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
Titanic (1997 film) the movie". Cameron also wanted to appease anxious studio executives and "saw that a hit song from his movie could only be a positive factor in guaranteeing its completion". 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures co-financed "Titanic", with Paramount handling the North American distribution and Fox handling the international release. They expected Cameron to complete the film for a release on July 2, 1997. The film was to be released on this date "in order to exploit the lucrative summer season ticket sales when blockbuster films usually do better". In April, Cameron said the film's special effects were too complicated