National Film RegistryLibrary of Congress · Inducted 2017
“James Cameron's epic retold the story of the great maritime disaster and made mega-stars of both its leads, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Their upstairs-downstairs romance transported the audience to another world and time via spectacular sweeping scenes in the bow of the ship and beyond.”
Selected for preservation as culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.
Directed by
James Cameron
Studio
Paramount Pictures · British Film Institute · 20th Century Studios · 195 min
Sources: Wikidata · Library of Congress · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Paramount and Twentieth Century Fox released Titanic in 1997, a James Cameron production that became one of the defining cinematic events of the decade. Blending romance with disaster spectacle and grounded in the sinking of the RMS Titanic, the film swept award season and set box office records that stood for years. Its scale, ambition, and crossover appeal made it a touchstone of 1990s studio filmmaking, remembered as much for its craftsmanship as for its cultural reach across generations of moviegoers who returned to theaters multiple times to experience it.
This piece preserves the opening title card, the frame that announces the film before any character or plot unfolds. Such cells hold particular value for collectors because they capture cinema at its threshold, the moment audiences first read the name that would carry such weight in popular memory. Rather than a scene or performance, this segment represents pure introduction, the studio's typographic gateway into the story. For archivists, title cards often mark the purest artifact of a release, tied to the film's identity itself rather than any single sequence within it.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Titanic (1997).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on each edge; spacing appears even and the punched corners look clean and rectangular.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, consistent with an analog stereo print; Dolby Digital pixel blocks appear present in the inter-perforation gaps on the same edge.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to quote any key numbers or manufacturer text.
Base & colour
Base carries a cool blue-tinted cast; the dye image reads as predominantly blue-shifted, consistent with a colour print stock of the mid-to-late 1990s.
Projection history
Light vertical scratch lines are visible across the frame area, consistent with evidence of a projected print.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to show the same title-card composition, confirming consecutive frames from one shot; the 'TITANIC' title lettering matches the film on record.
Era check
The combination of analog variable-area optical track, Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks, and blue-base colour stock is consistent with a theatrical release print from the late 1990s, matching the 1997 release date on record.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000062578
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
