Post-apocalyptic stories are all the rage on the big and small screens these days, while Kevin Costner’s star has been polished back up to the same level as it was during his heyday thanks to the success of Yellowstone, but combining the two for 1997’s The Postman couldn’t have gone much worse.
Having apparently learned nothing from Waterworld – which took years to turn a profit after the $175 million aquatic epic sank at the box office – the Academy Award winner opted to write and direct a spiritual successor that came perilously close to ruining his entire career, with the film pinpointed as the main reason why he simply vanished off the face of the Hollywood A-list.
In addition to a critical drubbing that sees it still holding a miserly eight percent Rotten Tomatoes a quarter of a century later, The Postman virtually swept the board at the Razzies after winning Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Actor, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Original song, which came after it had already imploded on the theatrical front.
With an estimated production budget of $80 million, The Postman barely scraped together $20 million in ticket sales, going down in the history books as one of the biggest critical and commercial disasters there’s ever been. And yet, as per FlixPatrol, it’s suddenly become appointment viewing to end up as one of the Top 10 most-watched features among Amazon customers in the United States.
There must be something in the water, because The Postman enjoying a renaissance wasn’t on the bingo card for 2023.