The twin films phenomenon that pits two eerily similar projects against each other at roughly the same time usually ends up with a winner, but in the case of the battle between Red Planet and Ghosts of Mars, neither emerged victorious.
The former did at least manage to get out of the gate first by releasing in November 2000, nine months before John Carpenter’s ignominious extraterrestrial adventure, but they both failed in epic fashion at the box office, and with critics.
Ghosts of Mars bombed, but it did at least manage to recoup half of its production budget, something that can’t be said of Red Planet, which could only cobble together a global haul of $33 million on total costs of $80 million, and that’s without even factoring in the additional marketing and promotional expenses.
On Rotten Tomatoes, Carpenter just about edged ahead of his rival, but Ghosts of Mars‘ 23 percent score is far from a win, even if it was better than Red Planet‘s 14 percent. What we’re trying to say is that they’re both terrible, but it’s the latter that’s currently orbiting the streaming charts two decades after tanking.
As per FlixPatrol, the sci-fi blockbuster following a crew who attempt to touch down on Mars with an eye to colonizing and terraforming the planet has scored a spot on the Prime Video most-watched list. Even throwing some horror elements into the mix failed to drum up any reactions that weren’t totally apathetic, but Red Planet is nonetheless embarking on the comeback we never thought we’d see.
