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* BudgetBustingElement: According to Creator/JossWhedon, the various things that drove up the budget were a functional water tank set constructed on the ocean, a personal chef for Creator/KevinCostner, and a VFX team devoted to digitally hiding Costner's receding hairline. The result of these many expenses was the most expensive shoot in history up until the release of ''Film/{{Titanic|1997}}''.
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Corrected mondegreen


** The original screenplay by Peter Rader was pitched as an children's adventure film, when he was looking for a project, he could direct himself. One producer told him that if he could come up with a good ''Film/MadMax'' rip-off, they had a South-African investor who would help fund this movie, so Rader conceived of an apocalyptic story set on the sea. In Rader's screenplay the Mariner was a human and the chief defender of the Atoll, whose embarrassing secret was that he enjoyed painting pictures of seahorses; Helen had two of her own children along with the adopted Enola, and the Deacon was a campy, silly villain who dressed up like King Trident, sat atop a throne on the Exxon Valdez, and punished his subordinates by slapping them around the face with a wet fish. Also, Enola's tattoo would give instructions on how to find Water's End (as Dryland was called in his script) by looking for its outline as a shadow on the moon. Subsequent rewrites by David Twohy and Creator/JossWhedon turned the original script into a much more serious action-adventure film.

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** The original screenplay by Peter Rader was pitched as an children's adventure film, when he was looking for a project, he could direct himself. One producer told him that if he could come up with a good ''Film/MadMax'' rip-off, they had a South-African investor who would help fund this movie, so Rader conceived of an apocalyptic story set on the sea. In Rader's screenplay the Mariner was a human and the chief defender of the Atoll, whose embarrassing secret was that he enjoyed painting pictures of seahorses; Helen had two of her own children along with the adopted Enola, and the Deacon was a campy, silly villain who dressed up like King Trident, Triton, sat atop a throne on the Exxon Valdez, and punished his subordinates by slapping them around the face with a wet fish. Also, Enola's tattoo would give instructions on how to find Water's End (as Dryland was called in his script) by looking for its outline as a shadow on the moon. Subsequent rewrites by David Twohy and Creator/JossWhedon turned the original script into a much more serious action-adventure film.
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* VindicatedByCable: ''Big'' time. Despite underperforming in the US, the film quickly picked not just [[CultClassic dedicated fandom]] but snowballed into attracting general audiences with countless reruns and being serviceable action flick. The more time have passed since the original media craze about the production and its costs, the better reception the film seems to get.

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* VindicatedByCable: ''Big'' time. Despite underperforming in the US, the film quickly picked not just a [[CultClassic dedicated fandom]] but snowballed into attracting general audiences with countless reruns and being serviceable action flick. The more time have passed since the original media craze about the production and its costs, the better reception the film seems to get.
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!!General trivia
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* SimilarlyNamedWorks: There's no relation to ''VideoGame/{{Swordquest}} Waterworld''.
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* TroubledProduction: One of the most infamous of the 1990's ([[TroubledProduction/FilmOToZ see the dedicated entry for more]]), nicknamed ''[[Film/HeavensGate Kevin's Gate]]'' and ''[[Film/{{Ishtar}} Fishtar]]'' by the press as they heard of massive cost overruns, problems while filming (a hurricane trashed the set, actors nearly drowned) and a serious case of WagTheDirector from star Creator/KevinCostner (who insisted on massive filmsets off the coast of Hawaii, fired friend Kevin Reynolds from the director's chair, rejected Mark Isham's music as being "too ethnic", and brought in Creator/JossWhedon for uncredited rewrites that basically boiled down to adding Costner's ideas). The negative publicity led to negative reviews and the film bombing in the US (though [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff it performed significantly better internationally]], making $176 million for a combined $264 million in total) and alongside the previous year's ''Film/WyattEarp'' and the later release ''Film/ThePostman'', sent Kevin Costner's career [[StarDerailingRole into a severe downturn]].

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* TroubledProduction: One of the most infamous of the 1990's ([[TroubledProduction/FilmOToZ see the dedicated entry for more]]), nicknamed ''[[Film/HeavensGate Kevin's Gate]]'' and ''[[Film/{{Ishtar}} Fishtar]]'' by the press as they heard of massive cost overruns, problems while filming (a hurricane trashed the set, actors nearly drowned) and a serious case of WagTheDirector from star Creator/KevinCostner (who insisted on massive filmsets off the coast of Hawaii, fired friend Kevin Reynolds from the director's chair, rejected Mark Isham's Music/MarkIsham's music as being "too ethnic", and brought in Creator/JossWhedon for uncredited rewrites that basically boiled down to adding Costner's ideas). The negative publicity led to negative reviews and the film bombing in the US (though [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff it performed significantly better internationally]], making $176 million for a combined $264 million in total) and alongside the previous year's ''Film/WyattEarp'' and the later release ''Film/ThePostman'', sent Kevin Costner's career [[StarDerailingRole into a severe downturn]].



** Also: The film originally had a different composer, Mark Isham, but his soundtrack was thrown out and replaced with a new score by Music/JamesNewtonHoward. Both scores present drastically different tones to the material, with the latter being more adventurous and upbeat sounding.

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** Also: The film originally had a different composer, Mark Isham, Music/MarkIsham, but his soundtrack was thrown out and replaced with a new score by Music/JamesNewtonHoward. Both scores present drastically different tones to the material, with the latter being more adventurous and upbeat sounding.
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and Canada


* BoxOfficeBomb: ''Waterworld'' made $264.2 million worldwide against a production budget of $175 million (roughly $225 million in total costs). It is often cited as one of the most notorious box office failures in movie history. The truth is a bit more complicated. In TheNineties, studios weren't looking at worldwide revenue all that much, considering it meaningless in the big picture, focusing entirely on American markets. Since it made $88.2 million back in the States, ''Waterworld'' was instantly hailed as a massive bomb despite its exceptional international numbers, though those were only enough to make it a mild bomb instead of a legendary one when accounting for costs like marketing, theater revenue and taxes.

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* BoxOfficeBomb: ''Waterworld'' made $264.2 million worldwide against a production budget of $175 million (roughly $225 million in total costs). It is often cited as one of the most notorious box office failures in movie history. The truth is a bit more complicated. In TheNineties, studios weren't looking at worldwide revenue all that much, considering it meaningless in the big picture, focusing entirely on the North American markets.market. Since it made $88.2 million back in the States, domestic, ''Waterworld'' was instantly hailed as a massive bomb despite its exceptional international numbers, though those were only enough to make it a mild bomb instead of a legendary one when accounting for costs like marketing, theater revenue and taxes.
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* DoingItForTheArt: Creator/KevinCostner personally invested $22 million of his own money into the film. When the producers threatened to cut several scenes to keep the budget under control, Costner also forfeited his 15 percent cut of the gross box office receipts until the movie was profitable.

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* DoingItForTheArt: Creator/KevinCostner personally invested $22 million of his own money into the film. When Also, when the producers threatened to cut several scenes to keep the budget under control, Costner also forfeited his 15 percent cut of the gross box office receipts until the movie was profitable.profitable to placate them.
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* DoingItForTheArt: Creator/KevinCostner personally invested $22 million of his own money into the film.

to:

* DoingItForTheArt: Creator/KevinCostner personally invested $22 million of his own money into the film. When the producers threatened to cut several scenes to keep the budget under control, Costner also forfeited his 15 percent cut of the gross box office receipts until the movie was profitable.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* BoxOfficeBomb: ''Waterworld'' made $264.2 million worldwide against a production budget of $175 million (roughly $225 million in total costs). It is often cited as one of the most notorious box office failures in movie history. The truth is a bit more complicated. In TheNineties, studios weren't looking at worldwide revenue all that much, considering it meaningless in the big picture, focusing entirely on American market. Since it made $88.2 million back in States, ''Waterworld'' was instantly hailed as a massive bomb despite its exceptional international numbers, though those were only enough to make it a mild bomb instead of a legendary one when accounting for costs like marketing, theater revenue and taxes.

to:

* BoxOfficeBomb: ''Waterworld'' made $264.2 million worldwide against a production budget of $175 million (roughly $225 million in total costs). It is often cited as one of the most notorious box office failures in movie history. The truth is a bit more complicated. In TheNineties, studios weren't looking at worldwide revenue all that much, considering it meaningless in the big picture, focusing entirely on American market.markets. Since it made $88.2 million back in the States, ''Waterworld'' was instantly hailed as a massive bomb despite its exceptional international numbers, though those were only enough to make it a mild bomb instead of a legendary one when accounting for costs like marketing, theater revenue and taxes.
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Further tweaking.


* BoxOfficeBomb: ''Waterworld'' made $264.2 million worldwide against a production budget of $175 million (roughly $225 million in total costs). It is often cited as one of the most notorious box office failures in movie history. The truth is a bit more complicated. In TheNineties, studios weren't looking at worldwide revenue all that much, considering it meaningless in the big picture, focusing entirely on American market. Since it didn't even make half of its budget back in States, ''Waterworld'' was instantly hailed as a massive bomb despite its exceptional international numbers, though those were only enough to make it a mild bomb instead of a legendary one when accounting for costs like marketing, theater revenue and taxes.

to:

* BoxOfficeBomb: ''Waterworld'' made $264.2 million worldwide against a production budget of $175 million (roughly $225 million in total costs). It is often cited as one of the most notorious box office failures in movie history. The truth is a bit more complicated. In TheNineties, studios weren't looking at worldwide revenue all that much, considering it meaningless in the big picture, focusing entirely on American market. Since it didn't even make half of its budget made $88.2 million back in States, ''Waterworld'' was instantly hailed as a massive bomb despite its exceptional international numbers, though those were only enough to make it a mild bomb instead of a legendary one when accounting for costs like marketing, theater revenue and taxes.
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Tweaked entry.


* BoxOfficeBomb: Budget, $175 million (roughly $225 million in total costs). Box office, $88.2 million (domestic), $264.2 million (worldwide). It is often cited as one of the most notorious box office failures in movie history. The truth is a bit more complicated. In TheNineties, studios weren't looking at worldwide revenue all that much, considering it meaningless in the big picture, focusing entirely on American market. Since it didn't even make half of its budget back in States, ''Waterworld'' was instantly hailed as a massive bomb despite its exceptional international numbers, though those were only enough to make it a mild bomb instead of a legendary one when accounting for costs like marketing, theater revenue and taxes.

to:

* BoxOfficeBomb: Budget, ''Waterworld'' made $264.2 million worldwide against a production budget of $175 million (roughly $225 million in total costs). Box office, $88.2 million (domestic), $264.2 million (worldwide).costs). It is often cited as one of the most notorious box office failures in movie history. The truth is a bit more complicated. In TheNineties, studios weren't looking at worldwide revenue all that much, considering it meaningless in the big picture, focusing entirely on American market. Since it didn't even make half of its budget back in States, ''Waterworld'' was instantly hailed as a massive bomb despite its exceptional international numbers, though those were only enough to make it a mild bomb instead of a legendary one when accounting for costs like marketing, theater revenue and taxes.

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