from Drew Deitch
| Published
Before blockbusters were only allowed as superhero movies or legacy sequels, the 90s offered plenty of original big-budget genre adventures that audiences were willing to take a risk on. I would give anything to go back to a decade when movies like trembling, Anacondaand Deep blue sea were given substantial budgets and a chance to shine at the box office.
One such film that didn’t quite do well at the time was Event horizon (1997). Directed by the man who made good Mortal Kombat movie (fight me i know deaths) Event horizon tells the story of an experimental spacecraft that mysteriously goes dark on its maiden voyage and the crew who are sent to find out what happened.
The scientist behind the spacecraft’s experimental new engine, Dr. Weir (Sam Neill), is hiding some secrets from the team’s captain, Miller (Laurence Fishburne), and his working-class crew. Once they get to the ship and discover everything that has happened, all hell breaks loose, quite literally.
Event Horizon bombed at the box office, But why?
A familiar enough ghost ship story (it’s much better than Ghost Ship), Event horizon decided he wanted to up the ante by being one of the more ambitious science fiction horror movies that movie theaters have been seeing for a while. And then things started to look shaky.
With a reported budget of $60 million (that’s almost $120 million today), Event horizon is an expensive production with tons of elaborate sets and effects. You need time to do all this. And don’t you know Of paramount importancewho greenlighted such a large-scale financial undertaking ended up rushing the film’s shooting and editing.
The failure of Event Horizon is the fault of James Cameron and Titanic
Why was he in a hurry? Blame it James Cameron and his big boat movie because it didn’t get its scheduled release, forcing Event horizon to squeeze a lot of what he wanted to do into a lot less time. Supposedly, this even led to the film being heavily edited from director Paul W.’s original vision. S. Anderson. A rushed production doesn’t always make for a botched final film, but it certainly doesn’t help matters, and it certainly didn’t help here.
It probably didn’t help either Event horizon that he didn’t have the star power to sell himself to the widest possible audience. Even just four years removed from jurassic parkhe was not an actor that audiences followed into more risque films. And Laurence Fishburne, though established and respected up to this point in his career, was yet to become even more famous and beloved thanks to The matrix. Cowboy Curtis wasn’t moving tickets, sorry. While the rest of the cast are solid and likable actors, none of them would make people go see a movie where this happens:
This is probably a major factor why Event horizon failed at the box office. While sick people like me will always be down Hellraiser in space Event horizon a big concept is hard to sell to regular moviegoers. See, the Event Horizon is a ship that can warp space to travel incredible distances in an instant. The problem is that this requires opening a portal to a hell dimension (oops!) and everyone ends up being attacked or possessed by an unknown evil force.
The odds and critics were stacked against the success of the sci-fi horror film
There is a lot of haunted house fun that you can get out of this situation and Event horizon manages some legitimately spooky moments along with all the extreme effects. But audiences aren’t usually thrilled with this kind of genre mash-up. They were too busy that weekend in 1997. to go see Cop land which, yeah, i don’t blame them. Cop land rules.
however Event horizon like an original sci-fi horror with a not-so-superstar cast that was trying to do something small after being crushed by the studio? The odds were definitely against him and Event horizon tank in the box office, opening in the No. 4 spot just before the third week showings of Spawn. HEITZER.
Maybe the 90s weren’t as great as I remembered them. Event horizon languished in theaters until it was pulled after making $26 million domestically, less than half of its reported budget. Oh As far as bean counters go, it was a failure.
What about the audience that showed up? What were they thinking? They were not good at Event horizon at all. CinemaScore is a polling company that asks moviegoers who pay at the premiere to give a letter grade to the movie they just saw (because I guess movies are like math homework), and the average grade that their respondents gave was a D+, which is pretty terrible for them. Just for comparison, CinemaScore for Spawn it was a C+!
Prominent film critics did not help the film’s reputation. Roger Ebert gave Event horizon only two out of four stars, noting that it draws inspiration from Stanislav Lemm’s iconic sci-fi tale Solarisand doesn’t do much substantial with the horror movie riff on the idea. That might be a bit of a fair criticism, Roger, but that two-star rating definitely hurt the perceived value of the film for a certain number of educated film fans. Meanwhile, he gave Spawn three and a half stars. From four!
Event Horizon eventually found an audience
Fortunately, the history of Event horizon it didn’t end there. The film did surprisingly well on home video, and Paramount even tried to get Anderson to restore footage that had been thrown out due to the rush of the production. Unfortunately, these items were either destroyed or could not be located. This mythical version of Event horizon which we will unfortunately never see, helped get fans even more interested and supportive of the film.
nowadays, Event horizon received much more love than its initial theatrical release. There’s a loaded Collector’s Edition Blu-ray, a 4K ultra-high definition edition, you can find plenty of videos online where fans delve into the film and its production, and Christopher Nolan it might even be a fan, as the memorable “wormhole demonstration” scene performed by Sam Neill gets little recognition in Nolan’s own scene Interstellar.
From this record an Event horizon the TV show is still being developed to give the story more room to experiment with its twisted ideas. Clearly, the film has carved out a niche that sci-fi horror fans still want to visit.
Suffice it to say, Event horizon was a failure that proves that the box office isn’t what makes or breaks a film’s legacy. Although it took some time, Event horizon crawled out of the mess of its theatrical release to become a legitimate cult favorite that new fans are still discovering today. Movies and stories that matter will find their way to the audiences that want them.
