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Oscar ratings have been sinking ever since 57M viewers watched TITANIC win best picture March 23,1998.

That telecast was and remains Oscar’s top rated show. 2026’s 19.7M TV viewers was the big event’s smallest audience since 2022’s 16.7M. TITANIC took home 11 Oscars, tying at the time with 1959’s BEN-HUR remake for the most Oscar wins ever. THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING joined the club in 2004.

TITANIC was made by 20th Century-Fox, which wound up distributing it just internationally. Paramount helped Fox manage the film’s $237M budget by paying $65 million for its U.S. distribution rights. With reissues, TITANIC’s grossed $2.9B worldwide to date.

In 1998 the Academy only had five best picture nominees. Unlike today, with 10 nominees, the field was small enough then for people to see all the contenders. Academy members — about half as many as these days and not nearly as international — had a very different mindset then about what kind of films to celebrate. They didn’t think twice about nominating worthy mainstream movies for Best Picture. TITANIC’s four competitors had also been embraced by U.S. moviegoers — unlike today’s mix of mostly smaller films with modest ticket sales or none because they’ve streamed exclusively.

Those super Oscar ratings were driven by fans rooting for TITANIC while others cheered for: AS GOOD AS IT GETS — Jack Nicholson & Helen Hunt in a romantic comedy drama that did $314.2M worldwide; THE FULL MONTY — Robert Carlyle & Mark Addy in a British comedy drama that expanded domestically after its limited run success and did $257.9M worldwide; GOOD WILL HUNTING — Matt Damon & Ben Affleck in a romantic drama that did $225.9M; and L.A. CONFIDENTIAL — Kevin Spacey & Russell Crowe in a crime mystery that did $126.2M worldwide.

TITANIC was the first Best Picture winner without a screenwriting nomination since THE SOUND OF MUSIC in 1966. With 14 noms, it was the most Oscar-nominated film with no acting wins — Kate Winslet lost to Helen Hunt for AS GOOD & Leonardo Di Caprio wasn’t nominated for best actor (Jack Nicholson won for AS GOOD). TITANIC’s 14 noms tied the record set by Best Picture winner ALL ABOUT EVE in 1951. LA LA LAND matched them in 2017, but it also didn’t win Best Picture, famously losing to MOONLIGHT after a misreading that LA LA had won. This year Ryan Coogler’s SINNERS received a record-breaking 16 noms.

In the end, what mattered most with TITANIC was writer-director-producer-editor James Cameron’s vision from the very beginning when he pitched his project to Fox by calling it, “Romeo and Juliet on the Titanic.”

Fox’s smart decision to greenlight AVATAR has to date generated two hit  sequels for Disney (which acquired Fox for $71.3B in 2019) –$2.3B for AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER (2022) & $1.5B for AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH (2025).