10 Movies That Ruined Their Studios

Based on Clive Cussler’s 1976 book of the same name, Raise the Titanic is the film James Cameron arguably spent a good decade of his career trying to make happen for real. But long before Cameron set his sights on the submerged ship, director Jerry Jameson made this ambitious adventure movie about it, in which the US government sends operative Dirk Pitt (Richard Jordan) to bring the Titanic back to the surface and recover the byzanium ore (a fantasy fuel invented by Cussler) on board.  

With a $40 million budget, it was a major gamble for producer Baron Lew Grade’s production company ITC Entertainment (given this was 1980), and forced the studio into a bit of a jam: either this film made bank, or it all went under. Now, we would love to say audiences came out in their droves, the movie was the highest earner of all time, and it became a household name almost instantly, but we all know that’s Cameron’s Titanic, not Jameson’s.

No, Raise the Titanic secured just $7 million in ticket sales, ruining ITC’s film division in the process. And, after the release of the other pictures ITC already had in the can, Baron Grade quit the movie business for good, famously claiming that “it would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic.”