GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) – Just in time for Valentine’s Day, we can tell you which movie we are most in love with.
Our beloved is 25 years old, beautiful, very sexy and full of enduring emotion to its tear-jerker finish.
That would be “Titanic,” which was remastered and released last week for its silver anniversary, just in time for Valentine’s Day.
The internet service provider CenturyLink analyzed Google search data and found that “Titanic,” was the most-searched tearjerker in nearly half of the states and the District of Columbia – including North Carolina.
There were 23 states that prefer the love story of Jack and Rose, and we are surrounded almost everywhere by zealots who have gone on computer deep dives for info about “Titanic.”
Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia also had a boatful of love. Surely the Atlantic Ocean, where the actual boat Titanic came to rest, has a warm spot for its starring role in the movie.
South Carolina differed from all of us, though, and was the only state to choose “The Notebook.” But that made sense. The movie was set in Charleston.
A dozen movies were listed across the nation. To identify our heartthrobs (or finger points), CenturyLink said that that in November it compiled “a list of 64 popular sad movies using Teen Vogue, Glamour and IMDb keyword search.” Those numbers were ranked in the past year through an online marketing tool. Then Google Trends “determined the popularity by state of the 12 highest-ranking titles.”
“My Girl” – come on, Kevin from “Home Alone” in a love story? – was the choice in seven states, including much of the South, and “Ghost” led in six. They were followed by “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (5) and “500 Days of Summer” (3).
In addition to “The Notebook,” there were six movies that were preferred in one state each: “West Side Story” (Utah), “A Star Is Born,” (Idaho) – although we can’t be sure which of the four versions – “La La Land” (Montana), “Atonement” (North Dakota), “A Walk To Remember” (South Dakota) and “Brokeback Mountain” (Wyoming).
What would be missing from that list? That’s a matter of taste. Maybe “Casablanca” or “When Harry Met Sally” or “Roman Holiday” or “Romeo & Juliet” or even “Love Story,” which would be our choice (“Love means never having to say you are sorry”). Maybe we should have included at least one rom-com starring Doris Day or Jennifer Aniston?
And, following South Carolina’s lead, shouldn’t North Carolinians have chosen “A Walk To Remember”? That’s a 2002 movie from a book by the same author as “The Notebook,” Nicholas Sparks. It’s about two teenagers from North Carolina, starring Mandy Moore and Shane West, who play a nerd and a renegade who fall in love. It was filmed around Wilmington.
“Ghost” (1990) is the oldest movie on the list, but it lives on. “Eternal Sunshine” received the highest IMBD rating (8.3) and the highest Rotten Tomatoes score (92%) of those top dozen, CenturyLink said.
But we guess there should be little surprise that “Titanic” was such a heartthrob, because it definitely didn’t sink at the box office, earning nearly $2 billion since its release in 1997, or during award season, winning 11 of the 14 Academy Awards for which it was nominated (including Best Picture but not the actors portraying its core romance, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet).
That’s largely why its director, James Cameron (he did win an Oscar), decided to celebrate its anniversary and bring in a few more bucks. He has created a 3D version, and it opened Friday in theaters across the country (and at least seven in the Triad).
“The date that made sense to me was Valentine’s Day, because in the original release, which was 1997 into 1998, we came out a few days before Christmas,” Cameron told Entertainment Weekly. “I think it was Dec. 16. But the highest-grossing single day of the release was Valentine’s Day.”
Don’t you just love it?
