The iconic wood panel from the film Titanic, infamous for igniting a debate spanning decades over Jack’s survival, has fetched an impressive sum of over $700,000 at a recent auction.
“There were countless bidding wars during the Treasures of Planet Hollywood auction — so many we lost track,” said Joe Maddalena, executive vice president of Heritage Auctions, in a news release.
The auction, which offered online bidding, featured a diverse collection of over 1,600 movie props and costumes, attracting enthusiasts from around the globe, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Originally part of the collection displayed at Planet Hollywood’s movie-themed restaurants, the wood panel, which is commonly misconceived to be a door, was among the highlights of the five-day auction, which saw a total of $15.6 million spent by more than 5,500 bidders worldwide.
Bidding wars erupted over various items, including the whip wielded by Indiana Jones, which sold for $525,000, and the red rose bowling ball famously wielded by Bill Murray in the movie Kingpin, which fetched an impressive sum of $350,000.
The auction is considered the second-largest of its kind after Debbie Reynolds’ $22.8 million auction focusing on similar memorabilia held in 2011, according to Heritage Auctions.
Originally launched in 1991 with support from Hollywood heavyweights Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis, Planet Hollywood once boasted over 100 locations worldwide. However, after its peak in the 1990s, the chain gradually scaled down its operations, with its Dallas location closing its doors in 2001.
Presently, the company maintains three restaurants in Orlando, Los Angeles, and Qatar, along with several resorts, per the Planet Hollywood website.
Despite the wide variety of valuable items auctioned off, none garnered as much attention as the wood panel from Titanic, which fetched an impressive $718,750.
Made from balsa wood, the panel is based on the most famous complete piece of debris salvaged from the ship.
Since the release of the film in 1997, the wood panel has sparked debate over whether Jack and Rose could have both survived by clinging to it during the tragic climax. Director James Cameron, addressing the speculation, recently recreated the floating panel scene for National Geographic alongside a scientific study to see if both characters could have potentially survived the scenario. Cameron concluded that only one could have survived.
