There are many people believe that big budget movie flops are a relatively recent thing, with costs soaring on films that make it near impossible for them to make a profit in cinemas. However, Hollywood has been making expensive flops for decades, and one such movie has just found its way back into the streaming charts on Tubi over 30 years after it sank at the box office as one of the biggest bombs of all time. Directed by Kevin Reynolds and starring Kevin Costner, Waterworld was supposed to be a huge sci-fi spectacle to rival the best, but instead it was slammed by critics and sank during its theatrical run, only being saved from complete humiliation by its home media release.
Waterworld comes with many plot points that are now considered tropes of the dystopian sci-fi genre. A distant future, melting polar ice caps leading to disaster, and humanity fighting to survive in a changed, dangerous world. The story sees Costner playing “The Mariner,” a man with webbed feet and gills, who survives in a world that has been entirely submerged in water where floating, scrap metal areas provide the only living areas. When The Mariner is entrusted with protecting a woman and a young girl, it puts him on a collision course with a group of pirates led by Dennis Hopper’s Deacon. The premise sounds solid enough, but the biggest problem the film faced was a bad run of early reviews and its ridiculously high budget. The real question is whether the initial reaction to the movie was completely justified, or if Waterworld became one of those movies that suffered from a bad run of reviews.
Waterworld Probably Doesn’t Deserve Its Reputation
One thing that is clear about Waterworld is that its production nightmares were partly responsible for capsizing the ship. The film was originally given a budget of $65 million but by the time the movie was complete, its actual costs had spiraled to a then record-breaking $175 million. When adjusted for inflation, this would have been around $400 million today, putting it right up there with the most expensive movies of all time. The production was also plagued by behind the scenes issues, from the decision to film in open water leading to an entire set being destroyed in a tropical storm and creative differences resulting in Reynolds departing the film in post-production, with Costner completing the film himself. Despite its reputation as a massive flop, recent appraisals tell a different story.
| Kevin Costner’s Biggest Box Office Disappointments | Year of Release | Worldwide Box Office Gross | Estimated Production Budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Postman | 1997 | $20,841,123 | $80M |
| 3000 Miles to Graceland | 2001 | $18,708,848 | $62M |
| Wyatt Earp | 1994 | $25,052,000 (Domestic only / limited overseas) | $63M |
| Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 | 2024 | $38,835,702 | $100M (Est) |
Waterworld‘s box office total of $264 million was nowhere near enough to prevent it being given the label of a box office bomb. Yet, the film gained a huge cult following in the decades since its release as well as the Waterworld Stunt Show at Universal Studios theme parks, which continues to be a huge draw to visitors. Additionally, while the film holds a 61% Tomatometer and 44% Popcornmeter rating on Rotten Tomatoes, many of the more recent reviews have conceded that Waterworld is not the “damp squib” it was originally seen as, and deserves much more than it received. Although some still find Waterworld overlong and underdeveloped – as well as being full of many plot holes – there are plenty of others who now see it as an accomplished vision of a dark and dangerous future, with a particularly notable over-the-top villain performance from Hopper as he hams it up alongside Costner’s weary hero. With the film returning to the free streaming chart on Tubi, it seems that there are many people tuning in to reapprove the movie for themselves.
Have you seen Waterworld? Does it deserve its reputation as a box office flop, or does it deserve a reappraisal? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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