Jupiter Ascending is a sci-fi movie from the creators of The Matrix with a budget of 175 million dollars – yet in the end, the film flopped at the box office. As the lead actress Mila Kunis revealed, the actors were already aware from the beginning that the success would not come.
Jupiter Ascending was directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski, who are already known for The Matrix. The sci-fi blockbuster, with a budget of around 175 million dollars, hit theaters in 2015.
However, the film failed with both critics and audiences and turned out to be a financial disaster. It barely managed to recoup its production costs. Thus, Jupiter Ascending also ended up on our colleagues’ list of the least profitable films of 2015 at Filmstarts.
Here you can see a trailer for the sci-fi blockbuster featuring Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum:
The failure likely didn’t surprise the actors of the film. They had already anticipated a flop before filming began.
Mila Kunis, who played the lead role of Jupiter Jones in Jupiter Ascending, discussed the sci-fi film on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast with host Josh Horowitz.
She mentioned that the main actors realized very early on that Jupiter Ascending would flop: “When did we know it [that the film would fail]? Before we even started shooting, because our production was simply cut in half.”
The actress further explained that the budget of the film was originally twice as large. However, it was then cut shortly before the pre-production phase for several reasons.
That was exactly the problem. Because in her opinion, if much more money had been spent, a much better result could have been achieved.
After the budget cut, the film suddenly became completely different than planned, and good content from the script had to be removed.
Not only Mila Kunis but also co-star Channing Tatum expressed negative opinions about the sci-fi blockbuster in an interview.
In an interview with Variety, the actor mentioned that he had shot four films back to back without a break, which is why he couldn’t deliver the performance he wanted in the last two projects. He simply lacked energy.
Jupiter Ascending was a nightmare from the beginning
, Tatum said. He further continued: “It was a side movie. We all were there for seven months and busted our butts. It was just tough.”
If you’re sci-fi fans, then this list might also be interesting for you: The 13 Best Science Fiction Movies According to IMDb
