Roland Emmerich has struggled to find success outside of his disaster-driven comfort zone, and based on Moonfall ranking as the biggest flop of 2022 so far, that run of bad luck has now extended to his preferred wheelhouse. The filmmaker hardly makes movies for critics, but you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who has anything positive to say about 10,000 BC.
Blockbuster action epics set in the distant past are very few and far between, so there was definitely an air of intrigue surrounding the $105 million historical extravaganza that followed Steven Strait’s mammoth hunter D’Leh trying to win the affection of Camilla Belle’s Evolet by setting out on a dangerous rescue mission across harsh, dangerous, and deadly terrain.
As you can imagine, historians were almost foaming at the mouth with fury, and it didn’t take them long to point out that woolly mammoths, sabre-toothed tigers, and various carnivorous birds seen in the marketing were all well and truly extinct by the time the film took place. In fact, it was even labeled as “the most historically inaccurate movie ever produced” by some scientists, which is hardly a badge of honor.
To add further insult into injury, 10,000 BC was also panned by critics, landing a horrendous 9 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. Incredibly, it took in close to $270 million at the box office, though, and is now in the midst of a Netflix rebound. As per FlixPatrol, the nadir of Emmerich’s output has speared the Top 10 in the United States, where facts clearly don’t matter to subscribers seeking old school adventure.
