Cleopatra (Film)

Cleopatra (1963) was an epic film costing a then-astronomical $44 million in budget costs (more than $320M in today's dollars), and which was initially considered a flop so disastrous that it ended big-budget films for a while.^[1] Boring, tediously long at 4 hours and 3 minutes, and featuring too much make-up, the movie was initially rejected by moviegoers and panned by some critics, although it won 4 minor Academy Awards (best costume design, best visual effects, cinematography, and production design). Part of the cost overruns were due to an attempt to film it in London, where it rans too often to make this type of outdoor film.

But over the years, including a 50-year anniversary release, it has done better and has attained worldwide total revenues of $71 million.

This movie is being remade, with a different spin, for release in 2022.^[2]

Liberal Opposition to this Film[edit]

Liberals may have punished this movie as their backlash against the record-breaking success of the conservative Ben-Hur (1959 film). Liberals disliked the successful run of epic conservative movies in the 1950s, from The Ten Commandments to Ben-Hur, and in Cleopatra there was an opportunity to kill off the epic movie genre by ruining it at the Oscars and box office. Also, Cleopatra was contrary to feminist ideology emerging at the time of the film.

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