Riding high off of the success of The Deer Hunter, director Michael Cimino fought with studios to produce what would become the worst movie of all time.
His 1980 Western epic Heaven’s Gate was dubbed the worst movie of all time following its disastrous performance at the box office, which only came after the film went nearly $40 million over budget.
‘Heaven’s Gate’ Named Worst Movie of All Time
In a review for The Hottie and the Nottie starring Paris Hilton, which was getting reception as one of the worst movies ever, The Guardian wrote that Heaven’s Gate was the true worst movie of all time.
“I am firmly in the camp that believes that Heaven’s Gate is the worst movie ever made. For my money, none of these other films can hold a candle to Michael Cimino’s 1980 apocalyptic disaster,” the Guardian wrote. “This is a movie that destroyed the director’s career. This is a movie that lost so much money it literally drove a major American studio out of business. This is a movie about Harvard-educated gunslingers who face off against eastern European sodbusters in an epic struggle for the soul of America.”
“This is a movie that stars Isabelle Huppert as a shotgun-toting cowgirl. This is a movie in which Jeff Bridges pukes while mounted on roller skates. This is a movie that has five minutes of uninterrupted fiddle-playing by a fiddler who is also mounted on roller skates. This is a movie that defies belief.”
Vincent Canby sounded its death knell in The New York Times when he wrote “Heaven’s Gate fails so completely that you might suspect Mr Cimino sold his soul to the Devil to obtain the success of The Deer Hunter, and the Devil has just come around to collect.”
‘Heaven’s Gate’ Was Box Office Disaster
Six days into filming, Cimino was five days behind schedule, and had spent $900,000 on a minute-and-a-half of usable footage. Two weeks into filming, the studio calculated that, at the rate he was going, Heaven’s Gate was going to cost them $1 million per minute of running time, according to the BBC.
The budget grew from an agreed-upon $7.5 million to $44 million by the end of production and brought in just $3.5 million worldwide.
In the end, Cimino’s reputation plummeted and Transamerica sold off the rest of United Artists, effectively ending the studio.
This story was originally published by Men’s Journal on Jun 20, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men’s Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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