Troy is an Oscar-nominated movie released on May 14, 2004 about the Trojan War, as described in Homer's Iliad, Virgil's Aeneid, and other Greek myths. However, the plot differs significantly from Homer. The film has the following cast of actors prominent at the time of its release: Brad Pitt as Achilles, Eric Bana as Hector, Orlando Bloom as Paris, Diane Kruger as Helen, Brian Cox as Agamemnon, Sean Bean as Odysseus, Garrett Hedlund as Patroclus, and Peter O'Toole as Priam. It is directed by Wolfgang Petersen, and written by David Benioff. It received an Oscar nomination for its costume design.
Troy was an expensive film from its conception. When the film was completed, total production costs were approximately $180,000,000. This makes Troy one of the most expensive films made in modern cinema. Not adjusted for inflation, it is number 8 on the all time list of most expensive films and number 15 when adjusted for inflation.
Troy screenings have earned $133 million (US$133,378,256) in the United States. Having cost $180 million to make, the film was a disappointment in the US. Many critics anticipated that it would flop as Troy barely missed the $50 million mark on its opening US weekend and wrote off the film. Troy was among the several historical epics released in 2004 that disappointed, such as Alexander, The Alamo, and King Arthur, although it fared better than those films.
However, Troy did extremely well at the international box office financial success, making more than 73% of its revenues outside of the U.S. Eventually Troy made over US$497 million dollars worldwide, placing it in the #52 spot of top box office hits of all time. This places the film 18 spots above Gladiator (#70) and approximately 20 spots above 300 (#72). in the all-time worldwide box office.
Troy met mixed reactions by reviewers. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a Tomatometer rating of 55% from a base of 211 reviews while Yahoo! Movies gave it a critic rating of "B-" (although that was based on 15 Critical Reviews). Roger Ebert, who seemed to dislike what he saw as an unfaithful adaptation of the Iliad, gave it two stars out of four Ebert claimed that Troy "sidesteps the existence of the Greek gods, turns its heroes into action movie clichés and demonstrates that we're getting tired of computer-generated armies." David Denby of The New Yorker, however, seemed to like it : "[It's] harsh, serious, and both exhilarating and tragic, the right tonal combination for Homer."Wikipedia
