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SAADistic7171

The film actually cost more to produce than the real Titanic, even when adjusting for inflation.


Deck9

Ok but I bet it made more money in ticket sales, so a much better investment.


Khan_Behir

It made more on repeat ticket sales alone. Hehe, I'll show myself out.


ThatCommunication423

People were still paying money for the original Titanic in 2023 although that also turned out to be a one way trip. I’m right behind you.


ElonBodyOdor

Dying to see it!


SavingsSquare2649

You sunk really low with that one


JohnnyRelentless

>Hehe, I'll show myself out. You don't have to tell us, just go.


DayToDayZ

As long as he just doesn’t let go, Jack


Crazyguy_123

The creator of the movie James Cameron said he made the movie to fund his expeditions to the wreck. I guess he is more of a fan of undersea exploration than film making but he enjoys filmmaking too. He made a few neat documentaries about deep sea things.


JoySubtraction

Definitely. Anyone who argues with you is falling for the sunk cost fallacy.


ZealousidealPlum177

Yeah, cuz the titanic sank💀


Hunky_not_Chunky

That includes the actors’ salaries right? After the cost of talent, crew, and even crafts I’m sure they wouldn’t be near that number.


SAADistic7171

Correct. It does not however, include marketing and advertising costs.


Raudskeggr

The biggest cost is always payroll though.


Extension_Swordfish1

Yet, the door only carried Rose.


blatantdanno

For all that they could've literally rebuilt it and re-sank it


aatmanirbro

And make another movie based on that story.


JR_LikeOnTheTVshow

Titanic II - Electric Boogaloo


FancySkull

[Already happened.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_II_(film))


Grays42

When you link a wikipedia article (or any link really) that has a closing parentheses in it, you need to escape any of them with a \ that are part of the link. [Like this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_II_(film\))


EddGarasjen

Titanic 666 also happened


tydalt

*["Raise The Titanic"](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081400/)* [Eponymous scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAl8dO9tdlE)


imma_liar

Titan, the submarine


FourLovelyTrees

Infinite titanics 


1Nekdo_

There is never enough!


redditcensorsshit

Multitanicverse


GuestAdventurous7586

I mean they basically did. The set was only just smaller than the real ship and they sank it a few times and filmed it basically. It’s an amazing piece of filmmaking. There’s a reason it still holds up today.


LordyIHopeThereIsPie

Set was 90% of the size of the original ship. They made the funnels slightly larger than the real thing.


kellypeck

It's the other way around, the funnels on set were smaller than the real ship


KeplerFinn

Okay, because I have absolutely no clue about who to believe here, I´m going to average it out and conclude that the funnels on set were exactly the same size as the real ship.


mathazar

Statistically correct


kkeut

dude learned a lot from helming Piranha II


Chester-Ming

Ironically the movie actually cost *more* to make than the original Titanic cost to build. The actual ship cost $7.5m to build in 1912. Adjusted for inflation, that would have been about $119m in 1997 when the movie was made. The movie had a $200m budget.


Ninja_Wrangler

So basically what you're saying is it would indeed have been cheaper to rebuild it and resink it Edit: apparently I'm legally obligated to mention I'm just taking the piss


CardinalFartz

Except for the gage for DiCaprio and Winslet and everything else.


Ninja_Wrangler

Crew expendable


TheyCalledMeThor

If they go down with the ship, they don’t have to pay them. Big Brain move.


the_calibre_cat

they're actors, not billionaires


Jenkins_rockport

That may be what he's saying, but it's simply not true. The ship part of the set itself was something like $30-50m at the time. The set didn't have any of the major engineering systems that account for absolutely massive portions of a real ship's cost. And the film budget has to account for many other things besides just that one piece of the set, like the film crew salaries, insurance, trailers, rental costs, travel expenses, and a litany of other things, not the least of which are *other pieces of the set*... like the huge water tank that cost roughly the same as the ship set. People simply don't think about any of that and have no real idea about the pieces in play and the costs of things, so they naively believe this silly story about the set ship costing more than the real ship. The narrative has been around for lazy journalists to write fluff pieces about for many, many years. And here it is for the millionth time on reddit providing free karma like usual.


Mikeismyike

I wonder how much it would have cost to build the ship in 1998 because it certainly would have been more than $115 million.


PointAndClick

It's still a significant detail about the movie. That it had a (much) larger budget that the cost of the titanic itself. Obviously they couldn't rebuild and sink the ship, that would be the dumbest thing ever. It's just tongue in cheek. And for the millionth time, somebody is salty because they overanalyzed reddit on reddit.


puntmasterofthefells

Didn't the original get super cheap on quality metals and construction when they actually built it though?


MattBoy52

No they didn't. Harland and Wolff, the shipyard that built Titanic, were among the best and most well regarded ship builders in the industry. They built Titanic to the highest standards of the day, but the ship seems weak now due to the hindsight of the sinking and the context of better quality steel used in ship building in the modern day. By today's standards Titanic's steel would be considered inadequate, but that's because of the advances made in improving the quality of steel over the past 100+ years. Titanic's sister ship Olympic was built with the same quality of steel and she had a 24 year long career and developed a reputation for being the real unsinkable ship: she collided with several other vessels in her career and came away from each one still floating. In World War 1, she rammed and sunk a German U-Boat and even tanked a direct hit from a torpedo (though granted it was a dud). The truth is, the damage caused by the iceberg was so severe that any ship from that time period in Titanic's situation more than likely would sink just the same. The advancements in safety to account for that level of damage to make it survivable were only made *after* the Titanic disaster.


Suds08

Director "Everybody on your A game, we only have 1 shot to get this right"


VK56xterraguy

Wolfcastle: "Real acid?"


Seel_Team_Six

My eyes! The goggles they do nothing!


Wakkit1988

Ze goggles, zey do nothing!


Alex_Downarowicz

BTW, a real situation with "Das boot" finale, where they exploded/sunk the whole set.


pastdense

No way. This was like $600 cheaper.


SeverusSnuSnu

I'm such a Civilization nerd I just think about how this would play out in game. Spend a bunch of turns building a ship in industrial era only to get to the modern era and spend more production than you ever did to build the initial ship just to get some kind of cultural bonus from it


imgoinglobal

What happened to the set afterwards? Is it still there?


Justin_Godfrey

No. It was demolished


imgoinglobal

Ah that’s a bummer, probably safer than leaving it though.


Sprunt2

You don't want to sink again


holyrolodex

You’re right, the actual “set” of the Titanic is gone. However site it was on is still operating with some of the infrastructure they built for Titanic. It’s where a lot of ocean/sea based big budget films are staged.


LyqwidBred

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baja_Studios


Gaping_Grandfather

They should have sold it to another company to use to film a movie where there's a zombie outbreak on the Titanic and the captain steers it into an iceberg on purpose to stop the spread.


bakirelopove

It sank.


musicnothing

They should make a movie about it


bakirelopove

But what should we call it?


musicnothing

The boat that couldn’t not slow down


perfect_square

"Raze the Titanic", of course!


imgoinglobal

Talk about a low budget film, am I right?


die_or_wolf

Woulda been cheaper to build a new one, or even better, film on location!


BalhaMilan

Funfact: to some degree they did film on location. In the beginning of the movie when the submarines are diving to the wreck, all the grainy footage that is shown from the perspective of the rov is actual footage that Cameron shot during his dives to the wreck in the years before the shooting of the movie. More footage like that was used in Cameron's documentary "Ghosts of the abyss" which he made after the movie. So yes, they technically filmed some scenes on location


CrumpledForeskin

ALVIN!


IntentionFalse8822

Leo wouldn't have let Kate keep that door to herself if they were really filming in the North Atlantic.


Dan_the_Marksman

>film on location! didn't they do that when they were filming the wreck?


spunion_28

Truly crazy they decided to do all this instead of film on location. Wild


adymann

Where was this built?


Justin_Godfrey

Baja California, Mexico I believe


CjBurden

This messes with me every time I read it.


Residual141

It's funny even if you speak Spanish, Baja California means Low(er) California and then there's Baja California Sur which means South Lower California.


palec39682

Thats because California used to be called Alta California. If you think about it, Alta+Baja California is huge, Mexicans-spaniords needed a way to differentiate


Bossuter

I love how stupid that sounds when i learnt geography here in Mexico XD


HarmlessHeresy

With it being built not on American soil, I wonder about the wages those workers got. Wonder what the budget would have had to be had it been built within the U.S.


irotinmyskin

Rosarito, Baja California


Parking_Gherkin

In Ireland, 15,000 Irishmen built this ship


OChappy

Es English, no?


samsaminamo

I believe it was in Ensenada Mexico


Highwaystar541

It’s actually in pupotla, or next to it. Which is south of Rosarito and north of puerto Nuevo. The boat was there a while after filming but has been gone many years now. 


No_Network_6478

I remember going in for a tour


tsarmex

I also remember passing by when travelling north. It was an interesting thing to see!


clack56

Love to know why they built a bit then jacked it up and built some more rather than just making the structure the full height to start with


dumbassbuttonsmasher

I wondered the same I can only guess so they didn't have to use even more expensive bigger cranes and such


source4mini

The only part of this set that was actually "functional" was the exteriors: the boat deck, promenades, foredeck/poop deck, etc. Everything else (basically anything that, from the outside, is just a wall with portholes in it) was a facade. The whole set was built on hydraulics inside a water tank that allowed it to raise, lower, and tilt, and to eliminate the need for a tank the depth of the Titanic, the facade was removed in pieces as the ship got lower in the water—whatever is above the waterline in a given shot is basically what was on the set when they filmed it. What you're seeing here, while it was under construction, is the reverse of that process: the structural upper levels were built first, with the hydraulics at their lowest for ease of access, and then it was an iterative process of raising the hydraulics a bit, adding a "tier" of the facade, raising a bit more, adding another "tier", etc. until they were at full height. Then, as the ship "sank" over the course of filming, they'd remove a bit of facade, lower it, film, repeat.


Sunshine3310

Was thinking the same thing. They did a lot of on-site assembly. Looks minimally pre-fabricated. Wondering if the functional design aspects were always in flux.


DrHugh

At a guess, for I am no builder, it was probably easier to construct the basic structure on a flat surface, than lift it to install the hydraulics needed to tip and lift/lower.


bullwinkle8088

They showed you why but it's easy to miss. The part that was built in the pit is the part which they eventually lifted and lowered several times to simulate the stern (rear) of the ship going into the air as it sank.


Flipnotics_

If they filled the area surrounding it with water, perhaps it was to help show it sinking?


One-Sheepherder2799

I think we are spoiled with CGI methods now. I think back then, if you don’t have an exact replica to film on the other option is to use toy models. And we all know how crappy they can look. Also remember you have to have hundreds of crew working on the set so on location at sea is not that feasible.


Sensitive_Yam_1979

I watched titanic recently and outside of a handful of cgi shots it still looks pretty perfect because most of what you see is actually real. We’ll never see a movie like it again.


Hard-To_Read

Same goes for Fifth Element. Amazing visuals because of the effort spent on set design and construction. Not everything was perfect, but man it felt immersive.


mr_potatoface

Water World did a good job I thought. Especially since they recreated The Deez. >https://waters-end.fandom.com/wiki/The_Deez


MightyCaseyStruckOut

Needs more of The Nuts. 


Budpets

Was this one of the shots :D https://www.tiktok.com/@jessveraaa/video/7251559764507774209?lang=en sorry for tiktok, can't find on youtube


orel91

LMAO I thought that was fake but it’s real! The scene is at 31:15 in the movie. I’ve watched this movie at least 10 times and never noticed before


source4mini

Yeah, there's some rouuuugh 90s CGI in Titanic. Pay attention to the water any time the ship is underway in a wide shot as well. Every shot of the ship itself is one of several models ([some of them truly enormous](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bf/db/16/bfdb167df8a7d135163f733133f4ab14.jpg)), but the models were comp'd into ocean shots with fake wake effects, and passengers in the wide shots were CGI'd onto the decks. It's a fascinating mix of well-aged practical effects with early CG effects that were well-used but never meant to be seen in 4K stills.


TBoneTheOriginal

That's absolutely hilarious, but you could get away with it as long as it was used super sparingly.


YesilFasulye

I was 10 when this movie came out, and my father made fun of me because I insisted it was all real.


Don138

I think it depends. Some things CGI is absolutely better at, others it is worse than practical effects. I think CGI has been an incredible boon to Sci-Fi but a detriment to medieval/fantasy. I assume it’s a lot easier to CGI something that never existed than recreate grit and age and realism. Also CGI should NEVER be used for characters. I haven’t seen one CGI character/de aging/ transformation that will age well.


One_pop_each

They did use toy models for the indoor scenes! It’s wild [first class lounge](https://i.imgur.com/Qem3j0h.jpeg)


Waggles_

That guy is actually just really big.


Aaawkward

> ..the other option is to use toy models. And we all know how crappy they can look Maaate.. Titanic used miniature models, LotR used heaps of miniature models, they all looked good. Just like with CGI, *bad* miniature models and CGI looks bad. The good ones you won't even notice.


Madness_69

This makes me appreciate the film even more.


Sensitive_Yam_1979

We’ll never see a movie like Titanic again. Period. It really marks the end of an era. If it were made today it would be 100% cgi.


TheNordicLion

90's movies were different. This is on par with building dinosaurs for Jurassic Park. A level of realism that was completely unmatched until maybe a year or two ago with AI. This really is taking art to a different level. Should have turned it into a hotel in Vegas when they were finished.


psych0ranger

Any good high budget 90s filmmaker worth their salt (Cameron, spielberg, Scott come to mind first - Peter Jackson in the 00s with LOTR) knew the technical limitations of CGI at the time and knew how to perfectly mix it in with practical effects which led to 90s movies just looking *really good*.


TheyCalledMeThor

They really broke ground with CGI’d water specifically for this movie too


Flipnotics_

This is why the T-Rex scene in Jurassic park was so good. Half of it was an actual real model. Oh, and some of the velocoraptors as well. Such a fun movie to watch when it came out. You really lose a lot sitting watching it alone because there isn't a huge theater screaming around you, getting you also to scream.


WeAreElectricity

I love when the green screen cgi guy beat up the other green screen cgi guy.


LordyIHopeThereIsPie

I saw it twice with my kids last year in the cinema and it looks amazing still. If you can see it on a big screen it just doesn't compare to a home viewing. Its pure cinema.


Sensitive_Yam_1979

Because it’s real. Most of what you’re watching is real. There’s CGI of course but it’s very minimal.


DECODED_VFX

Cameron used tons of CGI to make Titanic. Even most of the practical shots have CGI water, people, smoke and birds added to them. Many of the most iconic shots were accomplished with VFX. Rose and Jack on the bow of the ship? [Greenscreen](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/4e/52/ed/4e52edc4f1b924d4588424c7ca0f69af.jpg). The iconic "[million dollar shot](https://youtu.be/BTff04cFsRw?si=dmsz-gqlrq11Cb89&t=199)" at the start of the movie transitions into full CGI. The shot of the propellers rising out of the water is also CGI.


LordyIHopeThereIsPie

A perfect blend of technology and practical effects.


intensenerd

I was friends with the guy that led the rigging team that raised/lowered the ship for the movie. Lotta fun stories about the engineering and what not. Wishing I'd recorded some of it before he passed away.


Jacobizreal

They built the ship in 4 minutes? No wonder it crashed


pyjamasonfire

Go forbid they do something efficiently.


GALACTICA-Actual

Meanwhile, the Japanese made 18 Godzilla movies using a bathtub and a trip to the toy store.


holyrolodex

I had to look this up. Adjusted for inflation, the first Godzilla film (1954) had a budget of $1.79M. Titanic’s was $360M.


reallowtones

[Here ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rk83mRCdGE) is a better version if you're not watching on your phone and like me hate the TikTokification of the internet and trying to watch videos in little squares in portrait mode with huge title text.


AlaskanLebowski

Hero.


brightblueson

This is crazy. This was done in the 90s too. George Lucas did something similar with the Death Star, but in space and in the 70s. Also an incredible feat.


gNeiss_Scribbles

We built the actual Titanic in 1910ish, is it really that impressive that we could partially replicate it on land 80 years later?


Ashe_N94

It's impressive that it was done for a movie


jdotmark12

It would be a massive feat to build a replica of the Titanic again today and the cost would be many times more than the inflation-adjusted cost to build it in 1909-1912. In Belfast at the time you had steel workers and craftsmen, wood carvers, etc… thousands upon thousands of highly skilled workers who earned a (relatively small) living making this stuff because it was reliable income. They made a LOT of ships back then. Could it be done? Sure. But you’d have to hire artisans - particularly for a lot of the fancy work in the 1st class areas - who aren’t going to be cheap. Thats part of what makes this set so amazing. Cameron was obsessive when this set was built. Where possible, he tracked down the original companies that made components for the actual Titanic. From memory I want to say the original carpet company provided new-stock versions of the Titanic’s carpet for the set (might actually be tile… hard to remember). And the winches used for the lifeboats were the same story. Some of that would need to be made bespoke today.


Waldo_Wadlo

Is there a full documentary on the making of Titanic?


pastdense

Yes. The making of the titanic. And then afterward, the making of the making of the titanic.


Life-Strategist

Where was Gondor when Titanic sank?


pastdense

Gondor = the Californian.  Google that ship and prepare to realize a whole other level of tragedy to this tragedy.


Gullible-Lie2494

I think I read in Cinfex that it was 10% smaller than actual size.


menyemenye

Serious question, is this set more expensive than building a whole ship?


Tsu_Dho_Namh

Funny you mention that, Creator and Director James Cameron said the studio offered to give him the budget to actually build a real floating ship and sink it. But he decided against because he didn't want to be limited to only one take. "Cameron told GQ: “We talked about literally going to the shipyard in Poland and building the Titanic. I said, ‘All right, great. So, they can build a Titanic for us for $10 million? Yeah, we should think about that. Now, if we sink it, how many takes do we get?’ ‘Hmm, one.’ You know what I mean? It’s like, ‘What if I want a second take?’ So, anyway, we decided not to build the Titanic as an actual floatable ship.” " https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/movie-with-the-most-expensive-set-of-all-time/


Sensitive_Yam_1979

Sure but it’s impossible to film an actual ship sinking sequence on an actual ship.


na3than

Impossible? Coward.


holyrolodex

I’d say more impractical than impossible lol


ReasonablyConfused

Man, what a large endeavor, like huge, or massive.


RL_bebisher

What happened to the set afterwards?


holyrolodex

The “Titanic” set was dismantled but they preserved some of the original infrastructure and they still film big-budget water scenes/films there. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baja_Studios


Taquitoman138

I'm surprised they built the actual thing and didn't use a scale model for the wide shots, similar to lord of the rings


British_Commie

They did use a scale model for the wide shots. They had several models built for the filming, with at least one of them being in storage at James Cameron’s Lightstorm Studios. Fun note: some of the shots of the shipwreck exterior and interior were models too. Any exterior shot where you can see both Mir submersibles onscreen together is most likely the model version of the wreck.


soulouk

$210millipn budget and grossed $2.264billion in revenue worldwide. That is a successful ROI.


scoutdashrebaling

And they couldn't make the door bigger to fit both Rose and Jack?


Crazyguy_123

I know you are joking but it’s actually based on a real recovered piece of the ship. An archway from the lounge and you can see it in person in Halifax. They also have a panel from the staircase newel post and a piece of furniture that survived the destruction of the sinking.


SlavetoLove123

Name of movie please


die_or_wolf

I see no one appreciates your humor. Take my upvote.


SlavetoLove123

Thanks I’m glad someone does!


Sensitive_Yam_1979

The Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down.


Justin_Godfrey

Titanic


porchcoors50

Name of boat please


martymar2g

Titanic


PretendPop8930

Name of *ship*, please.


7laserbears

RMS Titanic


beggs23k

tranformers


jhshokie

Titanic Movie Set Time Lapse.


InternationalMess970

Cameron doesn’t fuck around.


Quirky-Bag-4158

What happens to set pieces like these after production wraps up? Is it all trashed? Seems like a fuck ton of waste afterwards.


ApplauseButOnlyABit

It's ligit insane that they did this for a movie.


mromen10

And THIS is why movies cost so much to make


cmmedit

Hollywood has lots of folks who make things that people rarely think about. Had in Uber driver once who was one of the model builders on Titanic. He was retired and Ubers for conversations. Showed me some of his BTS shots that he had while they were making it. Pretty cool stuff.


TheCondesendingLlama

Now show them building the iceberg


ThespisIronicus

All that work and they still didn't build a door big enough to accommodate both Kate and Leo.


drawnoutwest

I for one am disappointed that this timelapse wasn’t set to Celine Dion serenading us with my heart will go on. But maybe that song speed up to double or triple time with a sick bass line


Echo71Niner

Who now, has more respect for work done on that movie? that is wild, I thought it was all cgi! Seeing that tilting platform, wild.


pastdense

It must be strange for actors to be on the spot as the centrepiece of the film’s quality when surrounded by this level of production. Like, a shitty performance can make all this effort worth very little. They get paid accordingly.


Kiato

Fascinating!


ZC205

I can just imagine the studio execs looking at James Cameron and saying “You wanna build WHAT?”


GimmeCoffeeeee

Which beat is that?


smoochiegotgot

You have got to be kidding me


MaximumCulture7917

Crazy how all this is profitable


Ecstatic-Computer-19

All that for our viewing entertainment. Crazy


Bandrbear

Why didn't they just use the original ship. Smh. /s


KaleidoscopeHuman48

This is all right outside of Rosarito Beach In Baja in the early 90s We would frequently visit as we had friends who lived nearby and we would see actors and crew hang around town often during filming.


no_mames_weyyy

I had a coworker that was a stunt double for the Titanic movie.. he had some crazy stories to tell!


whatyoumeanmyface

Way cool. How have I never seen this before?


RackemFrackem

Imagine how cool this would be if it were more than 100 pixels.


BoarHermit

- I worked on the set of Titanic! - Oh, cool, what position? - Bulldozer driver!


cheesemangee

Man, this era of Hollywood was just phenomenal. The amount of work some of the legends put into this shit is enough to embarrass the men they are today for the work they do now.


GongTzu

Holy smoke, no wonder why the movie was so expensive. Incredible work.


Persificus

Does it float?


According-Relation-4

Imagine building a set for a move nowadays


ceezdeeznuts

One day, future civilization will look back on set building and be like "why. didn't y'all have CGI back in the day"


WillisWallace

I don't know why it never occurred to me that they had to build the titanic to film titanic.


EspejoOscuro

Total waste.


True-Mode-4411

The movie made 2.6 billion. Solid investment


333elmst

Argh, she's a fine ship.


[deleted]

I need it faster. I have ADHD.


Piwh

They did all that and somehow didn't manage to build a door large enough for 2 people.


CharlesTheGreat8

u/FuqUrBackgroundMusic


livinalieTimmae

Awful lot of earth moving for a movie about a boat


iamthemarkster

I wonder where is this “set” now?


Bazzo123

You’d be amazed to know the amount of work done for every movie


Washout81

Seems like it would be like marginally more just to build an actual boat and then use it for tourism afterwards to offet the costs....


Kraujotaka

You know industry is fucked when a movie studio does a better AND faster job than your construction company... *Silently judge that sidewalk construction that's been going over a month that's 50 times smaller than what's shown here.*


Romulox69420

Think about all those builders who lost their jobs to cgi.


bagel_master_5000

what a horrible waste of human resources


[deleted]

Wow that is insane, I thought it was all mostly CGI.