Currently, James Cameron is still celebrating the release of Avatar: The Way of Water, which premiered in December. Meanwhile, another Cameron feature is coming to the big screen soon as Titanic returns for its 25th anniversary. If you were an avid moviegoer in the 90s, most likely you know the love story, the tragedy of the unsinkable ship and the song “My Heart Will Go On”, which accompanied the epic film. Now his Oscar-winning director shares an honest reason why it “made sense” to reissue the timeless classic this year.
Even today, you can still see the Titanic in its three and a half hours of glory on most cable networks. But there are many people who have not been blessed enough to have a chance to see the box office leader in cinemas. During a conversation with SiriusXM, James Cameron joked that the film would return to theaters this year, before going into detail about how viewers influenced this decision.:
Well, I thought that I probably won’t be at the 50th anniversary, so why not celebrate the 25th anniversary? We re-released the film 10 years ago with a 3D conversion, quite successfully, and thought: “Well, there is another generation of people who have not watched Titanic in the cinema and may be nostalgic for it.” , you know, among the people who have seen it in the cinema or have always wanted to watch it.
It may seem a strange idea to spend the weekend on Valentine’s Day watching a movie about unhappy lovers trying to survive the death of what was considered an “Unsinkable Ship,” but there are good reasons why you should do it. The epic film is a poetically beautiful reminder of what true love looks like. You can still shed tears remembering the simple but beautiful vow that Rose Kate Winslet and Jack Leonardo DiCaprio made to each other: “You jump, I jump.”
In the spring of 2012, Titanic was re-released in 3D. Reviews of this iteration have been a bit mixed. CinemaBlend’s own review of 3D or Not says that the conversion worked better for some scenes than for others. However, there were those who praised him, and people really came for him. This version may not have taken first place at the box office like its predecessor, but in its first weekend it took third place, grossing $17.3 million in North America. Worldwide, he earned $343.4 million, with a huge portion of this amount coming from China, which contributed $145 million. In the end, the film became the highest-grossing reissue of all time, which testifies to its durability.
James Cameron seems to be a director who thinks a lot about each of his projects, no matter how long the process takes. He further told SiriusXM that the release date for Titanic’s 25th anniversary is also not a coincidence.:
And then the question was, “Okay, what date is today?” Well, the date that made sense to me was Valentine’s Day, because in the original issue, which was from 1997 to 1998, we came out a few days before Christmas. I think it was December 16th. But the most profitable release day was Valentine’s Day. [It’s] kind of obvious why, but it’s very unusual for a movie that’s been on the market for two months to have the biggest single screening day. So it’s a celebration of love. It is both a celebration of the film and a celebration of its success.
So now the question is whether the film will have the same success today. Well, the chances that the reissue of “Titanic” will take first place in the world box office seem insignificant. Although it will still be interesting to see how he behaves in the long run. As the director noted, a whole new generation of people probably wants to see an ambitious production on the big screen for the first time, and this can seriously increase its chances. We just have to wait and see how many people feel the love when the movie comes out again.
Be sure to check out the release of the movie “Titanic 25th Anniversary” in 2023, when it opens on February 10. And if you want to watch the movie right now, you can stream it on a Hulu subscription.
