PORT ST. LUCIE, Florida (AP) ― The digital production company founded by “Titanic’’ director James Cameron has filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. and Canada and reached a deal to sell its operating business to a private investment firm for $15 million.

Digital Domain Media Group Inc., best known for its work on “Titanic,’’ filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, along with a Canadian court, the company said Tuesday.

The sale agreement with Searchlight Capital Partners LP includes the company’s operating subsidiaries in the U.S. and Canada. It must be approved by the court.

The company has studios in California and Canada that create digital visual effects, animation and digital production for the entertainment and advertising industries.

Digital Domain also produced visual effects for “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’’ and the “Transformers’’ movies.

Day-to-day operations of Digital Domain’s remaining business won’t be affected by the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, the company said. Debt holders have agreed to provide up to $20 million in financing that will fund its activities while it restructures.

As of June 30, the company, which went public in November, had total assets of about $205 million and total liabilities of about $214 million.