Kevin Costner’s Epic 32-Year-Old Western Box Office Flop Becomes Netflix Hit At The Perfect Time

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Despite initially failing at the box office in 1994, the Kevin Costner Western Wyatt Earp is now finding an audience on Netflix. The film, which stars Costner as the famous lawman, earned only $55.9 million in theaters, falling short of its $63 million production cost.

Today, February 2nd, the movie Wyatt Earp is surprisingly popular on Netflix, landing at number 8 in the U.S. It’s currently behind The Rip at number 1, as well as Copshop, M3GAN 2.0, Night at the Museum, Faith in the Flames: The Nichole Jolly Story, and Forever. It’s ahead of Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates and Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart, which is at number 10.

With Kevin Costner’s popular Western work slowing down – he departed Yellowstone this year and the fate of his Horizon films is unclear – now is a great moment for interest in Wyatt Earp to resurface on Netflix. Costner is also working on The Gray House, a Civil War miniseries coming to Prime Video on February 26th.

Directed by Lawrence Kasdan (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Dan Gordon), Wyatt Earp features Kevin Costner in the lead role as the famous lawman. The film traces Earp’s life from his youth through his time as a marshal, culminating in the historic gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

The film features a large and impressive cast, including Dennis Quaid as Doc Holliday, alongside Gene Hackman, David Andrews, Linden Ashby, Jeff Fahey, Joanna Going, Mark Harmon, Michael Madsen, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Pullman, Isabella Rossellini, Tom Sizemore, JoBeth Williams, Mare Winningham, James Gammon, Rex Linn, Adam Baldwin, Annabeth Gish, Lewis Smith, Betty Buckley, James Caviezel, Téa Leoni, and Martin Kove.

The film Wyatt Earp received a mixed reception from critics, earning a 31% score on Rotten Tomatoes. While reviewers acknowledged the movie’s strong performances and visual style, they found it difficult to fully connect with due to its long and rambling storyline. However, audiences seemed to enjoy it more, giving it a 61% rating.

The movie Wyatt Earp is a good example of a ‘twin film’ – it was made to compete with Tombstone, which also told the story of Wyatt Earp (played by Kurt Russell) and came out six months earlier in 1993. Tombstone did very well financially and is now considered one of the greatest Westerns, but Wyatt Earp received only average reviews and didn’t perform well in theaters.

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2026-02-03 02:28