Waterworld

Waterworld opened July 28, 1995, directed by Kevin Reynolds and starring Kevin Costner, who also produced, as the Mariner — a gilled drifter navigating a future Earth drowned under melted ice caps, where dry land is a myth people kill for. Its reputation arrived before the film did: budgeted originally around $100 million, it ballooned to roughly $172–175 million, making it the most expensive movie ever made up to that point.

The production was legendarily miserable. One of the floating sets sank in heavy seas and had to be repaired, the shoot stretched from a planned 96 days to more than 150, Costner was nearly killed when a squall caught him tied to a mast, and Reynolds walked away before release after clashing with Costner (keeping his director credit anyway). The press feasted, dubbing it "Fishtar" and "Kevin's Gate" after the famous flops Ishtar and Heaven's Gate.

And yet the "biggest flop ever" label never quite fit. Waterworld disappointed domestically with $88 million but took in about $264 million worldwide, and home video and TV rights eventually pushed it into the black. Its strangest legacy is the Waterworld live stunt show — the exploding-seaplane spectacular that became a long-running fixture at Universal Studios parks, outlasting the movie's bad reputation by decades.