Not even a '90s Will Smith could salvage this Western.
There are strange instances throughout history where something can be technically “one of the biggest [insert movie genre here] ever” and still be a box office bomb. It’s a rare phenomenon, but sometimes, the costs of a motion picture are so exorbitant that even beating out most other entries in its genre at the worldwide box office isn’t enough to become a hit. Extravagant costs will sink even the most seemingly mammoth box office hauls.
Yet, given how famous Westerns are in the canon of major American movies, studios, every so often, try to launch big-budget attempts at reviving the genre. The thought process here appears to be that the Western was massive in the 1950s and '60s, so it must have the ability to be gargantuan once again. Studios will pump hundreds of millions of dollars into major Westerns in the hopes of turning back the clock and making it 1948 again at the box office.
Meanwhile, among Westerns, Wild Wild West is a box office champion. At the time of its release, Wild Wild West was the second-biggest Western in history at the domestic box office, only behind Dances with Wolves . Decades later, a handful of modern Westerns have outgrossed this movie, but Wild Wild West is still firmly among the top ten biggest Westerns in history.
In hindsight, given that neither Independence Day nor Men in Black cost more than $90 million to make, it's ludicrous that Warner Bros. ever gave Wild Wild West a price tag remotely approaching $175 million. Made for the $90 million that Men in Black cost, Wild Wild West could've been a respectable moneymaker that did slightly better than usual for a Western. On a $175 million budget, Wild Wild West was a massive money-loser, though Warner Bros.
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