Titanic (1997 film) the United States; the official Hollywood premiere occurred on December 14, 1997, where "the big movie stars who attended the opening were enthusiastically gushing about the film to the world media". Including revenue from the 2012 and 2017 reissues, "Titanic" earned $659.4 million in North America and $1.528 billion in other countries, for a worldwide total of $2.187 billion. It became the highest-grossing film of all time worldwide in 1998, and remained so for twelve years, until "Avatar" (2009), also written and directed by Cameron, surpassed it in 2010. On March 1, 1998, it became the first film to earn
Wreck of the RMS Titanic research. The stern section, which had previously received relatively little attention from explorers, was specifically targeted for analysis. The microbial colonies aboard "Titanic" were also a key focus of investigation. The second expedition, from 27 May – 12 June 2004, saw the return of Robert Ballard to "Titanic" nearly 20 years after he discovered it. The expedition spent 11 days on the wreck, carrying out high-resolution mapping using video and stereoscopic still images. 2005 saw two expeditions to the "Titanic". James Cameron returned for the third and last time to film "Last Mysteries of the Titanic". Another expedition searched for