13. Titanic (1997)
Cinema's first-ever billion dollar hit remained the highest-grossing movie of all time for 12 years, and Titanic's enduring popularity was further reinforced when the 3D re-release became a smash hit in its own right. Not bad for a tortured production that saw the budget swell to $200m (making it the most expensive movie ever at the time), had studio executives panicking over the commercial prospects of a three-hour romantic epic, and saw the cast suffer for their art under a director labelled as 'tyrannical'. At a butt-numbing 194 minutes, Titanic isn't exactly a well-paced movie. Although the performances are solid across the board and the visual effects and production design are second to none, it doesn't half drag on until the eponymous disaster. The class-divided love story suffers from James Cameron's often-derided narrative and characterization problems, but when the ship hits the iceberg, all hell breaks loose in an expertly-staged sequence that seamlessly blends practical and visual effects to create both a visually and emotionally spectacular scene. I still can't stand that damned Celine Dion song, though. Following its release, Titanic was more akin to a cultural phenomenon than a blockbuster movie. It held onto the top spot at the domestic box office for a record 15 weeks and played in theaters for ten months, becoming the biggest movie in history with a worldwide total of $1.843bn and swept the board at the Academy Awards with 11 wins from 14 nominations. A 3D re-release in 2012 to mark the 100th anniversary of the disaster saw the movie gross almost $350m, which also made it only the second movie to cross the $2bn mark worldwide. That James Cameron sure knows how to put butts in seats.