3D conversion
A 2012 3D re-release was created by re-mastering the original to 4K resolution and post-converting to stereoscopic 3D format. The Titanic 3D version took 60 weeks and $18 million to produce, including the 4K restoration.[215] The 3D conversion was performed by Stereo D.[216] Digital 2D and in 2D IMAX versions were also struck from the new 4K master created in the process.[217] The only scene entirely redone for the re-release was Rose's view of the night sky at sea on the morning of April 15, 1912. The scene was replaced with an accurate view of the night-sky star pattern, including the Milky Way, adjusted for the location in the North Atlantic Ocean in April 1912. The change was prompted by the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who had criticized the unrealistic star pattern. He agreed to send Cameron a corrected view of the sky, which was the basis of the new scene.[218]
An accurate view of the Milky Way was used to replace Rose's view of the moonless night sky at sea, as in this photo from Paranal Observatory. The view was adjusted to match the North Atlantic at 4:20 am on April 15, 1912.The 3D version of Titanic premiered at the Royal Albert Hall in London on March 27, 2012, with James Cameron and Kate Winslet in attendance,[219][220] and entered general release on April 4, 2012, six days before the centenary of Titanic embarking on her maiden voyage.[221][222][223]
Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers rated the reissue 3+1⁄2 stars out of 4, explaining he found it "pretty damn dazzling". He said, "The 3D intensifies Titanic. You are there. Caught up like never before in an intimate epic that earns its place in the movie time capsule."[224] Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Owen Gleiberman gave the film an A grade. He wrote, "For once, the visuals in a 3-D movie don't look darkened or distracting. They look sensationally crisp and alive."[225] Richard Corliss of Time, who was very critical in 1997, remained in the same mood: "I had pretty much the same reaction: fitfully awed, mostly water-logged." In regards to the 3D effects, he noted the "careful conversion to 3D lends volume and impact to certain moments ... [but] in separating the foreground and background of each scene, the converters have carved the visual field into discrete, not organic, levels."[226] Ann Hornaday for The Washington Post found herself asking "whether the film's twin values of humanism and spectacle are enhanced by Cameron's 3-D conversion, and the answer to that is: They aren't." She added that the "3-D conversion creates distance where there should be intimacy, not to mention odd moments in framing and composition."[227]
The film grossed an estimated $4.7 million on the first day of its re-release in North America (including midnight preview showings) and went on to make $17.3 million over the weekend, finishing in third place behind The Hunger Games and American Reunion.[228][229] Outside North America it earned $35.2 million, finishing second,[230] and it improved on its performance the following weekend by topping the box office with $98.9 million.[231] China has proven to be its most successful territory, where it earned $11.6 million on its opening day,[232] going on to earn a record-breaking $67 million in its opening week and taking more money in the process than it did in the entirety of its original theatrical run.[231]
The reissue earned $343.4 million worldwide, with $145 million coming from China and $57.8 million from Canada and the United States.[233] With a worldwide box office of nearly $350 million, the 3D re-release of Titanic remains the highest grossing re-released film of all time, ahead of The Lion King, Star Wars, and Avatar.[234]
The 3D conversion of the film was also released in the 4DX format in selected international territories, which allows the audience to experience the film's environment using motion, wind, fog, lighting and scent-based special effects.[235][236][237]
20th anniversary
For the 20th anniversary of the film, Titanic was re-released in cinemas in Dolby Vision (in both 2D and 3D) for one week beginning December 1, 2017.[238]
25th anniversary
Titanic was re-released in theaters by Paramount domestically and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (through the 20th Century Studios label) internationally on February 10, 2023, in a remastered 3D 4K HDR render, with high frame rate, as part of the film's 25th anniversary. For this version, the international prints update 20th Century's logo with the studio's current name, as a result of Disney's 2019 acquisition of the studio.[239]
