There was no stopping Kevin Costner in the 1990s, especially after he delivered the landmark hit Dances With Wolves. His big blank check project following that film’s success was Waterworld, a post-apocalyptic action movie inspired by Frank Herbert‘s Dune series and George Miller‘s Mad Max films. At the time, Waterworld was the most expensive movie ever made. But it famously failed to break even at the box office. Fittingly for its title, however, it has since become profitable thanks to the theme park rides that it inspired. Waterworld is now available to stream, no pun intended, on Prime Video.

Directed by Kevin Reynolds, who previously worked with Costner on Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and would go on to direct his memorable miniseries Hatfields & McCoys, Waterworld was produced on a reported budget of $175 million. It broke True Lies‘ record of $100 million to become the most expensive film of all time, but was overtaken only a couple of years later by another James Cameron project, a little movie named Titanic. But the movie was never supposed to be this expensive. However, a famously troubled production that saw last-second rewrites by Joss Whedon, a musical score that was scrapped unceremoniously, and Costner having a near-death experience, resulted in the budget ballooning well past a reasonable level.

‘Waterworld’ Is an Object of Fascination for Many

Waterworld‘s release was a huge deal in 1995, with several tie-ins being launched around the movie in order to boost its appeal. However, despite going on to earn an Oscar nomination, the critical response to the film was lukewarm. It holds a 59% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus reads, “Though it suffered from toxic buzz at the time of its release, Waterworld is ultimately an ambitious misfire: an extravagant sci-fi flick with some decent moments and a lot of silly ones.” The movie ended up earning just around $265 million globally. Waterworld has certainly developed a cult following in the last three decades, and there’s an opportunity for its fanbase to grow with its release on Prime Video. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.