It’s hard to believe that there would ever be any doubts that Titanic would be a success. Now considered one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, the early press believed the James Cameron movie would sink. But one star of the disaster flick, Eric Braeden, claims he knew from the start that Cameron’s passion project would be “a hit” with no fear of saying it.
One mind-blowing BTS fact about Titanic was that the press was saying a lot of bad things about the 1997 movie before its release. Such negativity followed how being the most expensive movie at the time led to cost overruns as well as issues of set safety and release date delays. While many of these setbacks could reasonably mean a box office flop, Titanic actor Eric Braeden made claims to TVInsider that he had faith his epic romance-disaster movie would be a “hit.” Here’s why:
I’m the only one who did. And I remember being interviewed by [famed Variety writer] Army Archerd. He said, ‘Why are you the only one who says this is going to be a success? Everyone else is afraid it will sink 20th [Century Studios] and sink Paramount because it costs too much money.’ I said, ‘Very simple. It’s a soap opera, a very expensive soap opera. And I know something about soap operas.’
Yes, Eric Braeden would know a thing or two about soap operas. After all, the German-American actor has been on The Young and the Restless since 1980 as the love-to-hate character Victor Newman. The Daytime Emmy Award winner happens to be right about Titanic’s soap opera tropes as the maiden voyage journey starts with Rose being forced to marry a wealthy man and enters a star-crossed lovers relationship with poor passenger Jack Dawson. As viewers live for forbidden romances to see if two people with passionate chemistry will end up together, why couldn’t that be the same case for Titanic?
Eric Braeden’s role in Titanic was John Jacob Astor IV, the richest man on the ship. The actor continued to tell TVInsider that he was one of the lucky actors who got to see the edited cut of the film's first five minutes with his family in James Cameron’s trailer. He recalled experiencing “goosebumps” and telling the Canadian director, “You’re gonna make a shitload of money.”
As fate would have it, Eric Braeden’s predictions that Titanic would be a success as well as its star, Leonardo DiCaprio, ended up coming true. The big-budgeted movie was loved by critics and audiences, won a ton of weekends at the box office to generate $2.264 billion on a budget of $200 million, and won 11 Oscars including Best Picture. Leonardo DiCaprio also became an A-list star after Titanic with his best movies including Wolf of Wall Street, The Aviator, and The Revenant in which he won an Oscar.
James Cameron refused to let any pessimism about Titanic get to him. His clever method of saving his passion project from bad press was to take a step back and allow the negativity to die down on its own. It was sound advice as people saw for themselves what a masterpiece Titanic was when it premiered in 1997. Plus as Eric Braeden said, I’d like to believe what drew audiences into Titanic was that it was a forbidden romance movie. If star-crossed lover stories like Romeo and Juliet are still being read about and adapted today after over 400 years, there’s no reason why Titanic couldn’t achieve the same momentum.
After Eric Braeden saw the first five minutes of his movie Titanic, he wasn’t afraid to make claims that James Cameron’s movie would be “a hit.” Take it from a soap opera star to tell you what audiences crave and that the evidence will speak for itself when viewers watch compared to what bad press spews out. Feel free to go back to one of the best movies of the 1990s available on your Hulu subscription and your Paramount+ subscription.
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