Titanic: Genre and Audience

I. Genre and Audience

The 1997 film Titanic, directed by James Cameron, is a dramatic romance paralleled with the tragic event of the grand passenger liner RMS Titanic: a modern Romeo and Juliet. The film follows two lovers who come from different social classes. Rose Dewitt Bukater is a young woman in a family struggling to maintain their high status. She is engaged to the rich, Cal Hockley, who could potentially lift the family from their wealth problems. The love interest, Jack Dawson, won a pair of ticket for the Titanic for himself and his friend in a gamble, and boarded the ship. The two engage into an epic romance, only separating during the ship's collision with an iceberg, sinking the ship. James Cameron, during pre-production, decided that the film that he'd taken on was one that needed to be accurate; it needed to depict the tragedy to allow the audience to fully experience this tragic event. He portrayed Jack and Rose's love aboard the Titanic. 

Cameron's intention of making the movie constantly changed, and originally it may not have turned out to be the depiction of the Titanic. He found interest in the project because he had always wanted to go deep-sea diving, and this film would provide him this experience. Cameron, during production, was expecting financial losses because the film had taken over $200 million to make. The film was inevitably going to make substantial losses. It ended up being the first film to break the $1 billion mark and to this day stands at the second most grossing film ever behind Cameron's Avatar. The audience was mixed between both male and females, viewing the film multiple times.