History Trivia / CutthroatIsland

* BoxOfficeBomb: Budget: $98 million. Total box office returns: $10 million. It suffered the second largest confirmed loss in history at $89 million, $176 million in 2020 dollars when adjusted for inflation, alongside ''Film/TheLoneRanger2013'' (which lost at least as much if not more).

** Creator/MatthewModine hoped that this would be his breakthrough role as the male lead, originally written for Creator/MichaelDouglas. After ''Cutthroat Island'' bombed, he returned to television, and like Davis, his film roles were relegated to supporting parts. However, he received attention recently for his role on ''Series/StrangerThings''.

** Creator/MatthewModine hoped that this would be his breakthrough role as the male lead, originally written for Creator/MichaelDouglas. After ''Cutthroat Island'' bombed, he returned to television, and like Davis, his film roles were relegated to supporting parts.

* AwesomeDearBoy: Creator/FrankLangella considers Dawg to be one of his three favorite roles (the other two are UsefulNotes/RichardNixon and [[Film/MastersOfTheUniverse Skeletor]]), because he got to not only be a pirate, but a scenery-chewing over-the-top bad guy pirate. Apparently, the man loves being able to just go for broke in a role.

* FakeBrit: American-Canadian actor Maury Chaykin plays John Reed, who is from Britain.

* GenreKiller: Some have accused the film of being this for swashbuckling pirate movies. In reality, the genre was already dead at the time since at least the failure of Creator/RomanPolanski's ''Film/{{Pirates}}''; ''Cutthroat Island'' just failed to revive it (an admittedly spectacular failure, that is). We would not see another swashbuckling pirate movie from a major studio until Disney released ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'' in 2003, and almost three decades afterwards the genre is still devoid of successful titles not belonging to the ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' franchise (TV fared better with ''Series/BlackSails'', that being said). Ironically, the kid-oriented ''Film/MuppetTreasureIsland'' came out one year later than ''Cutthroat Island'', in 1996, and was a relative success in the pirate genre, before the aforementioned ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' franchise took off.

* GenreKiller: Some have accused the film of being this for swashbuckling pirate movies. In reality, the genre was already dead at the time since at least the failure of Creator/RomanPolanski's ''Film/{{Pirates}}''; ''Cutthroat Island'' just failed to revive it (an admittedly spectacular failure, that is). We would not see another swashbuckling pirate movie from a major studio until Disney released ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'' in 2003, and almost three decades afterwards the genre is still devoid of successful titles not belonging to the ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' franchise (TV fared better with ''Series/BlackSails'', that being said).
** On the other hand, the much more kid-oriented ''Film/MuppetTreasureIsland'' came out one year later, in 1996, and was a relative success in the pirate genre, before the aforementioned ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' franchise took off.

** Creator/GeenaDavis achieved her breakthrough in the '80s, winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in ''Film/TheAccidentalTourist'', then followed it up with her iconic turn (and Oscar-nominated role) in ''Film/ThelmaAndLouise''. Her star, however, had began to fade a few years later with ''Angie'' and ''Speechless''. ''Cutthroat Island'' was supposed to a vehicle by her then-husband Creator/RennyHarlin to reinvent Davis as an action star, but it ended up being the final straw for her A-List career after the film ended up being one of the biggest box office disasters in history. It didn't help matters that Davis immediately regretted accepting the part when it became apparent that it was doomed to fail and tried to back out, only to remain on the project due to contractual obligations. After this film, Davis and Harlin collaborated again on ''Film/TheLongKissGoodnight'', which fared better commercially but still lost money, and on top of that, the two divorced a few years later. Davis then retreated to television, with the occasional supporting role in a feature film.

* CreatorKiller: ''Cutthroat Island'' finished the already dying studio Carolco, as well as destroying Geena Davis' career and her then-husband Creator/RennyHarlin's respectability as a director (only distributor Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer and composer Music/JohnDebney came out rather unharmed, though it added to the already monstrous debt of MGM's backers, the French bank Crédit Lyonnais). The flop of this film and ''Film/TheLongKissGoodnight'' (also starring Davis and directed by Harlin) is widely credited with shattering their five-year marriage, as Harlin had pushed for Davis, then known for comedic roles, to headline the two blockbusters, only for the move to backfire on both of their faces (that and Harlin cheating on Davis with a secretary and even fathering a child in her back).

* CreatorKiller: ''Cutthroat Island'' finished the already dying studio Carolco, as well as destroying Geena Davis' career and her then-husband Creator/RennyHarlin's respectability as a director (only distributor Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer and composer Music/JohnDebney came out rather unharmed). The flop of this film and ''Film/TheLongKissGoodnight'' (also starring Davis and directed by Harlin) is widely credited with shattering their five-year marriage, as Harlin had pushed for Davis, then known for comedic roles, to headline the two blockbusters, only for the move to backfire on both of their faces.