Oh man, what have I started:) I am REALLY wishing I could remember where I read this. (It was at least two years ago.) I remember The Abyss being mentioned as well. Of course it might be I'm remembering wrong, and someone said that about The Abyss and immediately assumed the same went for...
The story I remember is the movie was shot in Super 35 which I think means it was matted down for the big screen to fit the 1.85 or 2.35 AR, and that Cameron doesn't like the widescreen Titanic as it's actually cropped, and what he feels is the best vision is the fullscreen, which actually IS...
I remember hyping the virtues of widescreen to people around the time the directors cut of Blade Runner came out on VHS in England. Walmart never cease to amaze me. The last one I was in, if they had a choice, they'd stock pan'n'suck over the widescreen version every time. I've lost count of...