The Most Colossal Sci-Fi Western Flop of the ’90s Rides Onto Free Streaming



[

The first Star Wars movie in seven years, The Mandalorian and Grogu, was effectively wiped out at the box office by the massively successful horror hits Obsession and Backrooms. The two horror movies cost less than $1 million and $10 million, respectively, and have grossed more than $300 million worldwide each. In fact, The Mandalorian and Grogu is poised to ultimately finish its theatrical run as the lowest-grossing film of the three, even though it cost a reported $165 million to produce and millions more to market. The new Star Wars movie also happens to be the lowest-grossing installment of the legendary franchise, and has virtually no chance of outgrossing Solo: A Star Wars Story, which made around $390 million worldwide in 2018. However, an even bigger sci-fi Western bomb was released back in 1999, and is now streaming for free.

The movie in question cost a reported $170 million and grossed around $220 million worldwide. It was headlined by Will Smith, who infamously passed on The Matrix to star in it. Smith had recently been crowned the biggest star of the 1990s, thanks to hits such as Bad Boys, Men in Black, and Independence Day. The 1999 movie reunited him with his Men in Black director Barry Sonnenfeld, and also features Kevin Kline, Salma Hayek, and Kenneth Branagh.



















Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz
Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like?
Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky

Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.

🏜️Paul Atreides

🖖Capt. Kirk

Princess Leia

🔦Ellen Ripley

🔥Max Rockatansky

01

How do you lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher?
The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.





02

What is your greatest strength in a crisis?
The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.





03

What is the thing you’d sacrifice everything else for?
Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.





04

How do you relate to the people around you?
Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.





05

You’re facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do?
How you respond when you’re the only one who sees it defines everything.





06

What has your heroism cost you personally?
Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they’d pay it again.





07

How do you feel about the rules of the world you’re in?
Every hero has a relationship with the system. What’s yours?





08

When everything is on the line, what keeps you going?
The answer is the most honest thing about you.





Your Hero Has Been Identified
Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…

Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.


Arrakis · Dune

Paul Atreides

You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.

  • You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
  • You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn’t ask for but can’t escape.
  • Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
  • That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won’t, is exactly you.


USS Enterprise · Star Trek

Captain Kirk

You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.

  • You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
  • Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you’ve earned it.
  • Kirk’s genius isn’t tactical — it’s human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
  • That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.


The Rebellion · Star Wars

Princess Leia

You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.

  • You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
  • You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you’ve never looked back.
  • Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
  • That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.


The Nostromo · Alien

Ellen Ripley

You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.

  • You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
  • Ripley’s heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn’t have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
  • You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn’t there.
  • When it counts, you don’t flinch. That’s everything.


The Wasteland · Mad Max

Max Rockatansky

You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.

  • You don’t ask for help, don’t need validation, and don’t wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
  • Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it’s earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
  • Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
  • That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.

Here’s Where You Can Watch Will Smith’s Sci-Fi Western

We’re talking, of course, about Wild Wild West. The movie was inspired by a television series from the 1960s, and written by three pairs of writers. Wild Wild West was heavily marketed by Warner Bros., but it opened to extremely poor reviews. The movie now holds a 16% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “Bombastic, manic, and largely laugh-free, Wild Wild West is a bizarre misfire in which greater care was lavished upon the special effects than on the script.” Smith later expressed regret about choosing the movie over The Matrix, which was critically acclaimed and massively successful at the box office. In a YouTube video, Smith admitted that he isn’t proud of underestimating the Wachowskis and said, “If I had done it — because I’m Black — then Morpheus wouldn’t have been Black because they were looking at Val Kilmer. I was going to be Neo and Val Kilmer was going to be Morpheus. I probably would’ve messed The Matrix up, I would’ve ruined it. So I did y’all a favor.” You can watch Wild Wild West on Tubi, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.


01469227_poster_w780.jpg


Release Date

June 30, 1999

Runtime

106 minutes


https://static0.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/mcdwiwi_ec010.jpg?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop
https://collider.com/wild-wild-west-sci-fi-western-flop-streaming-free-tubi-july-2026/


Rohan Naahar
Almontather Rassoul

Latest articles

spot_imgspot_img

Related articles

Leave a reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

spot_imgspot_img