# How did Titanic become the highest grossing film of all time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 12, 2002, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-titanic-become-the-highest-grossing-film-of-all-time/136353 "2002-11-12T02:08:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2002, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-titanic-become-the-highest-grossing-film-of-all-time/136353/61 "2002-11-13T08:17:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JohnT \* > \*\*which means that it will earn NO MORE money at the box office, which means that it is no longer a contender. \*\* Ahhhh. But are you sure. Ten years from now, there will be a digitally released special ten year anniversy edition in the theatres, with added footage and new, digitally added characters. This will be followed simul-quel, telling a parallell story about what could have happened, had not… 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2002, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-titanic-become-the-highest-grossing-film-of-all-time/136353/62 "2002-11-13T14:28:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Gaspode \* > \*\*Ahhhh. But are you sure. Ten years from now, there will be a digitally released special ten year anniversy edition in the theatres, with added footage and new, digitally added characters. This will be followed simul-quel, telling a parallell story about what could have happened, had not… 😛 \*\* But everyone will be angry because now Green Goblin shoots first. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2002, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-titanic-become-the-highest-grossing-film-of-all-time/136353/63 "2002-11-13T15:02:19Z")
And the cops won’t use guns…they’ll have those radio things on their vest. And for God’s sake. One of the ‘moriarty’ episodes of NextGen used the ‘trapped in a VR world unknowing’ thing. Titanic was OK. I enjoyed it. But it wasn’t exactly subtle, if you know what I mean. “You MUST marry the rich guy to protect our social standing. Now let me STRAP you into this really tight corset but putting my foot on your back and PULLING with all my might in symbolism. Suffer, foolish girl!” ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2002, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-titanic-become-the-highest-grossing-film-of-all-time/136353/64 "2002-11-13T15:09:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JohnT \* > \*\* > Need I point out to you that I wasn’t the only one who thought this was a baseless argument? > > Oh, if you are thinking that I’m misunderstanding inflation, wrong again - you are the one misunderstanding it. > > And no, the sales from DVD’s, TV rights, etc. are not in these figures - they are Box Office grosses, or did the name of the site not clue you in? > > Btw, it is easy to figure out how much money Titanic made on it’s opening weekend. But I’ll leave it up to you to figure out, OK? \*\* Calm down there John T. Somebody has their captain kangaroo undeware in a bunch. Actually I didn’t know what they meant by box office, I figured they counted DVD and VCR tape sales. Sue me. Where did I say that you didn’t understand inflation? You are reading alot into my statements. You need to calm down with your baseless attacks. SO how easy is it to figure out the opening weekend income there tough guy? There a magic formula that you know? This bad logic, no math having obvious idiot does not know these caculations. Or perhaps it is knowlege that you have, rather than a calcuation or logic. Knowledge that I dont have. Since I am ignorant, and you are on a message board dedicated to erradicating ignorance without being a jerk, perhaps you could tell me, nicely maybe? Or perhaps you thought you were on that other message board. You feel better about yourself there John T? Good, I am glad that the only way you are happy is putting down a poster on a message board for making a bad assumption. I didn’t even insult your movie. Geez, talk about a problem. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2002, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-titanic-become-the-highest-grossing-film-of-all-time/136353/65 "2002-11-13T22:25:53Z")
(man, I’m sick of this discussion… yet I can not turn away…) The closest things I know of to an objective measure of a movie’s quality are a movie’s rating at [rottentomatoes.com](http://rottentomatoes.com) (which measures what percentage of critics give the movie a basically positive rating) and a movie’s average rating at [imdb.com](http://imdb.com) (which is the average rating given to it by people who care enough to give it a rating at [imdb.com](http://imdb.com)). At RT, Titanic currently has a rating of 87% positive. At [imdb.com](http://imdb.com), Titanic currently has a rating of 7.0\* (out of 10) Did Titanic deserve its Best Picture oscar? Personally, I thought it did. Remember, best picture doesn’t mean “best acting” or “best screeplay” or “most original”. It means Best Picture. Best Movie. Best use of all of the tools of the moviemaking trade together. If someone else wants to argue that the best movie of 1997 was _Good Will Hunting_ or _Out of Sight_ or something else entirely, sure, whatever. But to actually claim that Titanic is BAD? Or that it’s the WORST MOVIE EVER? For crying out loud! \*An interesting side note… imdb lets you see what the voting breakdown was, that is, how many votes were cast for each of the ratings 1 through 10. For Titanic, they are as follows: 18197 10 7581 9 8234 8 7565 7 5071 6 3673 5 2349 4 2074 3 1712 2 6780 1 Does anyone else find it a bit suspicious that such a large group of people gave it the lowest possible rating? Geez, louise. Grow up, you internet asshats. Oh, and **Bryan Ekers**? Go and see it. It’s a great movie. And worse comes to worse, at least you’ll be able to argue about it from a perspective of someone who’s seen it, and not sound like a stubborn elitist pretentious moron. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-titanic-become-the-highest-grossing-film-of-all-time/136353/66 "2002-11-14T02:22:49Z")
I’m not being stubborn, elitist or pretentious. My reasons for not bothering rest primarily with my dislike for tragic love stories. I’ve seen bits and pieces of it over the years and was never tempted enough to stay with it for more than ten minues at a time. My eyes got a real good rolling when I saw a scene where Billy Zane is chasing Leo through knee-deep water. Now, I can imagine chasing someone if you _didn’t_ know the ship was in trouble, but once his shins are completely submerged, even the most pissed-off ex-fiance will probably rethink his priorities. I also took a pass on _Gone With the Wind_ and _E.T._ for similar reasons. Individual scenes always had something annoying in them. And I thought _Gladiator_ was just dumb. Now, there have plenty of popular films I’ve **liked** over the years. I thought _Spider-Man_ and _Matrix_ were entertaining popcorn fare, and _Shakespeare in Love_ deserved its Oscar (though I’m surprised it beat _Saving Private Ryan_). Fact is, neither popularity nor awards have ever been reliable indicators of quality, though excessive popularity can make me so sick of hearing about a movie that I avoid seeing it for just that reason. _Titanic_ gets put in my category of “I’ll watch it on cable if I’m really, really bored.” Besides, concentrating on the “I never saw it” line in my post overlooks the brilliant “I was a teenage girl when I saw _Titanic_.” ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-titanic-become-the-highest-grossing-film-of-all-time/136353/67 "2002-11-14T02:32:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bryan Ekers \* > **My eyes got a real good rolling when I saw a scene where Billy Zane is chasing Leo through knee-deep water. Now, I can imagine chasing someone if you _didn’t_ know the ship was in trouble, but once his shins are completely submerged, even the most pissed-off ex-fiance will probably rethink his priorities.** Leo had something of immense financial value on his person which Billy was trying to get back. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-titanic-become-the-highest-grossing-film-of-all-time/136353/68 "2002-11-14T04:53:52Z")
And Zane stopped chasing him once the water got shin deep. Didn’t you see the movie? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-titanic-become-the-highest-grossing-film-of-all-time/136353/69 "2002-11-15T02:24:06Z")
I guess I’ll have to force myself to sit for 15 minutes instead of ten. ---
**Author:** ![AveDementia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@AveDementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AveDementia)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-titanic-become-the-highest-grossing-film-of-all-time/136353/70 "2002-11-15T10:37:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fenris \* > \*\*Galouye’s book was called **Simulacrum 3** and doesn’t Neo hide money in a book called \*\* No, the book is \*\*Simulacra and Simulation \*\* by Baudrillard, the French philosopher. I’ve read it’s where they got the line “Welcome to the desert of the real,” but I don’t know if that’s true or not. There was a thread on the Matrix (influences and origins of it) in one of the Comments fora recently, if you’re interested. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-titanic-become-the-highest-grossing-film-of-all-time/136353.md?page=3)