Tom Cruise Headlined An '80s Fantasy Movie Box Office Flop From A Legendary Director
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When two cinematic legends cross paths, great things can happen. So, one might think that Tom Cruise starring in a movie from the venerated director Ridley Scott would be a recipe for success. Except, that's not exactly how things played out when the two collaborated on the 1985 fantasy movie "Legend." Though the film would eventually find more love, it was a box office flop during its initial theatrical run.
The movie centers on Darkness (Tim Curry), a wicked being who seeks to create eternal night by destroying the last of the unicorns. As such, Jack (Cruise), a forest child, and his magical friends, along with the human Princess Lili (Mia Sara), must do everything in their power to save the world from Darkness' evil-doing. At the time, Scott was coming off of "Blade Runner," which got buried at the box office by "E.T." But he was still a filmmaker with a fair amount of clout.
Scott's "Alien" had become one of the most important hits in cinema history in 1979, so a single flop wasn't enough to derail a promising career quite so quickly (certainly not in the '80s). As for Cruise, he was very much a star on the rise, having made a name for himself with movies like "Taps" and "Risky Business." But this was also before "Top Gun" propelled Cruise to superstardom. So, "Legend" came at an interesting moment for both of these renowned artists.
Meanwhile, Sara had yet to fully break out with her role in 1986's "Ferry Bueller's Day Off," one of the most rewatchable movies of the '80s. Again, it was a unique intersection of timing and talent. Scott had never tackled the fantasy genre before and, interestingly enough, he hasn't tackled it again since, perhaps with good reason.
Legend faced many problems during its production
"Legend" was not an easy movie to make by any stretch of the imagination. Tim Curry had no idea what he was getting into when he agreed to play Darkness, as the makeup process to turn him into the villain was nothing shy of grueling. Not to mention that he then had to act under all that devilish makeup. Then there are the infamous production problems the movie faced along the way.
Chief amongst them, the entire set burned down just 10 days into filming, per Film Stories. Even so, by that point, Ridley Scott had proven himself to be a resourceful and resilient filmmaker, so he got things back and up and running in a matter of days. Then there's the matter of the script, which was written by William Hjortsberg. As the novelist and screenwriter once recounted on his website, "the screenplay went through 15 drafts" over a four-year span."
The fire and the many, many script revisions should have perhaps been taken as a sign of things to come. Universal Pictures released "Legend" in theaters on the weekend of April 18, 1985. It topped the charts with $4.2 million, but it needed more staying power than it ultimately had to justify its $25 million production budget. The movie tapered off fairly quickly, ultimately finishing its theatrical run with just $23.5 million worldwide.
Part of the problem is that critics of the day were far from kind to "Legend," as it holds a mere 33% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Mind you, in the mid-'80s, critics held more sway over audiences. There was no internet or YouTube to watch trailers on-demand. It was a very different time.
Legend eventually found its audience
Tom Cruise regretted starring in "Legend," once saying "I'll never want to do another picture like that again." What he meant by that was he wanted the film's artistic issues addressed before production began, as it ended up being a very consuming experience for him (one that was frustrating in light of the problems that needed to be overcome).
Despite Cruise's misgivings, "Legend" came out in an era where movies could have a robust second life thanks to VHS and cable TV. In this case, over time, folks began to catch up with Ridley Scott's stylish, dark fantasy epic, even more so after the release of Scott's longer and better-received director's cut many years after its theatrical run. It's now embraced as one of the hidden gems in Scott's impressive filmography and is generally regarded as a fantasy box office bomb deserving of the second chance it ultimately got.
Likewise, the movie's core creatives would go on to enjoy great careers in spite of its disappointing reception. Scott, of course, has since directed several cinematic classics, including the Best Picture winner "Gladiator," along with "Thelma & Louise" and "Black Hawk Down," among many others.
Cruise, meanwhile, would go on to become one of the biggest movie stars on the planet, starring in the "Mission: Impossible" movie franchise as well as "Top Gun: Maverick," which helped save the box office after the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 40 years later, the film's core creatives are still working at a high level.