Cardboard Floats: Why Titanic Has Buoyed Above Criticism and Ridden the Waves of Financial Success

by D.L. Kidd

Anyone who has been to the movies recently realizes that the past year has brought us one of the most spectacular and popular cinema experiences of all time. Of course, I'm talking about the Star Wars re-release. And, oh yes, there was also that movie about the Titanic--a stunning two- dimensional disaster epic about one-dimensional characters.

Don't get me wrong--I enjoyed Titanic and it's unquestionably one of the best movie experiences I've ever had (like Star Wars, the scale and grandeur aren't likely to translate well from video to a 24" TV screen). When I saw the trailer in October, my initial reaction was, "Oh, a simple poor-boy-meets-rich-girl love story that also happens to have a big boat sink in the middle--sheer Hollywood genius." Outside my own sarcastic cynicism, most shared the same opinion that the $200 million film would be the priciest flop in history. Who could have predicted what's happened since the release in early December? Instead of quickly slipping into oblivion to rest on the bottom shelf of the local video store, Titanic has become the first movie in history to break $1 billion in worldwide sales, the highest grossing domestic release, held a record 14 weeks (and counting) at number one, and tied for the most number of Academy Awards ever won by a single film. So what gives?

Theories of Titanic's success keep surfacing like so much flotsam and jetsam. Some say its the story line that appeals to the common masses, the special effects, the historical background, the hordes of teenage girls flocking to see Leonardo DiCaprio (a study showed that 60% of all ticket sales to Titanic in February were made by women under the age of 20). Most agree that its a mix, but the exact formula escapes definition. Why is it so important? Because you can expect Hollywood to cash in on the phenomenon and without any clear idea, it's a shot in the dark what turns out and what we get to see at the box office.

Regardless, Titanic has done what Star Wars could not--win a Best Picture Oscar on its technical merits. Star Wars lost its bid to Woody Allen's Annie Hall in 1977. In 1998, when Hollywood has been hurting for original and creative productions while surrounded with declining ticket sales, Titanic has sent the blockbuster bulls running through the market. Titanic may have received no acting Oscars and wasn't even nominated for its script (the only other movie to ever receive a Best Picture Oscar without a screenplay nomination was the Sound of Music), but its technical merits are unquestioned--and the popularity left little choice but to crown Hollywood's cash cow the 1997 critic's choice. After all, Hollywood wants to encourage movie makers to throw out money makers, not those art house flicks that generate McDonald's Valu-Meal size profits. Creative sacrifice and suffering do not mix well with mansions, glitz and superstardom.

Like it or not, however, Titanic is here to stay. Besides its future as one of those films they play every year during the holidays, every day on the premium channels and which will have an entire wall at Blockbuster, Titanic will continue to whirlpool our attention. Granted there can be no (credible) sequel or spin-off (perhaps a love story aboard the Lusitania or the romance of a German goat herder and a baroness aboard the Hindenberg), the reality is perhaps worse. Hours after the Oscars, director James Cameron announced a special director's cut that will add another 30 minutes to the 3 hour and 20 minute film and will be released in theaters in a few years. The Oscar winning composer of Titanic's music is drafting new material for a "Music of Titanic" show to go on the road this summer. Add TV specials, books, gimmicks and magazine articles and you're stuck with the movie ad nauseum (my own idea is a Titanic toy line, including Rose and Jack dolls, a "backseat of the car" love scene playset, nude sketching art kit, a Sony Playstation game, and a replica Titanic ship playset that retails for $52,000).

My own predictions in the wake of the movie of the great ship:

Watch a slew of mega-budget films (including a fair share of disaster films) in the next few years. Although Hollywood swears that Titanic was an anomaly and that its not going to start producing lots of risky $200 million dollar films, don't think the success of Titanic is going to reign in notoriously unreasonable Tinsel Town. Cameron himself is on record saying that five years from now $200 million movies won't raise an eyebrow. Expect an ocean liner full of glitz and a lifeboat full of substance.
Expect to start shelling out for the cost of production. Ticket prices are expected to rise 20- 30% in the next two years to meet the rising costs of production and to cover losses. A recent report found that only sixteen 1997 movies, out of 450, reached the $100 million ticket sales mark. Additionally, the average cost of production rose to $72 million in 1997 (even barring Titanic's $200 million budget, the figure only drops about $1 million)--a 20% annual increase over 1996. Do the math--if the average cost is $70 million and less than 10% of the movies are hitting appreciable profits, who picks up the cost? Enter the ticket holder....
Relax and let Titanic pervade your life--everything from posters and mugs to breakfast cereal (perhaps people shaped cereal with large shiplike marshmallows that sink to the bottom of the bowl when you pour milk in).
Over-marketing of the cast and crew of Titanic. For example, watch for ads for Pauly Shore's next movie "featuring the assistant to the assistant of the assistant director from Titanic!!" or a prominent role for Gloria Stuart in Boogie Nights II, in which porn director Burt Reynolds romps through a small Midwestern town in a trans-am with good pal Dom Deluise while a local sheriff pursues Reynolds for corruption of public morals.

While Titanic may enjoy the current throne as best selling and most technologically advanced movie to date, expect the film to get a run for its money in May, 1999. That's when the threat no movie wants to challenge arrives in theaters: Episode I-The Clone Wars. Don't know what that is? It's the first installment of the new Star Wars trilogy--a movie twenty years in planning and one of the most anticipated movies in history. Technologically, the movie has Titanic beat by a mile. Titanic and Starship Troopers are currently the most technologically advanced movies with over 600 computer generated images and special effects--the new Star Wars film anticipates over 2000 effects, three times the current recordholders and set to usher in a new era of cinematic standards (much like Star Wars in 1977). Whether Titanic's financial figures can be beat is another story and perhaps only the Force can sink the ship in the near future.

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