Why did waterworld fail

Things get a little pompous and meandering at times, but overall: not so bad. Between TV rights, home video sales, and three themed attractions at Universal Studios—all of which are still running in —it eventually even turned a profit. The movie still went down in cinema legend fulfilling its destiny as a hubristic cautionary tale.

A year and a half after its release, in January , The Simpsons immortalized Waterworld as a video game that costs 40 quarters to play, and then once the user starts playing, immediately costs another 40 quarters.

One of the reasons is that the standards for box-office success back then were different. It was considered almost a cheat at the time, an inflated total. For better or worse, global box office has now become a critical factor of studio filmmaking in Hollywood. How much do you remember about ? And in the digital world, Javascript was invented, Match. Of course, the internet was already in the process of drastically altering the future.

In , while Waterworld was still in preproduction, the interstellar teleportation saga Stargate became the first movie to have a dedicated promotional website.

Casual movie fans were just starting to seek out information online, the first phase of their metamorphosis into armchair box-office analysts. Waterworld was likely the ground floor for many metatextual movie nerds who, two years earlier, might have had to be Entertainment Weekly subscribers to follow the ordeal of Last Action Hero another famously troubled production.

Pretty soon, the comment section of movie blogs became something that could make studio executives sweat. This is not good. When a production films outside of typical spots like Los Angeles or New York, the crew has to deal with local contractors to take care of everything from craft services to construction.

In a small community like Hawaii, there's always the chance the few contractors around will raise their prices ridiculously high. Waterworld was initially slated to shoot for 96 days.

But, of course, that didn't end up being the case. Kevin Costner, who starred in the film and acted as a backseat director, was on set for days, working six days a week. His co-star Jeanne Tripplehorn described the madness of the extended shooting schedule:. You want this movie to go on for as long as possible. In the middle of the shoot, Costner ended his marriage to his wife of 16 years, and rumors immediately started flying.

According to People , he allegedly spent much of his time off hooking up with a married " Hawaiian hula dancer " who performed at a local hotel. Her husband denied that an affair took place, but the story gained steam regardless. Costner reportedly made his way around the set while his breakup was happening and banned all tabloids from his direct view. Peter Rader's initial script for Waterworld was pretty wild.

When the script changed hands and writer David Twohy took over, the unseen white horse was thrown overboard. Imagine the aquatic horseback fight scenes that might have been. In he told SF Gate , " When a movie costs this much, the studio and the producers come in and get involved. He turned over his director's cut and said, 'I quit. Fight it out amongst yourselves.

Here's the movie. People live on garbage atolls. The Smokers want the girl; a reluctant Mariner wants to protect the girl; and everyone wants the girl to lead them to Dryland. This, in short, is the plot of Waterworld. When they finally returned to L. Past, it seemed, was prologue. And once again, Reynolds walked off the film. That way, he can always be working with his favorite actor and his favorite director. And reading it, you might reach the conclusion: Of course, Waterworld was dead on arrival.

But all you have to do is go back and look at the tortured, super-expensive production story on any James Cameron film to understand that not all nightmare shoots automatically lead to box-office disasters. Some of it is hokey, to be sure. Costner, Tripplehorn, and Majorino are all affecting, even if the relationship between latter two feels a little too Ripley and Newt from Aliens. And the Road Warrior -meets- Brazil steampunk aesthetic is pure dystopian eye candy.

In almost every phase of his career even the black-out one , Hopper turned in performances that were masterclasses and others that were god-awful.

Nov 11, , am EST. Nov 10, , pm EST. Edit Story. Jul 28, , pm EDT. Scott Mendelson Forbes Staff. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website. Send me a secure tip.