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.

Waterworld movie location