No, this is not the Titanic but the movie Titanic. Both were doomed from the start, but only one sank.
If you remember, the industry was touting James Cameron’s a monumental flop, the next Waterworld. A bloated budget and out of control shooting schedule was sure to doom the famous ship twice. I’ll let Wikipedia explain:
Filming Titanic was an arduous experience for all involved. The schedule was intended to last 138 days but grew to 160 — twenty days shy of six months. Many cast members came down with colds, flu or kidney infections after spending hours in cold water, including Kate Winslet. Several left and three stuntmen broke their bones, but the Screen Actors Guild decided, following an investigation, that nothing was inherently unsafe about the set. Cameron never apologized for running his sets like a military campaign, although he admitted, “I’m demanding, and I’m demanding on my crew. In terms of being kind of militaresque, I think there’s an element of that in dealing with thousands of extras and big logistics and keeping people safe. I think you have to have a fairly strict methodology in dealing with a large number of people.” After almost drowning, chipping an elbow bone and getting the flu, Winslet decided she would not work with Cameron again unless she earned “a lot of money.” She admitted Cameron was a nice man, but had too much of a temper.
The modern day scenes were shot on the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh in July 1996. It was during this shoot that someone sprinkled phencyclidine (PCP) into the crew’s dinner, affecting many including Cameron, and sending several dozen of them to the hospital. The person behind the prank was never caught.
Also from Wikipedia: Cameron’s budget for the film reached about $200 million, and it became the most expensive movie ever made. Before its release, the film was widely ridiculed for its expense and protracted production schedule.
So a recipe for disaster, right? Nope. It not only was a good movie (admit it, you liked it) but it was a critical and box office success:
Titanic opened with $28 million on its first weekend. The film’s grosses escalated in the next several weeks. Titanic was one of very few modern movies to gross more in their second weekend than their first. Its gross increased from $28.6 million to $35.4 million from week 1 to week 2, an increase of 23.8%, unheard of for a wide release, and a testament to the appeal of the movie. This was especially noteworthy, considering that the film’s running time of more than three hours limited the number of showings each theater could schedule. It held the #1 spot on the box-office charts for months, eventually grossing a total of over $600 million domestically and more than $1.8 billion worldwide. Titanic became the highest grossing film of all time. (Adjusting for inflation, the film brought in the sixth-highest domestic (U.S. only) gross of all time.) The CG visuals surrounding the sinking and destruction of the ship were considered spectacular. During the 1998 Academy Awards, the film won a record-tying 11 Oscars. Among them were Best Picture and Best Director.
Sometimes, as we’re neck deep in something, we start realizing we’re in too deep. We didn’t do something as well as we’d like or we spent too much than we should have. We failed in our process. But failing the process sometimes doesn’t mean you failed in your goal. We try so hard to go from point A to point B to point C, thinking “this is how it is supposed to be”. We get caught up in the “supposed to” and forget about the “what is”.
Failure happens along the way. Over-budget, mis-managed and late. Yet a complete success in the end. Plus, valuable experience learned for the next big project.
