Tombstone & Wyatt Earp Were In Clear Competition In The 1990s
Costner's Initial Casting In Tombstone Intensified The Rivalry
Released just six months apart with the exact same biographical subject, Tombstone and Wyatt Earp were in clear competition, making for one of the biggest movie rivalries of the ‘90s. The feud between these two films was only intensified by the fact that Kevin Costner, the star of Wyatt Earp, was originally signed on to star in Tombstone (via Hollywood Elsewhere). During the development of Tombstone, Costner disagreed with screenwriter Kevin Jarre over what the movie should focus on. Costner wanted to focus the story solely on Earp, whereas Jarre wanted to explore a large cast of colorful supporting characters.
Tombstone
still managed to score a stacked supporting cast, including Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton, Jason Priestley, Thomas Haden Church, Dana Delaney, and Billy Bob Thornton.
So, Costner left the project and teamed up with Kasdan to produce a rival Wyatt Earp biopic. Kasdan was initially planning to tell Earp’s life story as a six-hour miniseries, but Costner’s casting (at the height of his stardom) led to the project being retooled as a three-hour movie. Costner had considerable clout in Hollywood at the time, so he convinced most of the major studios to refuse to distribute Cosmatos’ competing Earp biopic. Costner’s sabotage made it a lot tougher for Cosmatos to cast the roles in Tombstone with A-listers. Tombstone was very much the underdog in this fight.
Tombstone Had Better Reviews Than Wyatt Earp
Roger Ebert Hailed Tombstone As The Superior Film
In spite of Costner doing everything in his power to suppress Tombstone, the rival project was much better received by critics than Costner’s own Wyatt Earp. Tombstone has an impressive “fresh” Rotten Tomatoes score of 73%, while Wyatt Earp holds the dismal “rotten” rating of 32%. Wyatt Earp’s rating is based on nearly twice as many reviews as Tombstone’s, but that just means even more critics hated it. Tombstone was praised for its solid storytelling and ensemble cast, while Wyatt Earp was panned for its overlong runtime (clocking in at a whopping 190 minutes) and its unfocused screenplay.
Rotten Tomatoes Critics' Score
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score
Tombstone
73% | 94% |
Wyatt Earp
32% | 61% |
It didn’t help that Wyatt Earp’s arrival six months after Tombstone forced critics to draw comparisons between the two. In his review of Wyatt Earp, Roger Ebert noted that, while Wyatt Earp is a more ambitious project than Tombstone, Tombstone is a lot clearer about its creative goals and is ultimately a better movie. Tombstone managed to place on a few critics’ year-end best-of lists, while Wyatt Earp did the opposite and became a staple of critics’ worst-of lists the following year. In terms of critical reception, there’s no competition whatsoever between these two movies: Tombstone came out on top.
Tombstone Was A Success At The Box Office, But Wyatt Earp Bombed
Wyatt Earp Failed To Make Back Its Production Budget
Budget
Box Office (Worldwide)
Tombstone
$25 million | $73.2 million |
Wyatt Earp
$63 million | $25 million |
Tombstone didn’t just win the war with Wyatt Earp in terms of its critical reception; it was also much more successful at the box office. Tombstone grossed $56.5 million at the domestic box office (via The Numbers) and $73.2 million worldwide on a budget of just $25 million, meaning the movie made a nice profit beyond its break-even point of about $62.5 million (2.5 times its budget). Wyatt Earp, on the other hand, didn’t fare nearly as well. It grossed a meager global total of just $25 million (via Box Office Mojo) against a bloated production budget of $63 million.
This meant that Wyatt Earp fell far short of breaking even, let alone turning a profit. The film’s $63 million production budget would place its break-even point somewhere around $157.5 million. With a worldwide gross of $25 million, Wyatt Earp made it about 15% of the way toward breaking even, while Tombstone breezed past its break-even point and into the black. Tombstone’s $73.2 million worldwide haul might not sound particularly impressive next to the figures earned by bona fide blockbusters like Jaws and Star Wars, but it still ranks among the highest-grossing Westerns since the genre’s heyday ended in 1979.
Tombstone's Legacy As A Great Western Endures (& Wyatt Earp Cannot Compete)
Even after taking all these losses in the battle against Tombstone, Wyatt Earp still could’ve come out on top if it stood the test of time. If Tombstone had been forgotten about after its initial success and Wyatt Earp had eventually been reappraised as a cult classic, then the latter still could’ve emerged as the victor in this fight. But, alas, that didn’t happen. Wyatt Earp’s reputation has not improved over time, but Tombstone still endures as a classic of the Western genre today. A book chronicling the making of the movie, The Making of Tombstone, was published in 2018.
While Wyatt Earp was nominated for five Razzies – and “won” two (Worst Actor for Costner and Worst Remake or Sequel) – Tombstone remains a widely beloved movie today. The gunfight at the O.K. Corral sequence midway through the movie is still considered to be one of the greatest set pieces in the Western genre. Val Kilmer’s scene-stealing turn as Doc Holliday opposite Kurt Russell’s Earp is still talked about (and heavily quoted). In the battle between Tombstone and Wyatt Earp, Wyatt Earp seemed to have everything going for it, but Tombstone won the fight in every conceivable way.
What Made Tombstone Such A Much Bigger Success
Tombstone Makes For An Entertaining And Rewatchable Western Ride
Despite was intended by having these two movies on the same subject go head-to-head, Tombstone emerged as the clear winner at the time and the years have only solidified that fact. While Wyatt Earp had a lot of strong qualities on paper, Tombstone managed to be the superior movie in terms of box office success, critical acclaim, and overall legacy. While it might sound dismissive, the reason Tombstone comes out so far ahead is that it was the better movie and a big part of that comes from knowing what kind of movie it should be.
Though Kevin Costner had success with epic Westerns in the past, there was not much interest in seeing a long and dramatic look at Earp's life. In contrast, Tombstone understood that bringing such an iconic Western figure to the big screen deserved a fun and thrilling entry in the genre. Tombstone was filled with action, humor, and sharp characters that made for an entertaining portrait of this story rather than taking itself too seriously as a piece of cinema.
The endless one-liners and the colorful characters worth hanging out with make
Tombstone
a great movie to rewatch over and over
Critics also seemed to appreciate that the movie was a throwback to the adventure Westerns with clear-cut good guys and bad guys. The Western genre had been falling out of favor in recent years or drifting towards dark, complex takes on the old stories, as in Unforgiven. Tombstone was a reminder of the fun of these rollicking Western adventures with heroic lawmen taking on villainous cowboys.
What has helped the movie remain so popular over the years, while Wyatt Earp has largely faded from memory, is the strong script and entertaining characters. Kurt Russell was the ideal Western hero, a tough guy who wouldn't back down from any fight, while Val Kilmer's charismatic and funny Doc Holliday provided endless quotes to stay with audiences. However, the villains were also fascinating to watch with Powers Boothe, Michael Biehn, and Stephen Lang all delivering wonderful performances.
The endless one-liners and the colorful characters worth hanging out with make Tombstone a great movie to rewatch over and over, reminding audiences what they liked so much about it in the first place.
Source: Hollywood Elsewhere, Roger Ebert, The Numbers, Box Office Mojo
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