James Cameron thought “Titanic” would be a failure
James Cameron has revealed the reasons why the studio thought the blockbuster was doomed to be a disaster.
In an excerpt in Stephen Galloway’s new biography Leading Lady: Sherry Lansing and the Making of A Hollywood Groundbreaker, the director explained that various problems were being encountered as the film neared closer to its 1997 release date.
“The business heads at Paramount acted like they’d been diagnosed with terminal cancer – a lot of grim faces and a triage approach to releasing the movie,” he said.
“Everyone thought they were going to lose money, and all efforts were simply to make sure the haemorrhage was not fatal.”
Cameron was forced to push the movie’s release date to August after issues with complex visual effects and the movie’s running time.
August was considered “a dumping ground” for the movie release and the movie was receiving a lot of negative press for cost overruns, set safety and delivery dates.
“We were the biggest morons in Hollywood history and the press had the long knives out, sharpening them as we approached our summer release. It would have reached a crescendo of scorn just as we put the film in theatres,” he explained.
Cameron suggested the idea to deal with the press by taking a step back and proving them wrong and his plan succeeded.
“No one more surprised than myself, because nothing like it had ever been tried. But it was a strategy that revealed itself in the heat of battle – necessity was the mother of invention. And desperate times called for desperate measures.”
Although he was receiving positive feedback about the film, Cameron still believed it would end his career due to the debt the film had racked up.
“Nobody thought we were EVER going to break even. And I pretty much assumed at that time that I’d never work again.”
Titanic went on to become one of the highest grossing films of all time with a box office revenue of US $2.18 billion. Cameron is now a legend in Hollywood and has gone on to create many other great films.