Premier Exhibitions

RMS Titanic co-founder G. Michael Harris conducted the first salvage operation of Titanic in October 1986. The first Titanic expedition began in July 1987 and was financed by Titanic Ventures Limited Partnership, George H. Tulloch, Oceanic Research & Exploration, and Harris. These co-partners led a $6 million expedition to the ship, and recovered artifacts 12,850 feet (3.92 km) beneath the surface of the North Atlantic. Co-founder and RMS Titanic Chairman Tulloch (1944–2004), owner of the largest BMW dealership in the U.S., led five of the expeditions.[12] In order to recover these artifacts, Tulloch, Harris, and their team completed 32 dives to Titanic in the Nautile, a deep-diving submersible chartered by Oceanic Research and Exploration in a partnership with Ifremer, the French Research Institute for Exploration of the Sea.[13] This is the greatest number of deep-sea dives ever completed for any televised project.[14][15] The company had an OTC ticker symbol of SOST.[16] In 1994 it won a Virginia court order to get salvor-in-possession rights to the ship.

In 1998, the company reported net income of $4 million on almost $10 million in revenues. The following year, revenue dropped to $6.4 million, resulting in a slight loss.[17]

When Tulloch died in 2004, he was lauded by the Titanic International Society, whose president said of him, "He has done more to preserve the memory of Titanic than anyone else".[18] In 1992, the company, through a reverse merger, formed itself as RMS Titanic Inc. Tulloch co-lead operations on the Titanic in 1993, 1994, 1996, and 1998 along with Harris who served on the Board of Directors as well as all aspects of the companies exhibition touring business. Harris along with his team of experts also designed the traveling as well as the permanent Titanic Exhibitions worldwide.[19]

Harris opened the first permanent Titanic exhibition on April 10, 1999;[20] it is the largest Titanic exhibition in the world, located in Orlando, Florida; he sold it to Premier Exhibitions in 2012. Harris was the expedition leader in the summer of 2000 with over 120 hours on the wreck of Titanic and made eleven dives in the Russian Deep Diving Submersible MIR1 and MIR2. The 2000 expedition included the last manned salvage dives to the Titanic, but was the most successful from an artifact recovery operations standpoint. Harris also found some perfume bottles from the Titanic on August 2, 2000, in the Mir2 Russian submersible along with his Director of Operations, David Walker.

The television documentary “Return to the Titanic….LIVE”, hosted by Telly Savalas, was shown in 27 countries in 1987. A feature was the supposed live opening of the assistant purser's safe on television.[21]

RMS Titanic and Premier continued to be involved in litigation over the matter.[22]

In 1999, investors from SFX Entertainment, along with co-founder G. Michael Harris and Arnie Geller, led a takeover and ousting of George Tulloch and the company's attorney.[23] Geller was installed as President and CEO of the company and Harris was installed as Chief Operating Officer as well as Secretary of RMS Titanic, Inc. They fired all other officers and directors and were the only two remaining directors.[24] John Joslyn was a small shareholder and took part in the takeover of the company in 1999.[25] Tulloch sued and was awarded $2.5 million in damages.[26] The abrupt takeover alarmed the governments of the U.K., France, Canada, and the U.S., especially when one of the insurgent investors was quoted as saying the new management was intent on cutting into Titanic's hull to recover more treasures and gain increased profits.[26]

In October 2004, the company changed its name to Premier Exhibitions and changed its ticker symbol to initially to PXHB on the OTC, after it branched out with the Bodies exhibition after it acquired The Universe Within Touring Company, LLC.[27]

The Body exhibits became the primary money maker for the firm with 19 separate human anatomy exhibitions at 33 venues while the Titanic was on exhibit at 15 locations in 2009.[27] In 2009 the company reported that 19% of its revenue came from Titanic and 67% from Bodies with the rest among its other exhibitions.[3]

The Body exhibits have generated considerable controversy over their appropriateness and questioning the practice of selling cadavers for public display without family permission.[2]

The company changed its ticker symbol again to PRXI when it was listed on NASDAQ. The new ticker symbol is PRXIQ

On Nov. 6, 2008, Mark Sellers, a 16% share holder in Premier Exhibitions Inc., issued a press release demanding the resignation of Premier’s CEO Arnie Geller, lambasting him for taking $1.2 million in compensation even as the shareholders saw their investment values plunge, with the stocks price dropping from $17 a share to under $2 a share. When Geller refused, a proxy battle erupted with Sellers’ firm nominating its own slate of directors in what amounted to a hostile takeover. By January 2009, Sellers decisively won the battle, was appointed as unpaid, non-executive chairman and fired Geller.[28]

In 2009, its other exhibits include "Dialog in the Dark" in which visitors pass through an exhibit totally without light.[29] and "Star Trek: The Exhibition".[30] By 2013, more than 25 million people had visited the company's Titanic exhibits in Orlando, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and elsewhere, said the company.[4]

After facing legal challenges and the early closure of its "Saturday Night Live" exhibition, Premier filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2016.[31]

As of 2021, RMS Titanic Inc. continues to be the wreck's legal salvager. Starting in 2009, they changed their approach to that of closer co-operation with Titanic preservation and regulatory bodies.[32]

In the fall of 2018, the 5,500 artifacts from the Titanic were all for sale after the bankruptcy filing of Premier Exhibitions in the United States. The National Maritime Museum, National Museums Northern Ireland, Titanic Belfast and Titanic Foundation Limited had joined together as a consortium that raised money to purchase the artifacts. They intended to keep all of the items together as a single exhibit. The museums were critical of the bid process set by the bankruptcy court which set the minimum bid at US$21.5 million (£16.5m). The consortium did not have enough funding to meet that amount and was unable to place a bid on the specified date, 11 October 2018.[33][34]

A critical opinion piece published in June 2020 accused Premier Exhibitions, and specifically its subsidiary R.M.S. Titanic Inc, of foul play over the auction of the ′artifacts, suggesting they declared bankruptcy to get around its commitment to keep the collections together and on public display. The piece described the company as "bandits" and "not fit for purpose".[35]

A further controversy arose in 2020, when RMS Titanic Inc. announced plans to retrieve Titanic's wireless radio and exhibit it. The U.S. government challenged the plan in a filing with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in June, contending that any such expedition, which might "physically alter or disturb" the deteriorating wreck, requires authorization from the U.S. Department of Commerce and would breach an agreement with the U.K. that regulates entry into the hull.[36]