The prop door from the James Cameron blockbuster film “Titanic” just sold at auction for more than $700,000.
Ever since the movie was released in 1997, viewers have argued over whether there was enough room for both Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet) to fit onto the door, using it as a makeshift raft until they could be rescued from the frigid sea. Many movie fans claim that the door may not have been buoyant enough to support two adults, even if there was sufficient physical space.
In the film, Rose survived, and Jack died from hypothermia.
The prop piece of balsa wood, which the auction listing says came from part of the door frame above the ship’s first-class lounge entrance, was one of several movie props sold at the Heritage Auctions Treasures from Planet Hollywood event, per The Guardian.
Other significant items included Winslet’s dress in “Titanic,” which fetched $125,000, and Indiana Jones’s bullwhip from “The Temple of Doom,” which went for more than half a million. The outlet also noted that Jack Nicholson’s axe from The Shining sold for $125,000.
Cameron and other “Titanic” stars have discussed the door controversy in the past, with the Canadian director admitting that the character of Jack was doomed to die because the story demanded it.
“We have since done a thorough forensic analysis with a hypothermia expert who reproduced the raft from the movie … We took two stunt people who were the same body mass of Kate and Leo and we put sensors all over them and inside them and we put them in ice water and we tested to see whether they could have survived through a variety of methods and the answer was: there was no way they both could have survived. Only one could survive,” Cameron told The Toronto Sun in 2022, as The Daily Wire previously reported.
“[Jack] needed to die,” he added. “It’s like Romeo and Juliet. It’s a movie about love and sacrifice and mortality. The love is measured by the sacrifice.”
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Winslet also shared her opinions in 2022, the 25th anniversary of the film’s release.
“I have to be honest: I actually don’t believe that we would have survived if we had both gotten on that door,” the actress said. “I think he would have fit, but it would have tipped and it would not have been a sustainable idea.”
“So, you heard it here for the first time,” Winslet added. “Yes, he could have fit on that door, but it would not have stayed afloat. It wouldn’t.”