Alec Baldwin And Ian McKellen Starred In A '90s Superhero Flop Few Remember

Who knows what evil lurks in the box office? The Shadow knows ... but it sure didn't make any pop culture ripples with that knowledge.

It took the dawn of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for obscure and lesser-known superheroes like the Guardians of the Galaxy to start turning into box office smashes, but across the history of superhero films, Hollywood has always been trying. The 1990s, in particular, brought audiences many bizarre films featuring odd vigilantes, with the veritable box office success of 1989's game-changing "Batman" on the minds of many studio executives who apparently didn't realize a purple-suited Billy Zane as "The Phantom" was going to flop. One of the most interesting bombs of this era was the 1994 film "The Shadow," based on the 1930s pulp fiction character created by writer Walter B. Gibson. 

"The Shadow" follows post-war opportunist Lamont Cranston (Alec Baldwin) who takes up as a drug kingpin in Tibet following the war. As is often the case with handsome, fictional ne'er-do-wells, Cranston finds himself cosmically unable to avoid super-powered training that grants him abilities on the condition that he use them for good, including invisibility. Afterwards, he moves back to New York City, where Cranston maintains the facade of his former playboy lifestyle to avoid suspicion around his operations as a vigilante known as the Shadow. Of course, this is further complicated when Cranston meets socialite Margo Lane (Penelope Ann Miller) and her scientist father Dr. Reinhardt Lane (Ian McKellen). It's a great setup, and while the story and atmosphere of "The Shadow" made for a highly unique film, it bombed at the box office — and it's easy to see why.

"The Shadow" had a lot going for it: Alec Baldwin's movie star status, a roster of well-cast supporting players in Ian McKellen, Penelope Ann Miller, John Lone, and Tim Curry, "Highlander" director Russell Mulcahey at the wheel ... but it was also about a character that most people didn't recognize. And sure enough, "The Shadow" did not perform nearly as well the studio had planned. Released as a summer blockbuster with a budget of $40 million — and likely intended to spawn a franchise — it only made $32 million at the domestic box office, and has since been practically forgotten. It also often ranks among actor Ian McKellen's least memorable films, though the veteran actor wasn't given much to work with.

Now, if you're reading this in the 2020s, you might be thinking that Lamont Cranston's hero origin story sounds a lot like something you've seen before — Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins," in fact. However, while that movie did pull inspiration from the comics, and those comics had some parallels to the Shadow's pulp origin story (which is actually wildly different from the movie origin, mysticism aside), it's worth remembering that Nolan's film came out over a decade later. Tim Burton's Batman movies didn't dive into the Dark Knight's overseas training adventures at all. So for viewers in 1994, this would've seemed like a pretty unique and interesting origin for a cinematic vigilante ... if they'd seen the movie, which most people didn't.

While critics like Roger Ebert praised "The Shadow" for its stylistic choices, others decried its lack of story. The Washington Post's reviewer wrote, "Thin to begin with, the story and the actors are overwhelmed by the splendor of the outsize art deco sets," which echoed many other reviews of the time.