![]() 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. 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. 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. ![]()
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