Titanic: The unsinkable film?

One of my housemates is obsessed with Titanic. So obsessed that she has seen the 3D release of the James Cameron film 3 times. So obsessed that she has been anticipating the mini-series on tv since she first saw the ad. And because of this obsession it is all too easy for me to stir her up about it. Admittedly this love has been renewed with the recent publicity surrounding the 100^th anniversary of the ship’s sinking, however her love for Titanic (actually mostly Leo and Kate), has been long standing. When I asked her why she liked the Titanic so much, her response was the love story and the subsequent tragedy. I then did as all good internet users do and turned to Google in a bid to see what others had to say. Rather than trawl through countless reviews from raving fans, I found an article in the Guardian, and though it didn’t offer a direct opinion on the film, it did make a rather interesting comment on the impact that the film had on cinema: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2012/apr/03/titanic-event-movie-james-cameron . 

What I found most interesting was the large increase in box office takings over the past 15 years, especially when it was put forward that it is not a rare thing for a film to make $900 million. Which then lead me to wonder what the highest grossing films were. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the 100 highest grossing films were made in the last 15 years. And also unsurprisingly, I had seen a large number of them. Here is the link if you are interested: http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/. The number one film on the list is Avatar, directed by James Cameron, who also directed the number two film on the list, the aforementioned Titanic. Is this an indicator of Cameron’s directorial genius? Does it suggest he has a greater influence on culture than we realise? Or does he simply know how to tell a good story? If you ask my housemate, and the hordes of Titanic fans out there, I think you would find the answer to be the latter.