When is a box office bomb no longer able to be called a cataclysmic flop? In the case of Waterworld, anyway, far too late for the ambitious post-apocalyptic epic to ever be able to ditch its reputation as a disaster.
Thanks to one of the most notoriously troubled productions in Hollywood history – which saw star and producer (as well as replacement director if the rumors are to be believed) Kevin Costner spend 157 consecutive days on set – his re-teaming with Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves filmmaker Kevin Reynolds was the most expensive movie ever made at the time with an eye-watering $175 million price tag.
Things got so fractious that Costner and Reynolds had a falling out that took more than a decade to heal, and the sacrifices weren’t worth it in the end after Waterworld was greeted by an apathetic shrug and a decidedly lukewarm $264 million tally at the box office. However, in a turn of events nobody saw coming, it did actually turn out to be profitable.
Thanks to syndication deals, home video sales, and the theme park attractions that are still running almost 30 years later, Waterworld ultimately wound up in the black, but the damage had already been done. It’s a lot better than it often gets credit for, with the Director’s Cut definitely worth tracking down, but Netflix subscribers are happy to revisit the original en masse.
Per FlixPatrol, the old-fashioned adventure backed by the might of the blockbuster machine and a sky-high concept has set sail for the streaming service’s most-watched charts, having snagged a Top 10 position in several countries. Waterworld isn’t anywhere near as dreadful as history may have you believe, and it didn’t even lose money in the long run.