Why Kevin Costner is adamant he’s never been in a flop movie: “I’m not in the hit business”
Ask 100 people what a flop movie is, and 99 of them will tell you it’s a film that goes down in a ball of box office flames, losing a fortune for the people involved, and becoming a black mark on an actor’s or director’s filmography. As for the other one of the hundred? That’s where Kevin Costner comes in.
Having spent over 40 years in the industry, during which time he’s experienced the highest of highs and lowest of lows that Hollywood has to offer, the two-time Academy Award winner knows the inner workings of the business, especially when he’s diversified into producing and directing on numerous occasions.
With that in mind, it stands to reason that Costner knows a flop when he sees one. After all, not only has he headlined a few over the years, but a couple came perilously close to ruining his career. And yet, for reasons that could best be described as curious, he’s always been adamant that because he liked them, they didn’t really count as flops despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
“I’m not in the hit business,” he told the Los Angeles Times, which isn’t exactly true. Dances with Wolves, The Bodyguard, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, JFK, Tin Cup, and Bull Durham all turned a tidy profit with Costner in the leading role, and it was those hits that elevated him to A-list status in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
On the other hand, The Postman speaks for itself, as do the likes of Dragonfly, Wyatt Earp, 3000 Miles to Graceland, and the ill-fated Horizon experiment. For anyone questioning the lack of Waterworld on that list, it’s worth remembering that the mega-budget blockbuster eventually turned a profit once home video sales, television syndication, and various other revenue streams were factored in.
“To me, a flop is a bad movie, not one that fails at the box office,” Costner explained, flying in the face of how most people view the difference between a movie sinking and swimming. “There were five flops this year that will make $80 million each.” While it’s true that bad films make money all the time, the reason he plummeted down the Tinseltown ladder was because he was making awful pictures that also failed to make money, so he was ticking off at least one of those boxes either way.
Has Costner been in bad movies? Yes, many of them. Has he been in movies that lost an absolute fortune? Also, yes, and also many of them. If he were asked, though, he’d be willing to defend The Postman to the death because, from his perspective at least, it doesn’t suck.
The other side of that argument is that it most definitely does, and it also bombed so hard it almost single-handedly ruined his credibility, popularity, and bankability as a star. According to the man himself, Kevin Costner has never been in a flop. According to everyone else with two eyes and half a brain, it’s not the strongest argument he’s ever made.
