Selling Off Props to Buoy ‘Titanic’
If you’re hoping to find an unusual gift for the movie buff on your Christmas list, you may be able to do that while also helping 20th Century Fox retire its considerable debt from the budget of “Titanic.”
Some pricey, one-of-a-kind artifacts among the “Titanic” collectibles offered in the current J. Peterman Gift Book include a 13-foot fiberglass anchor used in James Cameron’s “Titanic” ($25,000), and six fiberglass lifeboats--none of which are seaworthy ($25,000 each).
But you have to hurry. Though the catalog came out just two weeks ago, the majority of the items--including crewmen’s caps ($150 each); Kate Winslet’s evening gown ($11,500); glass water pitchers ($375 each); and ashtrays ($350 each)--have been sold.
“They have almost sold completely out of everything,” says Alan Adler, director of archives at 20th Century Fox, which co-financed the film with Paramount Pictures, but which holds worldwide merchandising and licensing rights. “There were orders coming in from people who had seen [the catalog] at the printers.”
Fox, Adler says, was looking to sell materials from the $200-million epic because we “wanted to lessen the negative cost.” He refused to say how much Fox hoped to earn from the sales, although proceeds from the one-of-a-kind items (excluding things like T-shirts that have essentially unlimited supplies) would yield more than $400,000.
According to Adler, “this kind of selling of original movie material has never happened before in direct mail. It’s kind of a new opportunity--the latest wrinkle in the evolution of movie merchandising.” In fact, it has never happened at all with a Fox film, and spokesmen for several other studios said they couldn’t remember it ever happening.
Cameron’s meticulous re-creation of the ship was based on blueprints released by Harland and Wolff of Belfast, the ship’s builders. The companies that made the original carpeting, silverware and dishes duplicated them for the film.
“We had some wonderful materials that really need their own kind of precious treatment,” Adler says. “We thought these items could go on to service the movie and help promote the film. It would be a way of taking a piece of the movie with them.”
The “Titanic” props were a perfect fit with the quirky, clever J. Peterman, the yuppie catalog company satirized on NBC’s “Seinfeld.”
Last summer, John Peterman, the catalog’s publisher, recalls, one of his merchants came up with the concept of putting the Titanic White Star Line logo on drinking glasses. The idea of including Titanic goodies to the gift book immediately appealed to Peterman.
“The initial interest was that romantic period of time,” Peterman says. “Unfortunately, many romantic periods of time have great tragedy attached to them. It’s a piece of history.”
So Peterman “called some people that I know and we hooked up with people who were doing the salvaging of the Titanic. One thing lead to another and we wound up in Hollywood talking to 20th Century Fox.”
The props were handpicked from the set of the “Titanic” in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, as well as at the archives at Fox. Each one of the props includes a 20th Century Fox archivist’s certificate signed by Adler.
“We picked the things that, as merchants, we thought were most interesting and would work,” Peterman says.
Other items offered include Titanic stationary ($45 per box); Leonardo DiCaprio’s outfit ($9,000); game tables ($1,000 each); slatted benches ($1,000 each); and burlap mailbags ($295 each).
But that’s just, shall we say, the tip of the iceberg. Next April, Peterman’s gift book will feature more Titanic collectibles.
“We’re meeting with Peterman now to pick other items,” Adler says. “Also, Peterman is going to be doing reproductions of certain items. It’s a very populist way to make these things available.”
Peterman, though, is mum on what further memorabilia will be available in the spring. “To conceal is to excite,” he says.
* For more information: (800) 231-7341.
