Disney’s century-long history is an illustrious one – with many cinematic epics, both live-action and animated, to show for itself. But beyond the famous Disney movies that immediately conjure up images of princesses and fairy tales in the audience’s mind, there lies a greater depth to the studio’s evolution through the decades that comprises such masterpieces as Tron, WALL-E, and Toy Story.
In one such instance of evolutionary production, Disney attempts to finance and distribute films like The Sixth Sense and Armageddon that have a more grave history behind their conception.
Disney Finances Armageddon To Compete With Deep Impact
In 1998, two sci-fi epics would attempt to redefine the cinematic scope of space adventure films. But Disney’s Armageddon (one of the films in question) was simply made in an attempt of one-upmanship over Paramount’s Deep Impact. The former, directed by Michael Bay, and penned by at least nine different writers, was conceived at an event where the scriptwriter of Deep Impact was found talking about his film, and a production president at Disney “took notes” and later pitched it to the studio.
The film was hurried since Disney wanted to compete and consequently win the race by getting their version of the sci-fi epic to the theatres. In the studio’s grand ambition, Michael Bay, the king of high-octane mechanical action, delivered a film that would make the stars cringe when recalling their part in it. Bay himself would later apologize for the disastrous critical flop.
Also read: Why Michael Bay’s Armageddon Is A Much Better Movie Than You Remember
At the time, however, Armageddon would draw in the crowds of moviegoers in hordes. Box office churned out $553.7 million for the movie which was made on a budget of $140 million. And of the 140, 3 entire mills were spent on adding one scene during the film’s post-production in order to differentiate it from Paramount’s Deep Impact.
Reports state, 2 months prior to the film’s release, $3 million was spent on special effects to add a scene in the film showing Paris being destroyed by an asteroid. This scene would later get featured in a television ad campaign in order to promote Armageddon.
Bruce Willis Makes a Grave Error at Disney
Bruce Willis’ career-ending move at Disney isn’t a tale of common knowledge. The A-lister from Die Hard With a Vengeance and Pulp Fiction who was on an epic high in the 90s was cast by Disney and Academy Award-winning director, Lee Grant, for their upcoming romantic comedy, Broadway Brawler.
The film, very much made in the passionate aftermath of Tom Cruise’s Oscar-winning film, Jerry Maguire, sought to achieve a similar magnitude of reception to its own sports rom-com drama. But all would not go as planned. His on-set tantrum would halt the production 3 weeks into filming. Disney later had to shelve Broadway Brawler and to compensate for the losses, Willis was asked to sign a 3-picture deal with the studio and agree to a massive pay cut in the film that would follow.
As luck would have it, the first of the 3 films was Armageddon – the Michael Bay sci-fi movie that became a commercial hit fetching more than $500 million at the box office. However, Willis would only take home a salary of $3 million, despite being the most famous actor among the ensemble cast and the lead in the film. Reports claim he originally asked for $20 million.
Source: Action Speaks Louder: Violence, Spectacle, and the American Action Movie
