Released: May 12, 2000
Estimated Budget: $73 million
Domestic Opening Weekend: $11,548,898
Domestic Gross:$21,471,685
Aspiring auteurs beware: a labor of love does not an automatic blockbuster make. Roger Christian’s 2000 Battlefield Earth, an adaptation of the science-fiction novel by Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, was partially funded by its star, John Travolta — a longtime Scientologist. The film, in which hairy aliens have enslaved humanity in the year 3000, was made with a $73 million budget, but grossed only $21 million in the U.S. Roger Ebert called it one of the “ugliest, most incomprehensible movies” he had ever seen. Forest Whitaker, one of its co-stars, later expressed his dismay at having participated in the project.
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