There are genres that appear, make waves and then disappear into obscurity. Sometimes a certain film is credited with the end of the genre. To this day, The Pirate Bride is considered the Death of the pirate filmbefore Pirates of the Caribbean revived the genre. But it was obvious from the start to lead actress Geena Davis that the film would be a flop.
Geena Davis knows the real reason why The Pirate Bride was unjustly a flop
The reason for the phenomenal failure is as simple as it is tragic: The adventure film The Pirate Bride was the last project of the production company Carolco Pictures, which was responsible for successful films such as Red Heat and Total Recall. As their last film, The Pirate Bride is blamed for the company’s bankruptcy.
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Geena Davis in The Pirate Bride
The star of the film, Geena Davis, sees the causal relationships differently. In an interview with the New Yorker, she points out that Carolco Pictures was already bankruptWhen The Pirate Bride was filmed, it was already clear that this would be the last film. She is certain:
Unfortunately, we were doomed from the start. When the film came out, there was no money to promote itso it was guaranteed that he would not be successful.
Without a marketing budget, the film could not be properly promoted and failed at the box office. The film only became known later: as biggest flop in film historyAs such, he was even listed in the Guinness Book of Records.
The adventure film disaster buried an entire genre
Pirate films are part of the adventure film genre, along with other subgenres such as the Western. These were at their peak of success in the 1930s to the 1960s. Pirate films in particular were most popular in the 1940s and 1950s, thanks to actors such as Errol Flynn.
In the decades that followed, adventure films with pirates were made again and again, but they could not build on the successes of the previous ones. When The Pirate Bride was released in 1995, according to Boxofficemojo,
only recoup about 10% of its costs.
This meant that the great pirate era in cinema was finally over and the genre was considered box office poison. It wasn’t until 2003 that Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean convinced everyone of the opposite.