The iconic floating piece of wood that famously kept Titanic‘s Rose alive in the blockbuster film has been sold for a staggering $718,750 (£569,739) at auction, reigniting discussions about its size and capability to accommodate Jack as well.
The auction, featuring props and costumes from various films, including the door panel, was conducted by restaurant and resort chain Planet Hollywood.
The panel, which has sparked debates among fans since the release of the 1997 movie, was highlighted in the listing as a subject of much discussion and speculation.
In Titanic, Leonardo Di Caprio’s character Jack insists that the panel, part of a door frame, was only large enough for Rose, played by Kate Winslet.
This leads to his tragic demise in the icy waters of the Atlantic.
James Cameron, the director of Titanic, addressed the ongoing debate in a 2012 episode of Mythbusters, acknowledging the criticism directed towards Rose’s character as “selfish” and Jack as an “idiot.”
However, he clarified that Jack’s fate was scripted, stating, “Maybe we screwed up and the board should have been a tiny bit smaller, but the dude’s going down.”
The prop, often mistakenly identified as a door, was actually based on a piece of debris from the actual 1912 Titanic disaster, according to Heritage Auctions, the auctioneers responsible for the sale.
Regarding the dimensions of the panel, the listing mentioned that it measures approximately 8 feet long (2.4 meters) and 41 inches wide (1 meter), addressing the ongoing debate about its size.
Alongside the Titanic panel, other notable items sold at the auction included Indiana Jones’s whip from The Temple of Doom, which fetched $525,000, and a Spider-Man suit worn by Tobey Maguire, sold for $125,000. An axe used by Jack Nicholson in The Shining also garnered $125,000.
The auction concluded on Sunday evening, raising a total of $15.68 million and marking one of the most successful sales of a prop and costume collection, as announced by Heritage Auctions’ Joseph Maddalena, who noted the numerous bidding wars that took place during the event.