{"id":2149058,"date":"2025-11-11T15:26:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T15:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2149058"},"modified":"2025-11-11T15:26:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T15:26:21","slug":"25-years-ago-mars-was-responsible-for-two-big-sci-fi-box-office-bombs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/25-years-ago-mars-was-responsible-for-two-big-sci-fi-box-office-bombs\/","title":{"rendered":"25 Years Ago, Mars Was Responsible For Two Big Sci-Fi Box Office Bombs"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As the calendar turned from 1999 to 2000 and the new millennium dawned, we as a society developed a bit of an obsession with Mars. That obsession resulted in several large-scale movies about the fourth planet from the Sun. Two of those movies arrived in theaters exactly eight months apart from one another in the year 2000. Both of them bombed spectacularly.<\/p>\n

Today, November 10, marks the 25th anniversary of the theatrical debut of the second of those films, director Antony Hoffman’s ill-fated and aptly-named “Red Planet.” Starring Val Kilmer (“Batman Forever”) and Tom Sizemore (“Saving Private Ryan”), it was an $80 million budgeted gambit spearheaded by Warner Bros. that flamed out at the box office<\/a>, becoming one of the most high-profile flops that year. “Mission to Mars” was neck-and-neck with it in this bizarre example of the twin movie phenomenon.<\/p>\n

“Red Planet” takes place in the mid-21st century as the Earth is dying, leaving the world’s people to look to the stars for a solution. They set out to colonize Mars. But something no one could have expected awaits a doomed mission, as Mars may be barren, but it’s not uninhabited. Yep! There are deadly aliens.<\/p>\n

Both “Red Planet” and “Mission to Mars” were capitalizing on the Mars obsession<\/a>. Granted, sci-fi had a long history with Mars, but as talk of climate change began to heat up in the mainstream throughout the ’90s, the notion of humanity needing to colonize another planet became more realistic than it had ever been. CGI and advances in visual effects technology were also helpful. VFX on this scale can also be very expensive, which ultimately doomed both of these movies.<\/p>\n

Read more: 12 Canceled Comic Book Movies We’re Glad Were Never Made<\/a><\/p>\n

Mission to Mars flopped first – but Red Planet flopped harder<\/h2>\n
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