How Waterworld Went from Hollywood Flop to Apocalyptic Cult Classic

How Waterworld Went from Hollywood Flop to Apocalyptic Cult Classic

In the summer of 1995, Universal Pictures unleashed what would quickly become known as one of Hollywood's most notorious financial disasters. Waterworld, starring Kevin Costner as a mysterious drifter with gills in a future where the polar ice caps have melted and civilization exists only on floating communities, arrived with a bloated $175 million budget — at the time, the most expensive film ever made. The media narrative had already been set …