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Yes, there is a skewed irony in The Postman, which was (noble artistic ambitions notwithstanding) every bit an exercise in hubris ($80 million, R-rated, 177-minutes long) that Waterworld was held up as, has been forgotten why Waterworld, the action-packed, 135-minute, PG-13 adventure flick that earned $264 million worldwide, is held up as Kevin Costner’s great bomb. Doubtfire, Forrest Gump and The Lion King) had earned even $438 million (2.5x $175 million). Remember this was 1995, when only 12 movies ( Jaws, Star Wars, E.T., Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Ghost, Pretty Woman, Terminator 2, Aladdin, Jurassic Park, Mrs. But at $175 million, well, Waterworld never had a shot at being a breakout theatrical smash. This was when biggies like Independence Day, Jurassic Park and GoldenEye could be made for around $65 million. $100 million was huge budget in 1995, especially for a non-sequel/original, and even that cost would have equaled Casper, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Batman Forever, Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Twister. That was just 1.64x its $175 million budget, not great even in a time when A) marketing was a lot cheaper and B) there was an expectation that big Hollywood theatricals would earn a second life on VHS, HBO and eventually network TV.Īt $100 million, Waterworld would have been a hit, earning 2.64 times that intended budget continuing Costner’s claim as a commercially viable leading man. It also earned $172 million overseas, for a $264 million global cume. It earned $88.246 million domestic, lower than hoped in relation to final cost but also a strong 4.1x weekend-to-final multiplier. The jokes and the doomsaying continued after the film opened with $21.171 million and topped the weekend box office for two weeks as summer came to an end. The pre-release hysteria not only set the tone for the film before anyone actually saw it, it shaped the narrative even after the film didn’t become an outright disaster. This was four years after Dances With Wolves won him a Best Director and Best Picture Oscar while grossing $424 million worldwide on a $22 million budget) and after starring in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves ($390 million/$48 million budget) and JFK ($204 million/$40 million) and 2.5 years after The Bodyguard ($411 million/$25 million) became a smash despite miserable reviews. The idea of Kevin Costner falling victim to his own hubris was too much to resist. It was pegged as “Fishstar” and “Kevin’s Gate” even before release, smarmily referencing Ishtar (a $45 million Warren Beatty/Dustin Hoffman comedy that grossed just $15 million global) and Heaven’s Gate (Michael Cimino’s $44 million western epic which earned just $3.5 million and both sunk United Artists and ended the so-called Hollywood New Wave era of the 1970’s). But the diabolical Smokers, mercenary pirates led by Deacon (a scenery-chewing Dennis Hopper) want that map too, and a chance encounter at a doomed atoll pits their fates on a mutual collision course. Like Mad Max, he’s less an outright hero and more of (eventually) a reluctant and often hostile supporting vessel for our actual protagonists, in this case a young woman (Jeanne Tripplehorn) caring for a young girl (Tina Majorino) whose back tattoo may be a map to the last remaining above-water dry land.
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But it still sunk Kevin Costner’s career as a viable movie star.Įnvisioned as a bald-faced rip-off of George Miller’s Mad Max movies, Universal’s Waterworld stars Kevin Costner as a part human and part (via gills) fish trying to eke out an existence in a future world where melting ice caps have flooded the surface world as we knew it. Waterworld is not a bomb, but rather a mere disappointment in relation to unintentionally massive cost.
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Despite eventually breaking even and (over the years) making an outright profit, Waterworld is still held up as a definitive Hollywood bomb. When the film finally opened in July of 1995, it earned mixed reviews and entirely decent box office. Initially planned as a $100 million “Mad Max on water” adventure, the Kevin Costner vehicle suffered from natural disasters, including a multimillion-dollar set being destroyed by a hurricane, rewrites, production setbacks and the like, which inflated the final cost to a then-record $175 million. Waterworld opened in theaters 25 years ago today, riding on a wave of hyperbolic handwringing over its chaotic production and inflated budget. Kevin Costner’s post-apocalyptic adventure was less a water-logged commercial disaster and more a disappointment in relation to cost. To Be Released In 1995 "Waterworld" A Universal Studios Picture Starring Kevin Costner (Photo By.