Short answers, pulled from the story.
Titanic had a production budget of $200 million, which was approximately $1 million per minute of screen time. James Cameron forfeited his $8 million director's salary and his share of initial gross profits to help offset the cost overruns.
Cameron's original choice for Jack was River Phoenix, who died in 1993. Tom Cruise was interested but his asking price was too high, and Billy Crudup turned down an audition. For Rose, Gwyneth Paltrow, Winona Ryder, Claire Danes, and Reese Witherspoon were all considered before Kate Winslet campaigned persistently for the role.
Titanic received fourteen nominations at the 70th Academy Awards and won eleven, including Best Picture and Best Director. The eleven wins tied the record set by Ben-Hur in 1959, and the fourteen nominations tied the record set by All About Eve in 1950.
Titanic's initial worldwide theatrical gross exceeded $1.84 billion, making it the first film to reach the billion-dollar mark. Including reissues in 2012, 2017, and 2023, the worldwide theatrical total reached $2.264 billion. Combined income from the theatrical release, home video, the soundtrack, and US broadcast rights exceeded $3.2 billion.
On the 9th of August 1996, during filming aboard the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, an unknown person put the dissociative drug PCP into the crew's soup. More than 50 people were hospitalized, including director James Cameron and actor Bill Paxton. The Nova Scotia Department of Health confirmed the contamination on August 27, and a criminal investigation was opened and later closed in February 1999 without identifying the perpetrator.
James Horner composed the score for Titanic after Cameron's original choice, Enya, declined the invitation. Horner chose Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø for the film's vocals and co-wrote the end theme "My Heart Will Go On" in secret with lyricist Will Jennings. The soundtrack was the best-selling album of 1998, with sales of over 27 million copies.