Controversial 'Titanic' door sells for $718K

The door from Titanic topped a recent auction of Planet Hollywood memorabilia.

Famous for its role at the end of the 1997 movie – and for the controversy over whether Leonardo DiCaprio's Jack could have survived if Kate Winslet's Rose had let him share it – the door was let go after a bidding war for $718,750 (£516,000).

Held over five days, the auction of memoriabilia from restaurant franchise Planet Hollywood pulled in more than $15 million (£12 million).

“There were countless bidding wars during the Treasures of Planet Hollywood auction – so many we lost track,” Joe Maddalena, Executive Vice President at Heritage Auctions, said.

“The extraordinary success of this auction proves what I’ve known all along: The interest in and appetite for modern-movie props and costumes – all of which were once displayed in Planet Hollywoods worldwide or part of their legendary archives – is profound, deep and insatiable.”

Other hot-ticket items in the auction included the whip carried by Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which sold for $525,000 (£415,000), as well as Bill Murray's red-rose bowling ball from the movie Kingpin, which was purchased for $350,000 (£277,000).

The axe used by Jack Nicholson to smash through a door in the horror classic The Shining sold for $125,000 (£99,300), with the auction room reportedly bursting into applause after fierce bidding for the item.