5 Razzies Movie that Almost Ruined Kevin Costner's Career
He took a break from acting and directing as a result of the criticism.
In the early 1990s, Kevin Costner was already a big movie star. His directorial debut, 1990's historical drama Dances With Wolves, where Costner also played the lead role, was a huge success, earning the creator a total of seven Academy Awards, including one for Best Director.
You wouldn't expect such a talented artist to star in a flop soon after receiving seven Oscars, right? Well, that's just what happened to Kevin Costner in the mid-90s.
In 1995, Kevin Reynolds' Waterworld was simply destroyed by critics, and while the movie is actually not that bad when you watch it years later, viewers at the time were reluctant to see it in theaters. As a result, the post-apocalyptic action flick failed at the box office, and even Costner's performance as the lead character could not save the project.
But it seems that Costner did not draw the right conclusions from this experience, as just two years later, he directed his own film, The Postman, which almost cost him his entire career.
Perhaps because he was so disappointed with how Waterworld was received and wanted to explore the post-apocalyptic dystopia genre on his own, Kevin Costner decided to adapt David Brin's novel The Postman. The story follows a man who dresses up as a postman and delivers mail to survivors in post-apocalyptic America, giving them hope that order in the country has been restored.
For the production, Costner ordered the construction of one of the largest sets in movie history. The bosses at Warner Bros. certainly didn't like the massive spendings that the film required but were still willing to invest as much as $80 million in Costner's new project.
But despite all the money thrown into the movie, The Postman turned out to be a total failure when it hit the screens in 1997. Receiving mostly negative reviews from critics, the movie was hardly noticed by the general public and only managed to earn $20.8 at the box office.
And to add insult to injury, The Postman received five Golden Raspberry anti-awards — for Worst Picture, Worst Actor, Worst Director, and Worst Screenplay. Pretty devastating, don't you think?
That was a real blow for Kevin Costner. Not only was he panned for his directorial decisions, but he was also criticized as a highly overrated actor, lacking any actual talent or skills. As a result of the massive backlash, Costner decided to take a career break and only returned to the director's chair six years later.
His next movie was 2003's Open Range, which did not bring a big box office, but at least the critics accepted the film favorably this time.