Titanic is a film.
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio ( [ dᵻˈkæpri.oʊ ] born November 11 , 1974 ) is an American actor , film producer , and environmental activist . He gained public recognition with leading roles in The Basketball Diaries ( 1995 ) and the romantic drama Romeo + Juliet ( 1996 ) , before achieving international fame with James Cameron 's epic romance Titanic ( 1997 ) , which became the highest-grossing film of all time until Cameron 's science fiction film Avatar ( 2009 ) overtook it . Titanic (1997 film) . With an initial worldwide gross of over $ 1.84 billion , Titanic was the first film to reach the billion-dollar mark . It became the second film to gross more than $ 2 billion worldwide ( after Avatar ) .