Titanic child actor, now 30, reveals he STILL receives royalty checks for film

The child actor who portrayed the ‘Irish little boy’ in Titanic has revealed he still makes money from the film 25 years later.

Reece Thompson, 30, appeared in the beloved movie when he was just five-years-old, playing a third-class passenger who died alongside his mother when the Titanic hit an iceberg.

In a scene from the film, the boy, his mother and sister were among many passengers waiting for the third-class gates to open.

However, the family never made it to the lifeboats and were later seen in their cabin where they tragically died.

Reece now works as a digital marketing director at Brian Head Resort, a skiing resort in Utah. 

He started out as a child model when he was signed with a talent agent after winning a contest.

The agent gave Reece’s mother the choice of him starring in a petrol ad or appearing in a small role in Titanic.   

Now: Reece Thompson, 30, appeared in the beloved movie when he was just five-years-old, playing a third-class passenger who died alongside his mother when the Titanic hit an iceberg

Speaking to Business Insider, he said: ‘My mom was like: “Let’s just do it. It’ll be cool. Even if the movie sucks, we’ll see it.” Obviously, it ended up exploding, so that wasn’t a bad decision on her part, that’s for sure.’

It ended up being a good decision as the former actor still receives royalty checks for his appearance in the blockbuster.

He said: ‘It’s weird because it’s not present in my mind anymore. It’s not like, “Oh, when am I going to get a new ‘Titanic’ check?’ When it happens, it’s like, ‘Oh, cool, an extra $100.”

‘There have been a couple of times where it’s been like: “Oh, wow, that’s a $250 check.” This movie’s 12 years old. That’s pretty bizarre. But hopefully, they keep playing it a lot because that means more money for me.’ 

Reece was originally paid around $30,000 for his role following the film’s release, with the money safely placed in an account and used towards his education, car and living expenses.

This salary is a far cry from the $2 million that star Kate Winslet was allegedly paid for the film, and $2.5 million given to Leonardo DiCaprio.

Film: In a scene from the film, the boy, his mother and sister were among many passengers waiting for the third-class gates to open

He explained that in the immediate years after the film’s release his royalty checks were in the ‘low thousands’ with spikes when the VHS and DVD versions of the film were released in 1998 and 1999 respectively.

The film was later re-released on DVD in 2005, following a Blu-ray launch in 2012, though Reece said that surprisingly he didn’t receive much of a boost following Titanic’s 2012 3D re-release. 

According to the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists website, residual payments beging once a film is released on ‘video/DVD, basic cable and free or pay television, or new media.’ 

Titanic was released in 1997 and starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the leading roles.

It won 11 Oscars and was the first film to gross over $1billion at the box office and remained the highest grossing film of all time until Avatar in 2010.

Following the 2012 re-release to mark the 100th Anniversary of the tragedy, the film’s box office increased to over $2 billion.

Classic: Titanic was released in 1997 and starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the leading roles