Kurt Russell’s secret role in making ‘Titanic’ the biggest box office hit of all time: “It was not our movie”
What does Kurt Russell have to do with Titanic? At first glance, absolutely nothing. However, he played an instrumental, and completely unsung, role in propelling James Cameron’s epic romance to a record-breaking haul at the box office.
He’s never worked with James Cameron, never shared an ensemble with Kate Winslet, he’s only tangentially worked with Leonardo DiCaprio on Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and apart from his franchise roles in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Fast & Furious, he’s only been in one movie that earned more than $200 million at the box office.
There’s also the fact that he’s just an actor. While that’s doing a disservice to a career that’s been going strong for over 60 years and counting, it’s true; Russell has never been interested in directing, John Carpenter’s Escape from LA is the only time he’s been credited as a writer, which is also one of just two pictures that he’s produced, alongside Netflix’s The Christmas Chronicles.
All of that, plus the fact he wasn’t involved in Titanic at all, makes him one of the unlikeliest candidates to help turn Cameron’s passion project, which many within the industry were predicting to flop before it was released, into the first-ever billion-dollar blockbuster. Three decades later, it’s still one of the top-earning titles of all time.
How did he do it? According to the late producer, Jon Landau, it was a matter of chance. Once principal photography was over and post-production was nearing completion, he and Cameron faced the harrowing task of showcasing the film’s first trailer to the studio, and the suits weren’t happy that it exceeded four minutes.
They wanted around 90 seconds lopped off, and the two parties struggled to reach a compromise. “Paramount had taken the same footage and made their own, shorter trailer,” he recalled. “We called it the ‘John Woo’ trailer. It was all flash cuts and pounding music, gunshots, and screams. It made the movie look like an action flick that happened to take place on the Titanic. It was not our movie.”
Landau and Cameron convinced the bigwigs to let them premiere the four-minute version to a gathering of members from the National Association of Theatre owners, and part of the Paramount delegation was comprised of “some of their top executives and biggest names, including Kurt Russell, the star of their upcoming film, Breakdown.”
He was only there because the studio was backing his headline outing in Jonathan Mostow’s underrated thriller, but it was a blessing in disguise. As Landau “nervously” waited for the reaction from the high and mighty of the industry, “Kurt Russell loudly announced, ‘I’d pay $10 just to see that trailer again!'”
Thanks to his ringing endorsement, Titanic was given “special dispensation” from the MPAA, which typically demanded that trailers were limited to “150 seconds, max,” to debut the 242-second trailer for the movie in cinemas. The lengthy promo helped build buzz months before its theatrical bow, and when it finally arrived, it debuted at number one and stayed there for a record 15 consecutive weekends.
