Why Pearl Harbor failed while Titanic succeeded

I watched Pearl Harbor again; really enjoyed it.

I've been trying to analyze why Pearl Harbor failed while Titanic succeeded.

I read Pearl Harbor was a flop because of the silly, cheesy dialogue and their inserting a romance into a big war story.

Pearl Harbor meant to follow the Titanic formula of a love story set against a big event.

So why did Titanic succeed? Its love story was nothing original either. Spoiled socialite engaged to rich jerk who tries to control her but she falls in love with the poor hero with the heart of gold--that's not so earth shattering.

However Titanic showed a real story arc where the heroine realized she had to free herself from the shackles of her old life and achieve independence from the rich jerk and everything about her life that bound her and made her feel like a prisoner in a gilded cage.

So when she chose the poor guy over the rich guy, she wasn’t only doing it because of a temporary crush on someone more handsome. She was choosing a life of uncertainty and poverty but filled with freedom over a life of restraint and being controlled and dictated to.

If Pearl Harbor had had a fairly intelligent love story like that instead of that stupid slapstick stuff about him hurting his nose because he collapsed and then the champagne cork hit it again, maybe it would have done a lot better.

Yes, now that I think of it, Pearl Harbor totally ignored one of the main things essential for a serious film: character growth. The character learning some important life lesson.

And that is such a basic fundamental of storytelling that I am amazed that a professional screenwriter with experience missed it.

What do you think?

Why Pearl Harbor failed while Titanic succeeded