Titanic Superfan Collects More than 1500 VHS Copies of James Cameron Film
James Cameron's Titanic has more than its fair share of fans. That shouldn't be a surprising statement, considering the award-winning 1997 film was once the biggest movie in box office history (and still remains one of the biggest to this day). There's plenty of love out there for Titanic, but one fan has taken that love to new heights. JD, a video editor in Florida, started collecting copies of the Titanic VHS, and that collection has become massive over the last year or so.
JD has nearly 1600 copies of Titanic, the double-VHS that was released in the late 1990s and could be found in just about every home in the United States. The love for the movie started when JD was six and he saw Titanic in theaters, and it has remained all these years later.
"It was Jack Dawson mania," JD told Variety. "You already know what's going down. You couldn't escape it back in the day. And my family loved Titanic, so I just blended myself in with all the Titanic going around all the time."
While his love for the movie started when he was young, JD's collection didn't really begin until a little over a decade ago, and the past year or so saw it skyrocket.
"In 2012, we picked up a few copies," he explained. "The shop had them on display on the top shelf, so it looked glorious. And I'm like, 'I know no one's every going to buy these.' They're super cheap, so we got a box and filled it with all the Titanics and we slowly started collecting it for a few years. We had about 100 before I started making the TikTok, so it was really last year when we went from 100 to 1,560 or so. It kind of exploded on its own. I have no control at this point."
While JD has more copies of Titanic than he may know what to do with, the hunt could continue for quite a long time. His next goal is to get 1,997 copies, matching the year the film was released. There were around 25 million copies of the tape made, and JD figures he could eventually get "at least a million copies."
Titanic at the Box Office
Titanic was not only a hit on home video, but it dominated the box office in 1997. Between the initial haul and subsequent re-releases, Titanic has made $2.2428 billion at the global box office. That includes the 25th anniversary release last year.
The film is currently the fourth-biggest movie in history as far as the box office is concerned. Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water — both also directed by James Cameron — take up the first and third spots at the all time box office. Avengers: Endgame sits in second.
Where Is Titanic Streaming?
Unlike the three films that beat it at the box office, Titanic can't be found on Disney+. That said, there are a couple of different places to stream the beloved film.
Titanic is currently streaming on both Paramount+ and Prime Video. It's also available on the free, ad-supported service PlutoTV.