Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCarprio’s most iconic film Titanic is going to dock on the Netflix streaming platform the coming weekend. The film was the highest-grossing film ever, for a long duration, until the same director’s film, Avatar: The Way of Water took the title this year. James Cameron’s film was a romantic tragedy based on a real incident that occurred in 1912. The film was also the turning point in the careers of lead actors, which offered them global recognition.
The arrival of the film on the OTT platform is great news for the fans of the film, however, the timing of its arrival led to backlash on the platform.
Backlash on streaming Titanic right after OceanGate Titan submersible tragedy
Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCarprio’s epic film Titanic is among the few new titles to arrive on Netflix the coming weekend. However, some people are offended by the timing of the streaming of the film. It is because a week prior, the news about the OceanGate Titan submersible was viral on the news platforms.
As per reports, five members (including the pilot) traveling inside the Titan were killed as the submersible imploded while going to visit the wreckage of the famous Titanic ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
Some people are criticizing Netflix for bringing Cameron’s Titanic to the streaming platform, right after the submersible tragedy.
A user wrote,
“Netflix is overstepping the boundaries of decency on this timing.” Many people are accusing the streamer of attempting to capitalize on the Titan deaths by adding “Titanic” to its library.”
Another Twitter user wrote,
“People died in a tragic accident at the Titanic site, and now to capitalize on the moment to garner viewers is beyond distasteful,”
Sources familiar with the process said that the timing of Titanic’s arrival on Netflix is a coincidence. It is because the streamer’s licensing deals are applied months ago in advance. The Titan tragedy involving five deaths was announced on June 22, and Titanic is arriving on Netflix a week later. The licensing deal was done a few months before the date of the tragedy.
OceanGate’s Titan submersible tragedy
OceanGate’s Titan submersible was an equipment designed to take five people to a depth of 4,000 meters, where they view the wreckage of the Titanic ship. The underwater trip costs around $250,000 per person, and the period is about 10 hours. As per the news, the previous trip into the Atlantic Ocean did not go well as the submersible exploded in the way, leading to the demise of the five passengers.
The members who died in tragedy included British businessman Hamish Harding; British Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman; former French Navy diver Paul-Henry Nargeolet; and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.
Titanic director James Cameron on the Titan submersible tragedy
Director James Cameron has made several of his trips to the wreckage of the Titanic over the years. He appeared in several television interviews after the tragic Titan deaths were announced.
Cameron told ABC News,
“People in the community were very concerned about this sub. A number of the top players in the deep submergence engineering community even wrote letters to the company, saying that what they were doing was too experimental to carry passengers and that it needed to be certified.”
Cameron compared the event to the Titanic tragedy as he added,
“I’m struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship, and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night and many people died as a result. For us, it’s a very similar tragedy where warnings went unheeded. To take place at the same exact site with all the diving that’s going on all around the world, I think it’s just astonishing. It’s really quite surreal.”
Titanic will be available for streaming only in Netflix’s U.S. and Canada markets from July 1.
Source-Variety
