Rosarito Tries to Ride Wave of ‘Titanic’

A sinking ship is fast becoming the unofficial logo of this seaside town.

There it is on a big new sign boasting the “original Titanic burger.” And down the road on a seafood stand called Mariscos El Titanic. A recently opened glass shop features faux portholes below its name, also Titanic. And, oh yes, there’s a “Titanic” museum.

Leonardo and Kate and that giant model ship are long gone, but the beach town where the movie “Titanic” was filmed isn’t ready to surrender its moment of Tinseltown glory just yet. In some ways, it’s just getting warmed up.

Rosarito residents remind people that it was here where the Academy Award favorite’s water-gushing, heart-pounding scenes were shot--in a mammoth pool at the edge of town. Rosarito’s role drew little attention at the time, but residents and officials are now making the most of their brush with the highest-grossing movie of all time.

Waiters sell T-shirts out of their cars, and local fish vendors say the number of customers at their stands has jumped 50%. Other merchants grumble that they’ve yet to see any “Titanic” windfall. But plans are afoot to widen the road past the studio built to film “Titanic” south to the lobster restaurant mecca of Puerto Nuevo. And there’s even talk--still just talk at this point--of a theme park someday.

In recent weeks, officials in Mexico have created a film commission to lure more movie makers to Baja California and, in turn, reinvigorate a local tourism industry that has sagged during the past decade, in part the victim of recession north of the border.

‘This Is Going to Be a Permanent Mark’

In Rosarito, population 80,000, “Titanic” kept hotel rooms and restaurant tables brimming in late 1996 and early 1997 through months of filming during the off-season. More filmmaking, officials contend, would reduce their community’s economic dependence on the Southern California surfers, retirees and day-trippers who frequent the area, mainly during the summer.

A Mexican union of movie technicians has opened a branch office in Rosarito and begun training dozens of local cabdrivers, waiters and office workers in how to build movie sets and other skills to help them snare future movie jobs.

The $200-million “Titanic,” filmed largely at a bluff-top studio, already has altered life in this tourist town of scenic surf, seafood huts and curio stands--perhaps for good.

“This is going to be a permanent mark,” said Antonio Escobedo, the Rosarito delegate for the state tourism office.

That nibble of filmdom’s glamour and comparably high wages has left some locals hungry for the next “Titanic.” The phone at the local tourism office still rings with inquiries from people seeking work as extras at the 20th Century Fox studio, where movies continue to be made. “Titanic” is a tough act to follow: Who wants to go back to cleaning swimming pools when you’ve hobnobbed with Leonardo DiCaprio?

Jose Reyes ditched his maintenance job at a tourist complex to join the army of workers that built the studio on Rosarito’s sleepy southern end, an area called Popotla. He eventually doubled his pay, earning enough to buy a pickup truck and camper. Reyes even snared film credit as a technician on the 17-million-gallon water tank in which scenes aboard the 800-foot movie ship were shot.

Now Reyes works for the film workers union and basks in his favorite “Titanic” memories. Among them: DiCaprio’s gift of a pair of Speedos, still wet, as a souvenir for the worker’s daughter. Reyes said the film changed his life: “For me, it’s a dream.”

It’s a dream many in town would rather not awaken from, especially since they have seen the film’s almost mystical power to move crowds. Hector Ochoa, who opened the Mariscos El Titanic stand up the road from the studio a month ago, hopes that movie-related tourism might smooth the seasonal economic swings that make doing business in Rosarito a hit-and-miss venture.

The film operation hasn’t been free of local friction. Fishermen next door charged that the studio’s recycling of seawater caused pollution and hurt fishing. They also have challenged the studio over rights to a strip of waterfront land where several seafood shacks stand.

But Moises Suarez Duenas, a leader in the fishing settlement, said the contamination problem appears to have abated. And he said the fishermen hope that continuing talks will yield a compromise on the contested land. “They don’t want any trouble with us,” he said.

20th Century Fox officials did not return calls seeking comment.

This isn’t Rosarito’s first brush with Hollywood. During Prohibition, the show business set was a mainstay of Baja California casinos, including one at the venerable Rosarito Beach Hotel, which was probably the town’s best-known feature before “Titanic.” Although gambling parlors were later outlawed, stars treated the quiet town as a treasured hideaway. Old-timers at the Rosarito Beach Hotel still savor memories of Marilyn Monroe’s visits.

A rapid growth spurt starting in the late 1980s sent hotels and condominiums flying up almost overnight. The number of hotels in Rosarito went from eight in 1990 to 20 the next year, according to state figures. Rosarito also has made its first steps into the world of assembly plants, which have boomed 20 miles north in Tijuana. In December, Sharp Electronics Corp. of Japan announced plans for a huge factory to assemble televisions and vacuum cleaners--a move that could generate more than 1,000 jobs in the region in two years.

‘The Timing Was Perfect,’ Mayor Says

The rush of modernity has made starker the contrast between the tourist-centered seaside zone--where the signs are likely to be in English--and the dusty colonias that cover the hillsides just across the modern toll road connecting Tijuana and Ensenada. It was at the base of one such settlement that several people died during recent flash floods, about three miles north of where “Titanic” was filmed, underscoring the city’s uneven infrastructure.

“It’s like Tijuana,” said Luis Basulto, a construction worker cleaning one of the flooded houses. “There are the people who are poor and the people with more resources.”

Still, Basulto remains a supporter of efforts to market Rosarito’s “Titanic” angle: “The more promotion is done, the better for Rosarito.”

The big-money “Titanic” came to town in 1996, capping a worldwide location search and rewarding a two-year marketing push by Mexican tourism officials aimed at the film industry. “Titanic” also happened to arrive just months after Rosarito broke from Tijuana and incorporated as a municipality.

Officials estimate that the movie pumped $10 million to $15 million into the local economy, filling 350 hotel rooms and 300 private rental houses for at least six months. Construction and permits generated the equivalent of $200,000 in local tax revenues and put the fledgling city on an international stage.

“The timing was perfect,” said Mayor Hugo Torres Chabert.

The local branch of the state tourism agency became an impromptu casting service, with would-be extras driving in from California, Ensenada and Mexicali, lining up by the hundreds along several blocks of Benito Juarez Boulevard, the town’s main drag. Those positions went mainly to applicants from north of the border because producers sought only “European-looking” extras for the transatlantic period story. Many of the technical off-camera jobs went to union members sent from Mexico City.

Still, local officials estimate that as many as 300 residents found work as carpenters, drivers, cooks and helpers. Javier Huerta Gonzalez, a 27-year-old welder, said his pay doubled to about $250 a week when he went to work for “Titanic” producers. Huerta bought a truck, saw his family out of some financial troubles and managed to save about $2,500, he said.

For most, the “Titanic” gains proved fleeting. Some went back to their old jobs. Huerta, who now works directly for the studio, said his wages dropped back to their previous level. His savings are spent.

Baja California officials who want to lure more movie making caution against hoping for another “Titanic” boom. The two films shot at the studio since then, including a James Bond movie, made little use of outside workers.

“We don’t want people to get accustomed that every movie that comes in here is going to be a $200-million movie,” said Juan Tintos Funcke, Baja California’s tourism secretary.

But Tintos said the new 35-member film commission--including representatives from local, state and federal governments--can help sell filmmakers on the region’s remarkable natural diversity, proximity to Los Angeles and, now, the world’s largest tank for filming. Baja California was the setting for 26 movies, television shows, commercials and videos in 1996 and 1997, according to figures from the Baja state tourism agency.

Officials also hope to boost tourism in a region where the number of foreign visitors fell from a peak of 38 million in 1988 to about 25 million by 1995, amid the stubborn recession in California. Economic recovery has spelled slight improvement--to about 29 million visitors in 1997. In Rosarito, the hotel occupancy rate was off nearly a quarter from 1991 through the first half of 1995, according to state figures.

How much of a tonic “Titanic” proves to be is yet to be seen. Baja officials were as surprised as anyone at the movie’s success after delays and fears of a mega-flop in the making. A local newspaper sniped that Rosarito boosters “forgot to tell the world that ‘Titanic’ was born here.”

The world is finding out anyway. Weekend visitors have thronged to the studio’s makeshift museum of partial sets and props (the mock-up ship was dismantled and removed to make room for other productions). On a recent Sunday, traffic backed up onto the coastal road and enthusiasts stood in line for an hour to watch a 25-minute video and tour the collection. Entrance to the lot, a collection of pale bunker-like buildings, is $5.

Monrovia resident Tom Chambers was sorry the ship was gone but thrilled to have seen actual props, such as the ax with which Kate Winslet’s character frees a handcuffed DiCaprio. Chambers, a Titanic buff who read his first book about the doomed ship at age 12, was making his first trip to Rosarito.

“Titanic” museum traffic has yet to ignite commerce across the street, where vendors have spruced up open-air stalls piled high with souvenir blankets, flowerpots and statuary. A glum Pantaleon Montano said most cars and buses pouring into the museum don’t bother stopping at the shops. “Maybe in the future,” he said.

That desire is shared at hotels gussying up for the hoped-for hordes. The Las Rocas Resort and Spa plans a “Titanic getaway” to mark the 86th anniversary of the ship’s sinking April 15. It will include an auction of movie props and possibly a re-creation of the last dinner served aboard the ocean liner.

Resort director Jimmy Evangelatos predicted that the “Titanic” vogue will last for years beyond Monday’s Academy Awards presentation--and help Rosarito officials establish an independent identity for the 2-year-old city.

“They’re really using ‘Titanic’ to their full advantage,” Evangelatos said. “And why shouldn’t they?”