Undoubtedly one of the finest living filmmakers still working today, Ridley Scott is still going strong at age 86. As the four-time Oscar nominee prepares to unleash Gladiator II on the masses in November 2024, Scott has been reflecting on his decorated 60-year career in show business. While all-time great classics like Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down mark Scott’s most successful commercial and critical highlights, several movies like 1492: Conquest of Paradise failed to deliver strong box office numbers.
Although several factors always contribute to the financial failure of a film release, Scott claims that 1492 was rejected by American audiences in 1992 because they couldn’t understand European accents. Whether true or not, 1492 joins a small subset of titles directed by Scott, such as White Squall and The Last Duel, that lost money at the box office relative to its production budget. The rare Ridley Scott flop deserves closer scrutiny to understand why Americans failed to respond to the tale of Christopher Columbus discovering the Americas on its 500th anniversary.
What Is 1492: Conquest of Paradise About?
Scripted by Rose Bosch, 1492: Conquest of Paradise is an epic, big-budget spectacle recounting Christopher Columbus’ voyage to the New World. Planned to celebrate the 500th anniversary (quincentenary) of Columbus’ famous 1492 quest, the movie stars French actor, Gérard Depardieu, as the Italian explorer. While casting a Frenchman to deliver an Italian accent may not have been the best idea and may give credence to Scott’s assessment regarding European accents, other factors for the film’s failure played a role.
In addition to miscasting Depardieu and his intelligible accent as Columbus, Ridley Scott’s historical biopic was charged with taking too many inaccurate liberties. The film follows Columbus securing funds for his voyage from Queen Isabella I (Sigourney Weaver) in exchange for returning with gold and silver. When Columbus misleads his crew, a mutiny occurs before landing in the Bahamas. The French Depardieu, playing an Italian, begins teaching Spanish to the Indigenous Natives, perhaps further confusing audiences with different dialects and European accents.
While it’s hard to imagine this being the only reason the film flopped, Scott may have a point. Even so, he is the one who bears responsibility for the casting. Scott was adamant about casting Depardieu in the role and threatened not to make the movie if another actor was cast.
During the second voyage, Columbus returns to the Caribbean island with 17 ships and over 1,000 men. Upon arrival, he learns the natives have killed the settlers left behind. A war between the natives and Europeans ensues, resulting in the latter forcing the former to mine for gold as slaves as the violent chaos escalates. Columbus is discredited for discovering the New World, which is instead attributed to Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, hence the name “America.”
1492’s Commercial and Critical Response, Explained
Due to the epic nature of the production, 1492 was strapped with a $47 million budget (via Box Office Mojo), equivalent to $105 million in 2024. Expensive full-scale replicas of Columbus’ navigational ships were constructed. Yet, despite the pricey efforts to give audiences an enthralling big-screen marvel, the film performed badly at the box office. Against a $47 million budget, the film grossed a mere $7.2 million, ranking as Ridley Scott’s biggest financial flop on record. Only White Squall ($10 million grossed against a $38 million budget) and The Last Duel ($30 million grossed against a $100 million budget) come close.
Before addressing Scott’s reasoning for 1492‘s box office bomb, it’s worth noting that the film did not fare well among critics. Holding a 32% Rotten Tomatoes rating and 47 Metascore, the movie has far more problems than American distaste for European accents. According to RT’s critical consensus:
“Historically inaccurate and dramatically inert, Ridley Scott’s retelling of Christopher Columbus’ exploits is an epic without grandeur or insight.”
Part of the historical inaccuracies include the perpetuation of The Spanish Black Legend, which espouses anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic propaganda (via El Mundo). While some critics like Roger Ebert defended the film and Depardieu’s performance, another major factor played a key role in 1492‘s commercial capsize.
In August 1992, two months before 1492: A Conquest of Paradise opened in theaters, John Glen’s similar-themed Christopher Columbus: The Discovery beat Scott to the punch. While Glen’s movie was also a box office flop, grossing $8.2 million against a $45 million budget (via Box Office Mojo), it was still more lucrative than 1492. More importantly, the story covered the same territory as Scott’s film, rendering 1492 redundant when released two months after The Discovery. Scott maintains that 1492 sank due to the inability of American audiences to understand European accents, but the combination of The Discovery hitting theaters first and the critical remarks about 1492 spelled doom.
Why Ridley Scott Blames European Accents For 1492’s Failures
Upon promoting House of Gucci, Scott spoke with GamesRadar when the topic of 1492 was broached. When asked about the movie’s mixed reception, Scott praised Depardieu’s performance as Columbus but blamed the studio and American audiences for the poor reception, stating:
“Oh! I mean, Gerrard is fantastic. His French accent, I don’t think it got in the way at all, because I understood exactly what he was doing. But the studio were going “Yeah, we can’t understand him.”
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Scott went on to scold American viewers, adding:
“In America, their ear, they’re not used to different accents. They don’t hear s*** unless it’s from Texas or America, right? Or North Carolina. In Europe, we are used to accents, and so Gerard’s accent never bothered me at all. But that was an independent movie, I raised $47 million for an independent movie, are you kidding me? At Cannes, a friend at Paramount bought the rights $10 million. And then I had to sit at Cannes, which I hadn’t done since The Duelists, and my experience at Cannes had not been good on The Duelists, I didn’t want to go back. But I had to go back and pitch the movie. That production design was remarkable.
In addition to blaming unsophisticated Americans for 1492‘s failure, Scott lambasted Gen Z audiences addicted to their smartphones for The Last Duel flopping at the box office. Even so, Scott quickly noted that 1492 underperformed in the U.S., “But in Europe, it clocked $57 million.” While not enough to eclipse Scott’s highest-grossing movies, 1492 is often forgotten among Scott’s filmography.
1492: Conquest of Paradise is available to stream on Kanopy and rent on Apple TV.
