by Mick the Ram

The most famous piece of wood to play a significant part in a blockbuster movie has been sold at auction for a staggering $718,750.

The debris that Kate Winslet’s character, Rose, used as a makeshift raft after the Titanic sunk in James Cameron monster hit film of 1997, was part of a sale by Heritage Auctions of props and costumes owned by restaurant and resort chain Planet Hollywood.

Other props featured in the auction included the whip from Indiana Jones, a spiderman suit, and the axe used by Jack Nicholson in The Shining.

The auction raised an enormous $15.68m thanks to a host of bidding wars, taking items well beyond their listed prices.

He had to die

Ever since the release of the movie, fans have argued that the panel was big enough to fit both Winslet and her love interest, Jack, played by Leonardo Di Caprio, on to it. In the film, Jack heroically allows Rose to lie on the frame as he hangs onto the side, shivering in the icy waters of the Atlantic.

As is often the case, film-goers get a little excited when they see a hole in a plot, but director James Cameron revealed Jack had to die according to the script: “It’s a movie about love, sacrifice and mortality, a bit like Romeo and Juliet. The love is measured by the sacrifice.”

It wouldn’t have supported two

He did though admit that the board should have been a tiny bit smaller. He said he receives many emails calling Rose “selfish” and Jack an “idiot” over the scene. Such was the clamour, Mr Cameron put the controversy over the pair’s final moments to rest in a thorough forensic analysis with a hypothermia expert.

He explained: “We took two stunt people who were the same body mass of Kate and Leo and we put sensors all over them and inside them and we put them in ice water and we tested to see whether they could have survived through a variety of methods and the answer was, there was no way they both could have survived; only one could live.”

Stars have different views

The iconic prop is often referred to as a door, but the ornate structure was in reality part of the door frame just above the first-class lounge entrance of the original Titanic.

In past interviews Winslet has acknowledged that there was plenty of room on the raft, although DiCaprio chose to remain tight-lipped, refusing to publicly take sides in the contentious debate.

Auctioneers reference debate

Whether it was wide enough for two people is irrelevant, only one was on it in the movie and that scene is why it was so sought after, although most people were surprised that its final price made it all the way up to $718,750 (£567,561).

In the listing by Heritage Auctions, they alluded to the controversy by actually attaching a note to the prop that said: “it has caused much debate from fans”. They also enclosed the full dimensions which were: 2.4 metres long (8 foot) by just over 1 metre wide (3.5 feet).

Here’s a fortune!

The other big movers at the auction were the whip from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which sold for $525,000. The Spiderman suit worn by Toby Maguire made $125,000, and the axe used by Jack Nicholson in The Shining to hack through a bathroom door while announcing “Here’s Johnny!” managed the same figure.

Buyer certainly not cowardly

The stories and adventures seen on screen allow movie-goers to immerse themselves within them and there are always certain props that define those films. Hence why when these pieces come up for auction, there is an almighty scramble to own them.

Dorothy’s ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz made an eye-watering $660,000. However, that sum was made to look like peanuts when compared to the astonishing $3,070,000 that was paid for another prop from that movie – the highly detailed cowardly lion costume.

Not really a “fair” price

Sam’s piano from the film: Casablanca, fetched a remarkable $3,400,000 when it sold, but that was bettered by Audry Hepburn’s dress in My Fair Lady, which was bought in 2011 for $3.7 million. Still on the subject of dresses, Marilyn Monroe’s white “subway” dress is one of the most iconic and memorable movie costumes of all time, a fact endorsed at auction, also in 2011, when it changed hands for $4.6 million.

Shaken and very stirred at auction

Naturally anything James Bond related attracts huge interest, but non more so than the iconic Aston Martin DB5 he drove in the early films and that was reflected in the price of $4.6 million it made at auction in 2010.

No science in the record price

Taking all those incredible props into account, it is possibly a little surprising that the most expensive prop ever sold at auction was when Robby the Robot from the science fiction films: Forbidden Planet and The Invisible Boy and subsequently used in a number of television shows, was sold for a whopping $5.3 million, back in 2013.

It seems that some people have simply got so much money, they don’t know what to do with it!