Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. Incorporating both historical and fictionalized aspects, it is based on accounts of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the ship during its ill-fated maiden voyage. 

James Cameron’s Titanic was an enormous success, the highest-grossing film of all time until the same director’s next feature smashed its record. But its production was a famously difficult and complex one, a shoot on an almost unprecedented scale which featured tough technical challenges and which was overseen by a director who knew exactly what he wanted and who demanded the utmost from everyone until he got it.

The movie may largely have been set in 1912, but it was utterly contemporary in its feel. Word began to spread about the picture's cost. Stories rumbled through Hollywood that the price was too steep, that Fox executives were desperate to sell off some of the rights. Soon, Lansing learned that the studio was in talks to co-finance the picture with Universal.

It was successfully won eleven Oscars and earned nearly $2 billion at the box office.