Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in 1997’s Titanic.Photo: 20th Century Fox/Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock
One notable slab of wood in movie history just sold for nearly a million dollars.
Heritage AuctionsannouncedMonday that its recentTreasures From Planet Hollywoodauction collected $15.68 million in total. Movie props sold at the auction includedHarrison Ford’s bullwhip from 1984’sIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the axeJack Nicholsonwielded in 1980’sThe Shiningand, most notably, the piece of balsa wood thatLeonardo DiCaprioandKate Winslethang onto in the final scenes of 1997’sTitanic.
Theiconic movie propsold for $718,750 at the auction and marked the the event’s highest-selling item, among 16 total props that sold for more than $100,000. It was not the only prop fromJames Cameron’sTitanicmovie made available at the auction — aprototypeof the same piece of wood sold for $125,000, while thewheel used for the boatin the movie sold for $200,000.
ThedressWinslet, now 48, is seen wearing inTitanic’s final act as her character Rose and DiCaprio’s character Jack descend into the water, sold for $118,750, while atelegraph propused in the film sold for $81,250, per a release.
Information included within Heritage Auctions' website reads that the slab of wood is “based on the most famous complete piece of debris salvaged from” the real-life April 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic.
James Cameron and stunt doubles recreating a scene from 1997’s ‘Titanic’.National Geographic/Spencer Stoner
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Jmes Cameron and stunt doubles recreating a scene from 1997’s Titanic.National Geographic/Spencer Stoner
The wooden prop used in the film has long been the subject of fan debate over whether DiCaprio and Winslet’s characters could have both stayed afloat on top of the slab of wood. Jack famously freezes to death in the Atlantic Ocean after he and Rose narrowly escape the sinking ocean liner and they determine only one of them can fit on top of the debris.
“Jack might’ve lived, but there’s a lot of variables,” Cameron, 69, said in National Geographic’sTitanic: 25 Years Later with James Cameronspecial, which aired in February 2023 and sought to scientifically determine if the wood could have held both characters. “I think his thought process was, ‘I’m not gonna do one thing that jeopardizes her.’ "
source: people.com
