How Waterworld Tried To Kill Star Trek
1995 was a rough year for both Paramount and Universal. They both released movies that, while they weren’t flops, didn’t do all that great. For Paramount, it was Star Trek: Generations, while for Universal, the movie was Waterworld.
No, this isn’t Water World, the theme park. It was Waterworld, the 1995 movie by Kevin Reynolds. Despite both movies having a fair amount of problems, that didn’t stop Universal and its staff from trying to come out the winner by releasing some unpleasant rumors about Star Trek: Generations.
The story of how this movie tried to ruin Star Trek, is a rather complicated one.
Generations Negative Test Screenings Were All The Talk
Star Trek: Generations by Paramount was struggling a bit during their test screenings. The movie wasn’t bad, necessarily, but it needed a lot of work. Thanks to the test audience, the last 15 minutes of Generations ended up being reshot.
That seemed to be the biggest problem with the movie. Though it wasn’t the best Star Trek movie, it still had a fair amount of potential. However, suddenly, critics and the press were jumping on Paramount due to all sorts of rumors and possible scandals.
Paramount Workers Leave For Universal
There were several theories as to why these rumors had suddenly started up out of nowhere. These rumors greatly exaggerated the troubles that were happening over at Paramount to make the movie seem like it was doing far worse than it was. All of them pointed to Universal and their movie Waterworld.
For one, many workers had moved from Paramount to Universal. A mass move like that often means the other company is offering better benefits and a nicer work environment. It was thought that there might have been bitter feelings for the old company and the director of Star Trek: Generations personally.
The old team could have started leaking information about how Paramount wasn’t doing well and nor was their newest movie to hurt their previous employer a little.
Universal Needed Waterworld To Perform At The Box Office
However, Universal’s Waterworld might have also been the major cause. Universal was working on the Kevin Costner movie about the same time Paramount was working on Generations. Unfortunately, Universal’s movie was doing far worse in terms of cost.
Waterworld Cost $175 Million To Make
It was no secret how expensive the movie was. Where Star Trek: Generations cost Paramount roughly $35 million, Waterworld ended up costing Universal over $175 million. It cost a lot more than the company planned.
Every part of the production for the movie was expensive. Shooting off of the coast of Hawaii cost the team much more than expected. The fact that new sets had to be built every time they were placed underwater also wasn’t accounted for early on. There was also an issue with the stars spending a large sum on their accommodations.
Generations Beat Out Waterworld In The Long Run
Many people speculate that to turn the media’s pressure off of them and their series of poor decisions that led to Waterworld costing so much, Universal began to release rumors about Paramount’s movie.
In the long run, Waterworld didn’t make a lot of money, and was unable to turn a profit at the box office. Star Trek: Generations did fine, making its budget back and then some.
