wasn't surprised at all when learning about Volcano bombing but I am surprised this movie bombed too. It made only a measly 67m despite a huge 116m budget (huge for 1997). And only 178m worldwide. Not even two times it budget. Why did this flop?
shareIt still was an overall gross, it made a lot of money regardless how it did in the US.
shareIt went up against Volcano and kind of ever saturated the market. It was the more realistic and dramatic depiction of Volcano's compared to it's rival, but was not as popular enough to hit number 1, Volcano did in April 1997 for a week.
What Dante offered in accuracy and setting, Volcano responded back with action and star power. In my opinion Volcano is about as good in that regards, it is more of an action flick while this is more of a drama/science film. Dante was more popular overseas than in the US, that's how it made money. Brosnan can be thanked for that.
Everyone was in love with Star Wars on its 20th anniversary, that was a big part of it. Plus the reviews weren't amazing (most I read described it as a CGI remake of Jaws, which it basically is) and even in the overseas market, where it did pretty well, the most talked about film after Star Wars was Scream. In America, the surprise hit of the spring season was Anaconda.
It may have done better if released a bit later in the summer months, but who'd be brave enough to go up against The Lost World, Men in Black, Speed 2, Con Air, The 5th Element and Batman and Robin that year? They weren't all good or successful movies in retrospect, but at the time they WERE all expected to be massive.
Looking at the disaster movie glut from 1996-1998, it wasn't as successful as Twister but it did outperform Volcano, Hard Rain (which had its name changed from The Flood as audiences were fed up of the disaster genre by then) and Daylight. If you consider Godzilla, Speed 2, Con Air, Executive Decision, Independence Day, Mars Attacks and The Rock to be sort-of disaster movies, then Dantes Peak was either better reviewed or higher grossing than about half of those.
Visually speaking, it is and has already been a gorgeous film whatever its other flaws.
==================================
The Space Shuttle Atlantis music video: http://youtu.be/ZZ67FMfC1Gg
PS I forgot to add Titanic and Armageddon to the list of disaster movies from that era. Armageddon outperformed Dante commercially but was probably about as well received critically, whereas Titanic was the biggest success of the genre - in fact, the biggest hit of the decade.
================================
The Space Shuttle Atlantis music video: http://youtu.be/ZZ67FMfC1Gg
yeah I don't get it either,, only thing I can figure is it came out right when Volcano came out,, back then Hollywood for some reason scheduled certain movies with certain themes in pairs.. Dante's peak was paired with Volcano.
are you going to bark all day little doggie,, or are you going to bite
All I know is I miss movies like these.
You want to play the game, you'd better know the rules, love.
-Harry Callahan
It was a middling hit but below expectations. It did do a lot better than Volcano.
Its that man again!!
This movie didn't do well? I admit I was surprised when I saw the IMdB rating. This was a good movie with good acting. It was definitely more scientific than Volcanoe; but I personally love both movies.
Clark Kent + Lois Lane 4ever
DC Can Suck It
I liked it too & have it on DVD. Yes, some of the science may be faulty but that can be said of many movies. In fact, there are many people who still say the planes crashing into the WTC couldn't cause the buildings to burn & fall.
The acting was good & it had a great cast. It deserves a higher rating on here but then when I read some of the comments on these boards you have to realize maturity isn't a necessity to rate movies on IMDb...
did you see the deleted scene where harry asks Q to send little nelly
Seems today any movie worth seeing bombs. I'll take this and Daylight over that overrated piece of crap Gravity any day.
shareYeah wow there were a lot of disaster movies around that time. Armageddon, Deep Impact, Poseidon Adventure remake, Dante's Peak, Volcano, Twister, Idependence Day, Daylight, Firestorm, Hard Rain what am I forgetting. Even Lost World turned into a Godzilla movie at the end.
shareSeems today any movie worth seeing bombs. I'll take this and Daylight over that overrated piece of crap Gravity any day.