* BoxOfficeBomb: Budget, $85 million. Box office, $56,832,494 (domestic), $123,729,176 (worldwide).
* BudgetBustingElement: Though it had a modest financial return, it used a significant portion of its budget on the props in Alexander's laboratory, namely the Time Machine itself and his collection of pocket watches.
* CreatorBacklash: Guy Pearce has said in later interviews that he wasn't a fan of the final product.
* CreatorKiller:
** The first and only live-action film directed by Simon Wells, who was left so exhausted by the experience that he bowed out late in the shoot, leaving Creator/GoreVerbinski to take over for the remainder of the shoot (accounting for the last quarter or so of the film). He didn't direct anything of any description again -- though worked as a storyboard artist on several Dreamworks animated films -- until 2011's ''WesternAnimation/MarsNeedsMoms'', and judging by that film bombing as well, probably wishes he hadn't bothered. Apart from ''The Time Machine'' and ''Mars Needs Moms'', all of Wells' movies are Creator/DreamWorksAnimation films.
** ''The Time Machine'' was also the first of three movies in 2002 and 2003 that dealt a setback to the career of screenwriter John Logan. The other two are ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'' and DWA's ''WesternAnimation/SinbadLegendOfTheSevenSeas''.
** Samantha Mumba's film career was essentially derailed by the failure of this film. While she had a number of film roles after this, most of them were smaller budget Irish films.
* DeletedRole: Philip Bosco's scenes as the Dean were cut from the final print.
* FakeAmerican: American scientist Alexander Hartdegen is played by British-born Australian actor Creator/GuyPearce. The other major characters in his era are played by Creator/MarkAddy, Creator/SiennaGuillory, and Phyllida Law, who are all British. So... [[AdaptationalLocationChange they changed the setting from Britain to America]], only to cast a bunch of British actors.
* NoStuntDouble: Guy Pearce personally asked to do as many of the stunts he could, outside of one or two that the studio wouldn't allow him to do. He even broke a rib filming the part where he tackles a Morlock.
* RealLifeRelative: Mara's younger brother Kalen is played by Samantha Mumba's real life brother Omero.
* RecycledTrailerMusic: The trailer used music from ''Film/{{Stargate}}''.
* RemakeCameo: Creator/AlanYoung, who played Filby in the 1960 adaptation, appears in this film as a florist.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: There were originally going to be several Über-Morlocks instead of just one, and they would have looking completely inhuman and monstrous, "like giant silverfish" according to the script.
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