James Cameron’s blockbuster movie Titanic quickly became one of the highest-grossing movies of all time at the worldwide box office. However, at one time, many believed that the film wouldn’t succeed financially. This belief was the result of delays and rumors of a troubled production. It has now been revealed in the posthumous memoir of late film producer Jon Landau how everything changed.
Jon Landeau confirms Titanic was expected to flop at the box office
In his memoir “The Bigger Picture,” Jon Landau recounted the time many thought James Cameron’s Titanic would become a box office bomb.
Landau stated in an excerpt shared by Variety that the first trailer was crucial in grabbing an audience. “You have two and a half minutes to convey the movie’s story and feel,” he added. “Those 150 seconds are everything, and like so many things on Titanic, they became the subject of a major battle.”
The Alita: Battle Angel producer explained that translating a three-hour and 14-minute film into a 90-second trailer proved difficult. He recalled the film’s crew creating a four-minute and two-second cut and sending it to Paramount and Fox.
Landau recounted the response of Rob Friedman — Paramount‘s marketing and distribution head — to the trailer. Friedman reportedly said, “I saw your trailer, and I’m throwing up all over my shoes.”
Landau shared that Paramount created a shorter cut, dubbed “the John Woo trailer.” He added that the trailer suggested the film was an action movie set on the Titanic. “It was not our movie,” he further stated.
The competing trailers caused a “back-and-forth” between the film’s crew and Paramount. “First reasoning, then screaming,” Landau recalled. The producer added that they convinced Paramount chairperson and CEO Sherry Lansing to test the longer trailer at ShoWest, the conference of the National Association of Theatre Owners in Las Vegas, to gauge reception.
“Our trailer was long,” Landau wrote. “To us, it seemed proportionate to the length of the movie. And necessary.” He added that the trailer was the first footage people outside the studio and production team saw.
Landau recalled the tense atmosphere, writing “the stakes were high.” He added that they spent five years making the film on a $200 million budget. Further, he shared how everyone was “rooting” for the film’s failure and how Time Magazine wrote a cover story about the film bombing.
Fortunately, Kurt Russell, who was in the audience, reacted positively to the trailer. The actor even remarked he would pay $10 to see it again. Landau shared that the studio got special permission from the Motion Picture Association to release the four-minute and two-second trailer to audiences. Further, he said that each negative article about the film ended with the belief that it would be good. “It was a real turning point,” he added.
Originally reported by Abdul Azim Naushad on ComingSoon.
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