The prop panel that Kate Winslet floated about on in James Cameron’s Titanic has sold at auction for a bank account-emptying $718,750.
When is a door not a door? When it’s a balsawood prop from James Cameron’s 1997 hit, Titanic. As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, this curious bit of movie memorabilia recently sold at auction for $718,750 – that’s more than £550,000 if you’re reading this in the UK.
The door was, of course, the bit of wreckage Kate Winslet famously clung to at the (spoiler alert) icy conclusion of James Cameron’s epic romance. The prop clearly struck a chord with bidders, given that it sold for considerably more than other bits of memorabilia sold at the same auction, many of which sound more immediately recognisable than a battered door.
Indiana Jones’ iconic whip from The Temple Of Doom sold for $525,000, while the Holy Grail from The Last Crusade went for a surprisingly cheap $87,500. Jack Nicholson’s well-used axe from The Shining sold for $125,000; the symbiote suit worn by Tobey McGuire in Spider-Man 3 went for $125,000. A dress worn by Winslet in Titanic also went for $125,000. There’s a pattern forming here.
The items were all sold by Heritage Auctions on the 20th March in a special sale called 24 Treasures From Planet Hollywood, which also included Macaulay Culkin’s snow hat from Home Alone, a Chucky doll from the original Child’s Play, and Kevin Costner’s baseball outfit from Bull Durham. (We can only imagine what Film Stories founder and Costner ultra-fan Simon Brew would do if he got hold of the latter.)
Incredibly, though, the Titanic floating door outsold all those other items by a considerable margin – more than double the sale price of Bill Murray’s bowling ball from Kingpin (the one with the rose suspended in the middle), which went for $350,000.
It’s a conversation piece, though, isn’t it? Imagine the dinner parties.
“What’s this, then?”
“The bit of debris Kate Winslet floated about on in Titanic.”
“Ah. Poor Jack.”
“Yeah.”
