IT WAS THE ship of dreams, it was the centenary of nightmares. The marking of the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic was, by turn, solemn quasi-national memorial, ubiquitous entertainment meme and going-a-bit-too-far marketing tie-ins (hello Tayto, whose salt and vinegar Titanic-branded crisps should really win some kind of award).

So did the media overestimate the level of interest in Titanic 100?

Exhibit A: the flopping in the UK of four-part ITV drama Titanic (pictured). Audience ratings plummeted for the second episode and sank further still after that.

Exhibit B: a rant by the BBC’s Andrew Marr, who described the celebratory air of the commemoration as “sordid and tasteless and dull”. Meanwhile, the Guardian’s web news editor Jonathan Haynes asked his Twitter followers if they were enthralled by coverage such as BBC Radio 2’s Titanic – Minute by Minute programme or if they couldn’t care less. Overexposed, overdone and OTT was the tenor of the replies from some who claimed they were initially interested.

As far as the original tourism marketing strategy goes, however, local Titanic fatigue may yet prove immaterial. A key part of the rationale for the €100 million Titanic Belfast exhibition was that the Titanic enjoys a substantially bigger brand in Asia (and elsewhere) than the city of Belfast itself.

It bodes well then that James Cameron’s 3D retro-fitted re-release of his 1997 movie has sailed its way to the biggest ever film opening in China, taking in $58 million at the box office in its first week – far more than it did during the full run of its 1990s release.