How Gigli Nearly Destroyed Ben Affleck's Career

Sometimes a box office bomb doesn't kill a franchise or a cinematic universe. Sometimes it kills the careers of the people who made it, and I don't think there's a better example of that than Gigli.

When the movie went into production, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were two of the biggest stars in Hollywood. While making the film, they started dating, got engaged, and became the most famous celebrity couple on the planet, earning their own nickname, Bennifer.

Bennifer's Real Romance Reshaped Gigli's Marketing

You'd think all of this would make the movie an easy hit, and that's exactly what the studio thought too. The studio forced the film's director, Martin Brest, to reshoot and recut the movie to feature more Bennifer and more romance, assuming that's what audiences wanted to see.

But they didn't. It was the complete opposite. Bennifer became so overexposed that by the time Gigli actually came out, audiences were sick to death of them.

Gigli Bombed and Took Bennifer Down With It

The film cost 75 million dollars to make but only grossed 7 million dollars at the box office. Because the movie and the relationship had become so intertwined, when Gigli bombed, so did Bennifer. The couple would not only postpone their wedding, but break up a few months later.

The movie became so toxic that when Affleck and Lopez appeared together again in Jersey Girl the following year, the marketing team for that film basically tried to hide the fact that Jennifer Lopez was even in it, because the studio was terrified audiences would think they were getting "Gigli 2." In the end, it didn't really matter, as Jersey Girl bombed as well.

Affleck Had to Reinvent Himself, Brest Never Directed Again

Jennifer Lopez's career would recover, but Affleck's career took such a massive hit that he basically had to reinvent himself as a director. One person never really recovered at all.

Gigli was directed by Martin Brest, the same director who had previously made Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run, and Scent of a Woman, all great films. After Gigli, he never directed another movie, on top of the fact that his only options at the time were to either recut and reshoot it or be fired.