10 Movies That Were Re-Edited After Release (And Why)
8. Heaven's Gate
Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate was an absolute disaster. It endured a tumultuous production phase that sent the film way over budget and was a critical and commercial disappointment upon its release, destroying director Michael Cimino's career and sinking distributor United Artists.
Cimino's first cut ran for well over five hours, a version the studio completely refused to release (understandably). The director then went and chopped about two hours from the film, and this is the cut that premiered in New York on 19 November 1980, to an overwhelmingly negative reception.
After a short one-week run with poor financial returns, the film was yanked from cinemas, re-cut again (this time, down to two-and-a-half-hours), and re-released. Ultimately, this didn't help: Heaven's Gate closed after its second week in theatres, and in total, only grossed $3.5 million against a reported $44 million budget.
More like... Hell's Gate, right? Eh?