jack
while both must run from Cal even as the ship sinks deeper into the freezing water.

In 1996, treasure hunter Brock Lovett and his team has reached the most famous shipwreck of all -
the RMS Titanic. Emerging with a safe believed to contain a famous diamond called the "Heart of the
Ocean", he discovers that the safe does not hold the diamond, but a drawing of a beautiful young
woman wearing it. When Lovett is later interviewed on television, he shows the drawing to the
cameras, and Rose Dawson Calvert, now 101, recognizes the young woman in the drawing - herself.
She and her granddaughter Lizzy visit Lovett on his research ship over the wreck site and tells her
story of the Titanic and its ill-fated maiden voyage.
In 1912, 17-year-old society girl Rose DeWitt Bukater boards the ship's first-class suites with her
fiancé, Pittsburgh Steel tycoon owner Caledon Hockley, and her mother, Ruth DeWitt Bukater, in
Southampton. Also boarding are poor artist Jack Dawson and his best friend Fabrizio De Rossi, after
a lucky poker game wins them in steerage. When Rose attempts suicide by jumping off the stern in
third class, Jack pulls her back onto the ship... and a bond is forged between them as Jack is invited
by her into first class the following day. Rose's mother and Cal try desperate measures to keep them
apart as Jack and Rose fall in love, until the Titanic collides with an iceberg and is critically damaged.
Now Jack and Rose must fight to stay alive, as their passionate romance becomes a struggle for
survival, but Jack eventually freezes to death due to spending too much time in extremely cold
water.