Red Planet
Rate Movie[Total: 42 Average: 1.9]
- Directed By: Antony Hoffman
- Written By: Chuck Pfarrer, Jonathan Lemkin
- Release Date: November 10, 2000
- Domestic Distributor: Warner Bros
- Cast: Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tom Sizemore
Box Office Info:
| Budget: $75 million | Financed by: Warner Bros; Village Roadshow |
|---|---|
| Domestic Box Office: $17,480,890 | Overseas Box Office: $15,983,079 |
The spec script for Red Planet by Chuck Pfarrer was purchased by Village roadshow in early 1998 and the project was one of the first in development between Roadshow and Warner Bros, which had recently inked a five-year co-financing and distribution pact.
The budget for Red Planet was $75 million.
The production of Red Planet was also in a development race with Disney’s Mission To Mars, which slightly made it before the cameras first. Filming was also beset by the usual difficulties caused by Val Kilmer. In Tom Sizemore’s memoir he went into detail about Kilmer’s demands for on-set rewrites, refusing to leave his trailer and eventually Sizemore beating the crap out of Kilmer.
Warner Bros first dated Red Planet for March 31, which was two weeks after Mission to Mars was scheduled and then WB bumped it to June 16. The studio then moved it to November 10, to keep it away from Titan A.E, which was dated for June 16. Mission To Mars was poorly received by both critics and audiences and Red Planet was viewed as just more of the same.
Reviews were awful and it bowed against Little Nicky and Men Of Honor. Red Planet tanked with $8,721,296 — placing #5 for the weekend led by holdover Charlie’s Angels. Audiences gave Red Planet a toxic C cinemascore and it took a 67.7% second frame nosedive to $2,818,384 when the sci-fi dud The 6th Day entered the market and it declined 59.4% in its third session to $1,143,281. The domestic run closed with a terrible $17,480,890.
Red Planet was a disaster overseas as well, jokingly referred to as Dead Planet. The movie pulled in just $15.9 million from its offshore run and was sent straight to video in Russia. The worldwide tally was $33.4 million, which would return about $18.3 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross — leaving much of the P&A expenses in the red and the budget untouched by the theatrical receipts.
Val Kilmer saw leading offers for big budget fare dry up after Red Planet and commercial director Antony Hoffman never helmed another feature.
I saw Mission to Mars and Red Plant. Liked them both.If thay lost money on the films, thats to bad.But, thay still made two great space movie.It cost big bucks to do these films.The more creative you want to be ,the more it cost.Plus you get these people who are going to get there money, at any price.Somebody is going to be left holding the bag.I guess thats the way the games played when making a movie.
Also, just under half (49.9%) of Red Planet’s domestic gross came from its opening weekend.
I saw Red Planet and Mission to Mars back in the day and liked them both. Never knew they flopped that hard .
Mission to Mars at least outgrossed its production budget worldwide. Red Planet didn’t even gross half of its budget worldwide.