The Magic of <em>Titanic</em>'s Ending, 20 Years Later

When hit theaters 20 years ago, the widely held view in Hollywood was that it would be a financial disappointment. James Cameron’s long-planned project about the 1912 sinking of the RMS had gone over budget (it cost $200 million, at that time a record, after being ). Filming had taken weeks longer than expected, and the final cut of the movie came in at a gargantuan three hours and 15 minutes. When Fox (who funded the project, along with Paramount) asked him to cut the movie down, Cameron responded in “If you want to cut my film, you’ll have to fire me. And to fire me, you’ll have