There’s a good reason why Hollywood history isn’t littered with top-tier fighter pilot movies, and there’s an even better one as to why Top Gun could only be exceeded in both status and acclaim by its long-awaited predecessor, with Stealth the only example needed as to why nobody but Tom Cruise should be cleared for takeoff.
Sony has a long and ignominious history for crafting vastly expensive blockbusters that nobody was asking for, which only live up to expectations by dying an agonizing death at the box office as everyone except the boardroom executives who gave it the green light could have predicted from a mile off, a box that Rob Cohen’s infamous disaster ticked with style.
Produced for an eye-watering $130 million, Stealth failed to even reach $80 million in ticket sales, and once all the other various marketing and distribution costs had been factored in, the aerial extravaganza’s only long-lasting reputation was a status as one of the biggest money-losing failures in Hollywood history, with the film plunged an estimated $125 million in the red.
Maverick has a lot to answer for, though, because there surely can’t be any other reason for Stealth to have jumped into the cockpit and soared to newfound heights on streaming other than Joseph Kosinski’s impeccable legacy sequel creating an itch for sky-high melodramatics that can’t be scratched in any other way.
Per FlixPatrol, Stealth has flown under the radar to become a Top 10 hit on iTunes in multiple countries around the world, leaving us to feel nothing but sorrow for those to have indulged one of the worst mainstream big budget catastrophes of the modern era.
Published: Mar 23, 2023 04:06 am