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Bombs, Disasters and Flops: The Most Notable Examples Part 9 |
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Bombs, Disasters and Flops: The Most Notable Examples Part 9 |
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Note: The box-office figures for domestic grosses and non-USA grosses are fairly accurate, but must be taken as estimates only. |
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Greatest Box-Office Bombs, Disasters and Flops of All-Time
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| Film Title, Director, Studio, Budget Information, Description | |
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Waterworld (1995) Self-indulgent star (Kevin Costner, who co-produced and took over the directing reins mid-stream after firing director Kevin Reynolds) headlined this action-packed science-fiction film as an anti-hero -- a mutated Mariner, who had grown a set of webbed feet/fins and gills (located behind his ears) to survive the post-apocalyptic watery landscape, after the polar icecaps melted and submerged Earth. In part, the film resembled The Road Warrior (1981) and Blade Runner (1982) only superficially, with an implausible plot, lots of script rewrites, and re-editing. Even before the film's release, it was reviled as a flop and received numerous comic nicknames, such as "Kevin's Gate" and "Fishtar". It was nominated for four Razzie awards, including Worst Actor (Costner), Worst Director, and Worst Picture, and won one Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor (Dennis Hopper). The film's expensive price tag (it was the most expensive movie ever made when it appeared, before Titanic (1997)) was due in part to its on-location shoot off the coast of the Big Island in Hawaii, where a giant floating land mass, a fortress city, was constructed. The production was plagued by bad weather that destroyed sets and delayed filming, as well as on-set conflicts between cast and crew, while Costner himself was going through a divorce. The central plot of the film pitted roaming, petroleum-burning pirate-vandals called "The Smokers" on an oil tanker led by an over-the-top bald, scar-faced, one-eyed Deacon (Dennis Hopper) against Mariner in his three-hulled trimaran, who had rescued love-interest and atoll barmaid Helen (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and her adopted daughter named Enola (Tina Majorino) who possessed a tattoo on her back that identified the location of Dryland - the world's paradisical last continent. The film's massive budget deficit was saved when it made money overseas and after rental grosses were taken into account, although it took additional marketing cash to increase its grosses. It was remarkable that Costner went on two years later to make another expensive post-apocalyptic flop titled The Postman (1997) that also lost money. |
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Mary Reilly (1996) This suspenseful, atmospheric, psychological melodrama's tagline -- "The Battle between Good and Evil has many Victims...and one Witness" -- described this disturbing version of writer Robert Louis Stevenson's novella "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" first published in 1886, adapted from Valerie Martin's 1990 best-selling novel. The underrated, possibly misunderstood film looked promising, with accomplished director Frears (already known for Dangerous Liaisons (1988), The Grifters (1990), and Dirty Pretty Things (2002)), and cast (Julia Roberts, John Malkovich, and Glenn Close), although it turned out to be a critical and financial flop. Negative word-of-mouth pre-release publicity about on-set cast conflicts and news of other production delays doomed the film. The slow-paced film was told from the sexually-charged yet complacent viewpoint of a grim-looking, downcast-eyed, naive and vulnerable, and mis-cast Julia Roberts as the title character Mary Reilly, a newly-hired Irish maid-servant in the huge London house of Dr. Henry Jekyll in the late 1800s. The dual role of Jekyll and Hyde was performed by the exceptional actor John Malkovich. Flashbacks told about Mary's abused and tortured childhood from her drunken father (with her scarred hands and neck due to rat bites), and in a strange way, a twisted romantic attraction developed between the pallid-faced, timid Mary and Jekyll's passionate "new assistant" -- Mr. Edward Hyde -- after Jekyll took an experimental potion. The mis-marketed film (as a straight horror film) was plagued by studio and director squabbles over the script and numerous rewrites, mostly regarding the downbeat ending (in which Hyde injected himself with a poisonous substance and expired). It was praised more for its desaturated look, production values and Gothic ambiance than its true shock value (in a few select scenes including the "child stomping" scene, the eel-skinning scene, and the blood-splattered scene in the prostitute's bedchamber). It received two Razzie Award nominations: Worst Actress (Roberts) and Worst Director. Highly-paid star Julia Roberts had a number of other film failures in the early 1990s before this film, including Dying Young (1991), I Love Trouble (1994), Pret-A-Porter (1994), and Something to Talk About (1995). |
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Batman & Robin (1997) Joel Schumacher's fast-paced but directionless, lightweight and mind-numbing filmed sequel (the fourth one in the Batman series after Tim Burton's Batman (1989), Burton's sequel Batman Returns (1992), and Schumacher's own Batman Forever (1995)) was devoid of a good script although written by Akiva Goldsman (for example: Robin: "I want a car. Chicks dig the car, right?"), acting on the part of its talented cast, or directorial vision, although its predecessor in 1995 was a major hit. This campy and foolish retread had marvelous sets, gaudy costumes, and production-design values, but turned out to be laughable in the worst way, with senseless action sequences and visual overload. It was over-hyped and marketed, insuring some decent box-office returns, but the resultant word-of-mouth made it anything but a sure-fire hit. The only thing it delivered was product merchandising, toy and fast-food tie-ins. George Clooney never heard the end of it for his dual role as Bruce Wayne and as the rubber-nippled caped crusader Batman (taking over from Val Kilmer) with a codpiece, nor Chris O'Donnell as the egotistical spoiled brat sidekick Robin. The blockbuster film introduced the character of motorcycle racer and martial arts expert Batgirl (Alicia Silverstone), the villainous, redheaded, predatory, eco-bad dominatrix Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman) with a toxic kiss, and ghastly-looking, red-eyed, head-shaved ex-scientist Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger) -- a Michelin-Man-like Robocop-Terminator who served as a frosty gray-blue Gotham City foe, with lots of awful "cold"-themed one-liner quips (i.e., “The ICEMAN cometh” and "Let’s kick some ICE”). This big-budget, cartoonish (without the "POW" and "WHAM" balloon graphics of the 60s TV show) special-effects laden, video-game-like film completely misjudged its devoted audience. As a result, it received 11 Razzie Award nominations including Worst Director, Worst Original Song - "The End is the Beginning is the End", Worst Picture, Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property, Worst Remake or Sequel, Worst Screen Couple (George Clooney and Chris O'Donnell), Worst Screenplay, Worst Supporting Actor (O'Donnell), Worst Supporting Actor (Arnold Schwarzenegger), and Worst Supporting Actress (Uma Thurman), and won one Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress (Alicia Silverstone). |
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The Postman (1997) Star/director and producer Kevin Costner's and Warners' over-long futuristic sci-fi western epic placed Costner in the title role as a Shakespeare-quoting, Messiah-like postman (with homage to the Australian Mad Max films and various westerns). The sometimes laughable film was budgeted at $80-100 million, with a US box-office of only about $18 million. It was based on David Brin's 1985 award-winning, fantasy, post-apocalyptic novel, co-scripted by Eric Roth and Brian Helgeland. The failed film was another version of Costner's oft-repeated character -- a cynical loner (and unwilling anti-hero) in a wilderness setting, who rallied a community against evil anarchic forces, as he did in his Best Picture-winning Dances with Wolves (1990) and Waterworld (1995). The dragged-out and pretentious, but visually-impressive epic motion picture was a mind-numbing three hours in length, with a poorly-written but emotionally-manipulative script, a brooding and solitary main character, and mishandled direction. The film's plot was about a nomadic, laid-back post-apocalyptic, nameless drifter-hero in the year 2013, who with his mule Bill, traversed the briny wasteland, when he came upon the remains of a Union 76 service station -- a symbolic allusion, and a small community. There, he delivered a one-man Shakespearean show, but was conscripted by the Holnists led by cruel tyrant and fascist dictator General Bethlehem (Will Patton). Shortly afterwards, he became a rebellious fugitive on the run from totalitarianism after escaping the Holnists' mining pit base camp. He took his nickname The Postman when he sought shelter in a broken-down US Postal Service mail carrier van full of sacks of 15 year-old undelivered mail with the skeleton of the dead mail-carrier, and began delivering letters (in the postman's uniform) and patriotic-sounding, flag-waving speeches about the "Restored US Government" to members of the small town of Pineview. He was meant to be a savior to represent the restored and reformed United States - to provide motivation for the townsfolk to look forward to a more democratic and hopeful future of a revived New America, populated by multiple postalmen and women delivering mail to the isolated communities in the Pacific Northwest to reunite them. The film's love interest, a young married Oregonian woman named Abby (British actress Olivia Williams) who wanted the Postman's semen due to her obliging husband's infertility (and then was seen semi-nude in an extended sex scene with Costner), told the messianic Postman: "You give out hope like it was candy in your pocket" -- this quote was representative of the hokeyness and questionable nature of this good-hearted, cloyingly sentimental, sincere, but heavy-handed and individualistic film statement that only the vain, self-glorifying Costner could deliver as the film's mythic figure. The notorious film won all five of its Razzie nominations: Worst Actor and Director (Costner), Worst Original Song - for the entire song score, Worst Picture, and Worst Screenplay. It also was honored with a Razzie nomination for the Worst Picture of the Decade in 2000, but lost to Showgirls (1995). |
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Created in 1996-2008 © by Tim Dirks. All rights reserved.
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Introduction to Greatest Box-Office Bombs, Disasters and Flops: Films have the potential to skyrocket the profits of a studio, or to send it into ruins and bankruptcy. Sometimes an actor’s or director's career suffers, sometimes not. Films that cost more to make than they take in revenue (both domestic and worldwide) are considered box-office catastrophes or bombs. Movie audiences often love to relish the fact that some films, such as Gigli (2003) or Heaven's Gate (1980), turn out to be monumental flops, and are fascinated by the details of why certain directors/actors and their films fail.