CONTRARY TO hostile reports on Twitter last week, we were never part of the constituency who “. . .went to see Titanic 10 times when it came out”.
Indeed, long- standing film fans with access to RTÉ Radio 1 some 15 years ago may well recall the younger, angrier Tara Brady reviewing Titanic with considerably more venom than she managed on these pages last Friday.
Reader, Titanic Blindness Syndrome (henceforth TBS) is very real and all too serious. It’s being alone in a crowded room. It’s silence when all others are cheering for gigantic hats and Leonardo Di Caprio in a tuxedo.
In 1998, desperate to be part of something bigger than myself, I sat down with the newly released VHS. Having loathed Titanic on the big screen, I was determined to at least like it on the post-
theatrical bounce. Three hours later, having exchanged many baffled grimaces with my son, we came to realise the awful truth: Titanic Blindness is hereditary. We can only surmise it has something to do with our Ulster origins.
But maybe we’re not alone, after all. Of all the recent 3D re-releases Titanic 3D made significantly less money ($17.3m) at the US box office last weekend than Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King or The Phantom Menace. The multimillion dollar refit only placed third behind The Hunger Games and American Reunion. This suggests James Cameron’s billions-grossing epic is a film that attracts hysterical repeat business from punters who stare at their feet and disavow all knowledge a little while later.
Or maybe we really are alone. Regardless of how the US felt about second helpings of Cameron’s excruciating dialogue and dated CGI, the Irish decided to celebrate their connection to the deaths of 1,500 people by turning out for historical recreations, themed events with face painting and by forking over thousands of euro to see the original, curvy Kate Winslet.
All told, Titanic 3D hoovered up €271,041 in the Republic of Ireland last weekend, beating The Hunger Games into second place. ROI hearts Titanic big time. Northern Ireland, meanwhile, far preferred Wrath of the Titans.
Stateside, however, The Hunger Games has hung on to the top spot for a third weekend, sailing past the $300 million mark for its trouble. The dystopian beat-’em-
up has to be one of the year’s biggest movies, right? Hmmm. Maybe not. In 2011, all but one of the year’s top 10 grossing films made 65-80 per cent outside of the ever-dwindling US market. The Hunger Games, though a massive money-spinner, is an entirely Anglophone and mostly US phenomenon. More than 66 per cent of the film’s earnings are all-American bucks. To date, the Rest of World isn’t buying into Jen-Law and her Tributes. The Rest of World prefers John Carter, a film Disney wrote off as a record-breaking $200 million flop weeks ago.
Oh really? Then how come it has made $263,704,913 back on its $250 million budget? And how come, outside the US, John Carter has taken more than $195 million compared to The Hunger Games’s $157 million ROW tally? We smell worst-case scenario insurance.
