re: #173 Belafon

Titanic was number one for two reasons:
1. Earnings for movies are not adjusted for inflation, or Gone With the Wind would always be number one, and we definitely don’t want that.
2. When Cameron was making it, a producer told him that he’d only get half the population to show up, to which Cameron replied something to the affect of “I would love that.” Imagine if 150M people showed up to any movie. And a lot of them brought their significant others.

Titanic was the best movie ever made based on a romance novel (that never existed).

BTW, I’m not agreeing with your assessment at all. Just a statement.

Titanic took a formulaic rich girl/poor boy romance and spliced it into a disaster movie based on a real-life event. Add a sprinkle of classism, stoicism and heroism and you’ve got the makings of a decent movie. Cameron is a good director and the acting was above par. Even though we know the outcome of the accident, the framing story [old Rose telling about young Rose] added suspense and gave the movie a connection to the present. IOW it has all the basic elements of a solid, entertaining movie.

It’s very popular in China, although many versions have Rose’s nude posing and the steamy sex scene in the Renault(?) deleted by the censors.