How James Cameron Shot Titanic’s Hugely Complex Sinking Scene

How James Cameron Shot Titanic’s Hugely Complex Sinking Scene The dark arts of “Hollywood accounting” make it difficult to determine film budgets with precision. But according to reasonable reckonings, James Cameron may have directed not just one but several of the most expensive movies of all time. The underwater sci-fi spectacle that was The Abyss necessitated one of the biggest production budgets of the eighties, but it looked straight off Poverty Row when compared to Cameron’s next project just two years later. Terminator 2: Judgment Day was the first film to cost more than $100 million; True Lies, his next Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle, could have cost as much as $120 million. What challenge remained for Cameron at that point? Why, re-creating the most famous shipwreck in history. Such an improbable-sounding ambition didn’t come out of nowhere. Fascinated with the Titanic since childhood, Cameron eventually found himself able to make multiple expedition

Added 6 Apr 2026