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
Titanic (1997) arrived as a Paramount and 20th Century Fox co-production, directed by James Cameron on what was then the largest budget in Hollywood history. Its release became a cultural event, sweeping eleven Academy Awards and holding the global box office record for over a decade. The film's blend of historical spectacle and intimate romance, anchored by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, cemented its place as one of the defining pictures of the 1990s and a perennial touchstone for collectors of studio-era blockbuster ephemera.
This cell preserves a moment centered on Jack Dawson, the penniless artist whose sketching of Rose DeWitt Bukater becomes one of the film's most enduring scenes of intimacy and trust between the two leads. As a piece of the physical print, this fragment stands as a tangible artifact from a single pass of celluloid through a projector, tying a specific instant of the story to an object rather than a memory. For collectors, cells built around Jack and Rose together carry particular weight, since they mark the emotional core of the narrative that made Titanic resonate far beyond its scale.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour positive release print of Titanic (1997).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame visible on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges look clean.
Soundtrack
Not visible in this capture; the area beside the picture frames is obscured by the strip's curvature and shadow.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture.
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight blue-violet tint consistent with a colour safety stock; dye image reads warm with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
No scratches, splice marks or cue marks are discernible in this capture.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, consistent with a release print of the film on record.
Era check
The four-perforation-per-frame layout, colour positive image, and blue-tinted safety base are all consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print from the late 1990s.
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 000062604
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
