With a low score of 16% on Rotten Tomatoes, Will Smith’s Wild Wild West was nothing but a commercial failure. On a budget of $170 million, the movie only grossed $222 million at the box office and is considered to be a questionable choice on Will Smith’s part. While Wild Wild West received quite a few awards, they sure aren’t anything to boast about as they aren’t praising the movie.
Speaking about the movie, Will Smith appeared to be full of regrets. He revealed that he decided to get on board the Wild Wild West train for all the wrong reasons. He even stated that things have changed since the 80s and 90s as you simply cannot trick people into watching a film thanks to social media.
Will Smith Has Regrets about Wild Wild West
At the Cannes Lions panel, Will Smith opened up about why he chose to do Barry Sonenfeld’s Wild Wild West. He stated that at the time, he didn’t care about doing movies he loved and was instead focused on becoming a superstar. And that’s where things went south.
“I had so much success that I started to taste global blood and my focus shifted from my artistry to winning. I wanted to win and be the biggest movie star, and what happened was there was a lag — around ‘Wild Wild West time’ — I found myself promoting something because I wanted to win versus promoting something because I believed in it.”
Flaunting his marketing skills, Smith stated that his career once flourished thanks to his ability to sell his products to fans. However, he soon realized that it was actually up to the fans and he had to give in to their needs and not “trick them into going to see Wild Wild West.”
He continued that times have changed quite a bit in the past few decades. Smith stated that while you could once trick people into seeing a bad film, it is not the case anymore thanks to social media. Giving an example, Smith said that people can just go on their phones, ten minutes into the film, and urge people to watch Vin Diesel’s Fast & Furious films, instead.
“Back in the ’80s and ’90s you had a piece of crap movie you put a trailer with a lot of explosions and it was Wednesday before people knew your movie was s**t. But now what happens is 10 minutes into the movie, people are tweeting ‘This is s**t, go see Vin Diesel’.”
Critics were so underwhelmed with the film that the Rotten Tomatoes consensus labeled it as a “bizarre misfire.” A majority of the critics were of the opinion that Wild Wild West put all of their focus into the special effects, rather than the actual script.
Will Smith Calls Wild Wild West His Worst Film
In a video for GQ, Smith went on to social media to reply to his fans’ questions. Answering a question about his best and worst films on Quora, Smith was quick to answer both parts of the question. While Men in Black and Pursuit of Happyness tied in for the best movie, Wild Wild West got the shorter end of the stick!
“For the best, I think it’s a tie between the first Men in Black and Pursuit of Happynness. For different reasons, those are the two almost perfect movies. Worst? I don’t know, Wild Wild West just is a thorn in my side. To see myself with chaps…I don’t like it.”
In another interview with Vanity Fair, Smith stated that things didn’t work out the way he wanted them to. He added that he was coming fresh out of Men in Black with a winner’s attitude, which did not work in his favor.
Wild Wild West was the recipient of a ton of negative awards, including eight Golden Raspberry Awards and four Stinkers Bad Movie Awards. From the Worst Picture to the Worst on-screen couple, the film took all the negativity home!
You can rent/buy Wild Wild West on Prime Video.
Source: GQ
