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 arrived in 1997 from Paramount and Twentieth Century Fox, a James Cameron production that became a defining cinematic event of its decade. Built on an enormous budget and a meticulous physical recreation of the doomed liner, it swept the Academy Awards and became, for a time, the highest grossing film ever released. Its success rested not only on scale but on the human story at its center, which turned two young actors into global stars and gave audiences a romance that has endured well beyond the ship's sinking.
This cell preserves a strip from that central pairing, Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater, the couple whose bond gives the disaster its emotional weight. Rose represents the constrained aristocrat searching for freedom, while Jack embodies the wandering spirit who offers her that escape. For collectors, frames of these two together are the most sought after pieces from the production, since their scenes carry the film's enduring reputation as a great screen romance, distilled here into a single tangible artifact of 35mm.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital optical 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 appear clean with no torn or deformed holes visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge, with what appears to be a Dolby Digital data block pattern visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the same edge, consistent with a dual-format optical release print.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read any key numbers or manufacturer text.
Base & colour
The base shows a slight blue-violet tint consistent with a dye-incorporated safety stock; the dye image appears warm-amber with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
Light longitudinal lines are visible across the frame area, consistent with projection contact; no splices or cue marks are visible.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot, consistent with a release print of Titanic (1997).
Era check
The combination of Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks alongside a variable-area optical track, on a blue-base safety stock, is consistent with a mid-to-late 1990s theatrical release print.
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 000062613
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
