Kurt Russell's Disaster Movie Remake Was One Of 2006's Biggest Box Office Flops
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Kurt Russell is an absolute legend. He's been doing it at a high level for decades and has stayed relevant well into his 70s. From the classic movies he made with John Carpenter, such as "The Thing," right up through his recent work in shows like "The Madison," he's had one heck of a career. But every career has its low points, and from a purely commercial standpoint, one of those low points for Russell came in 2006 with "Poseidon."
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, the director of the greatest submarine movie ever, "Das Boot," it was an adaptation of Paul Gallico's novel "The Poseidon Adventure." This material had, of course, been tackled by Hollywood previously, with Ronald Neame's "The Poseidon Adventure" oft-considered one of the best disaster movies of the '70s. But Petersen, writer Mark Protosevich ("The Cell"), and the producers hoped to make a big-budget adventure fit for the 2000s. It didn't exactly pan out.
The movie focuses on the aftermath of a massive tsunami that capsizes a luxury ship in the North Atlantic. Several survivors are forced to band together and traverse the hazardous upside-down maze that the ship has become. As the ship fills with water, they hope they can navigate the dangerous maze and make their way to safety. Josh Lucas ("Hulk"), Emmy Rossum ("Shameless"), Richard Dreyfuss ("Jaws"), Mike Vogel ("Grind"), and Jacinda Barrett ("Ladder 49") also star.
Russell received top billing in the big-budget disaster flick, which came with a whopping $160 million budget. Movies of that size need to play for the widest possible audience. This one ended up falling victim to its own ambitions, as other, bigger movies helped turn it into one of the biggest box office bombs of 2006.
Poseidon was too big for its own good
Now, to be clear, none of this was Kurt Russell's fault. Russell had no interest in reading the script for "Poseidon;" he just wanted to work with Wolfgang Petersen and earn a pretty nice paycheck. As he generally does, Russell elevates his part of the movie; it's just that the movie around him didn't live up to that hulking budget, which became a problem come opening weekend.
Released by Warner Bros., the disaster flick received a lukewarm response from critics and currently boasts a lousy 33% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. General audiences weren't all that hot on it either, as the audience score sits at 43%. None of that did it any favors in the midst of a pretty crowded summer movie season.
"Poseidon" hit theaters on the weekend of May 12, 2006. It didn't even manage to top the charts in its debut, opening to $22.1 million domestically, losing out to "Mission: Impossible III," which brought Tom Cruise into the chaotic world of J.J. Abrams, and also made $25 million in theaters on its second weekend. Things proceeded to get worse from there for this doomed cinematic voyage as even bigger hits were just around the corner.
Despite being banned in multiple countries, Tom Hanks' "The Da Vinci Code" became a huge hit, opening with $77 million the following weekend and ultimately grossing $760 million worldwide. "Poseidon" slid all the way to fourth place. Things only got worse once "X-Men: The Last Stand" opened in the final week of May. The movie was out of the top 10 entirely by mid-June as "Nacho Libre," "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift," "The Lake House," and "Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties" rolled into town.
How much money did Poseidon lose?
"Poseidon" finished its run with just $60.6 million domestically, $121 million internationally, and a grand total of $181.6 million worldwide. Despite being one of the most expensive movies released in 2006, it didn't even crack the top 20 highest-grossing titles globally for the year. A disaster portrayed on screen and a financial disaster in real life. For reference, the biggest hit of the year was "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," which made $1.06 billion at the box office.
While it's difficult to calculate losses for a given movie as there are many, many factors at play, especially ones that impact the bottom line beyond ticket sales, The Numbers estimated the losses to be north of $80 million. That doesn't put it in contention for the biggest box office flop of all time; that honor (?) belongs to "Desert Warrior," but it's one heck of a swing and a miss, the kind no studio wants to be associated with.
Disaster movies do have a long, checkered history in this regard. Yes, movies like "Titanic" are among the biggest hits of all time, but disaster movies are terribly expensive to make, and when they fail, they fail big. Gerard Butler's "Geostorm" lost around $100 million. "Deepwater Horizon" (which also featured Kurt Russell) was a major money-loser despite critical praise. "Moonfall" ($67 million worldwide/$150 million budget), "The Core" ($74 million worldwide/$85 million budget), "Volcano" ($122 million worldwide/$90 million budget), all disaster movies, all financial disasters.
They are inherently high-risk propositions. When they work, they work big. "Twister" was such a big success it literally helped redefine the summer movie season. But when they lose? Boy, do they lose big.