Talk about the glorious actors of all time and Will Smith will be among the first ones to come to mind. Ever since the inception of his career in 1990, the 54-year-old actor has landed lead roles in numerous blockbuster movies. For someone with an acting career of over 30 years, Smith has certainly firmed his position in the industry judging from the amount of success, popularity, and respect he has achieved.
However, even though most of his movies are much loved by the audience, the Men in Black actor regrets the flopping of his $221M movie Wild Wild West which left him utterly broken.
Will Smith’s Wild Wild West Failure Left Him Broken
Renowned for his roles in hits like Bad Boys and Independence Day, Will Smith has received an extraordinary level of acclamation worldwide. But none can beat him for his role in Men in Black, be it even the greatest star of all time. And so, after getting widely applauded for this superhit movie, the Oscar winner thought of re-collaborating with MIB director Barry Sonnenfeld for Wild Wild West as a win-win situation.
However, it turned out to be the opposite, as the movie got caught up in a lot of criticism by fans and critics alike, leading to his blockbuster streak coming to an abrupt end. Talking about the movie’s failure, Smith said,
“My biggest emotional defeat and the greatest emotional pain I’ve had as an actor was when Wild Wild West opened up to $52 million. The movie wasn’t good. And it hurt so bad to be the number one movie, to open at $52 million, and to know the movie wasn’t good.”
While the 54-year-old actor committed his whole self to the movie and considered it to be a great one, it did not quite please the audience as even after opening strong, Wild Wild West faced a devastating end that left Smith crushed.
Will Smith Has Broadened His Genre Range Since Wild Wild West
Even though Wild Wild West did end up breaking the actor’s blockbuster streak, Will Smith neither blamed Barry Sonnenfeld nor gave up just there. Instead, he decided to widen the genre range of the movies he has starred in ever since his $221M cult classic.
Following the failure of Wild Wild West, Will Smith found himself acting in movies that were more than mere CGI monster fights. He was seen in and globally applauded for roleplaying the late Muhammad Ali, a boxing legend in Michael Mann‘s 2001 biopic Ali. Not stopping there, the Men in Black actor went ahead to star in several other different genre movies including Bad Boys for Life and King Richard, where the latter even granted him his first Oscar.
Nevertheless, thanks to Will Smith’s hard work and determination, his film game has been going strong ever since, without hinting at the career break that the actor faced due to his $221M movie failure.
You can stream Wild Wild West on Netflix.
Source: CheatSheet
