It is the most expensive science fiction film in the history of European cinema: it cost 200 million and was one of the biggest failures of all time.

In 2017, Luc Besson released one of his biggest projects: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, a blockbuster starring Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne.

The film was ambitious, it looked promising, and the director did not hesitate to bet on the latter: so much so that about 209 million dollars (197 million euros) were spent on the project – some sources say that this figure even exceeds 220 million. It meant investing in it the entire annual income of its production company EuropaCorp. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets In doing so, it became the most expensive science fiction film in European cinema history – and sadly, one of the biggest flops of all time.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets It was also supposed to be the first part of a franchise based on the comics by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières, an idea that did not materialize after its strong failure at the box office. The film actually earned $225.8 million internationally (remember, the budget is estimated at $200 to $220 million). It had to be over 400 million to be profitable…

This failure subsequently led to a noticeable slowdown in production for EuropaCorp, who, after three other feature films released in 2018, have since offered only three other films – which have also failed to shine at the box office.

Is the casting questionable?

Some people attributed this failure to the casting and in particular to its main duo. In the same year we were able to see Danny DeHaan Gore Verbinski’s sci-fi psychological horror film A Cure for Life, which received mixed reviews. before him Cara Delevingne David Ayer’s role as a villain in Suicide Squad left a very bad taste in the public eye. However, several other celebrities were intriguing: Ethan Hawke, Clive Owen or even the singer Rihanna – all names that could attract different audiences to the cinemas.

However, we cannot deny that the money spent at least served to create a world with undeniable visual power.

Recall that in this adventure, which takes place in the 28th century, a group of spatio-temporal agents responsible for maintaining order in human territories are assigned a new mission on the extraordinary intergalactic city of Alpha, an ever-expanding metropolis with species from all over the world. gathered over the centuries. But a secret lies at the heart of Alpha, a dark force that threatens the peaceful existence of thousands of planetary cities. What follows is a race against time to uncover a terrifying threat and save the world.

However, the visual quality and ambitions of the project did not go completely unnoticed by the public and critics. Rated 3 out of 5 by the French press and 3.3 out of 5 by AlloCiné viewers. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets Not a complete failure. On the American side, the film received a slight 48% positive opinion from the specialized press on the website Rotten Tomatoes and a 53% positive opinion from the audience. Enthusiasm certainly wasn’t great—and certainly not enough to move rooms.

In the end, the loss was estimated at $82 million, which was quite impressive for an independently produced film. Granted, there have been much bigger disasters recently – a good example would be Fox’s $100+ million loss on Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) – but that doesn’t take away from the film’s unfortunate “merit”. Luc Besson.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is currently available on TF1+.