Release The film, produced by
Disney's Touchstone Pictures, was distributed by
Buena Vista Pictures in North America and most territories, while
Spyglass Entertainment handled select European sales through its distribution partners.
Critical response Among mainstream critics in the United States, the film received mainly negative reviews.
Rotten Tomatoes reported that 24% of 115 sampled critics gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 4.1/10 and the consensus, "Beauty only goes skin deep in this shallow but visually stunning film." At
Metacritic, which assigns a
weighted average out of 100 to critics' reviews, the film received a score of 34 based on 36 reviews. Audiences surveyed by
CinemaScore gave the film a grade "C−" on a scale of A to F. The film's reception among French-language critics was markedly different in positive fashion. Film journal
Cahiers du Cinéma devoted several articles to De Palma and
Mission to Mars at the time of its release, and placed it as #4 in their list of the 10 best films of 2000. The film was screened out of competition at the
2000 Cannes Film Festival. Mark Halverson, writing in
Sacramento News & Review, said "My inner child felt cheated that the film leapt from an astronaut barbecue to Mars without so much as a rocket launch and that the best special effect (a sandstorm nod to
The Mummy) was unveiled in the first 20 minutes." He added, "This visually alluring mess also includes gobs of cheesy dialogue and a hokey-looking alien." Left unimpressed, Bob Graham in the
San Francisco Chronicle, wrote that the film "meanders into space-mystico mumbo jumbo. We're supposed to share the characters' awe at the wonder of the universe, but more likely the audience will wonder whatever were the filmmakers thinking." Graham characterized
Mission to Mars as "a very mixed bag: rhapsodic cinematography, several genuine shocks amid a suffocating air of gooeyness, impressive visual effects – even if some seem to exist in a vacuum – and an absolutely loony conclusion."
Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times, said the film "contains conversations that drag on beyond all reason. It is quiet when quiet is not called for. It contains actions that deny common sense. And for long stretches the characters speak nothing but boilerplate". He believed that "It misses too many of its marks. But it has extraordinary things in it. It's as if the director, the gifted Brian De Palma, rises to the occasions but the screenplay gives him nothing much to do in between them." The film however, was not without its supporters. Michael Wilmington of the
New York Daily News, exclaimed the film was "One of the most gorgeous science-fiction movies ever - and probably also one of the most realistic in detail and scientific extrapolation".
Richard Corliss of
TIME commented that "This isn't
2001, by a long shot, but for 2000, it'll do nicely". William Arnold of the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, added to the positive sentiment by saying "Here and there an inspired shot makes the film come alive, and at least three of its sequences had me positioned well on the edge of my seat." Writing for
The Austin Chronicle, Marc Savlov noted that the "
Mission to Mars falls prey to an overwhelming sense of a man trying to please everyone all the time." He went further, that "De Palma has reached out to embrace a larger audience and seemingly sacrificed those traits that drew us to him in the first place: his singular vision, his clinical stylistics, and the palpable sense of dread that his best films engender." In a mixed review,
James Berardinelli writing for
ReelViews, called the film "Ineptly directed, badly acted, and scripted with an eye towards stupidity and incoherence, the film is worthwhile only to those who are in desperate need of a nap. And, as is often the case when a big budget, high profile motion picture self-destructs, this one does so in spectacular fashion." Describing a mixed opinion,
J. Hoberman of
The Village Voice said the film encompassed "a touchy-feely esprit that's predicated on equal parts
Buck Rogers bravado and backyard barbecue, the whole burnt burger drenched in Ennio Morricone's elegiac western-style score".
Elvis Mitchell of
The New York Times, stated that the "visual design is spectacular, and the scenes on the Martian surface look so real that the picture could have been made on location. A
holographic sequence detailing the evolutionary link between Earth and Mars is staggeringly well staged." Similarly,
Todd McCarthy wrote in
Variety that the film's "dramatic package that it arrives in is so flimsy, unconvincing and poorly wrought that it's impossible to be swept away by the illustrated version of creationism on offer." He did note "Pictorially, the film is smooth and pristine looking. De Palma and his frequent cinematographer Stephen H. Burum go for their patented swooping and twisting camera moves whenever possible, and there are some very nice ones onboard the recovery ship."
Lisa Schwarzbaum writing for
Entertainment Weekly deduced that "
Mission to Mars wants us to think about lofty things: the bravery of explorers, the ingenuity of our nation's space program, the humility required to comprehend the possibility that we earthlings are not the be-all and end-all of creation. But De Palma's film is too embarrassed, too jittery and self-conscious to hush up and pay attention." A student-written and sharply negative
Daily Eastern News review of
Mission to Mars negatively assessed the screenwriters' overall contribution to the film industry, stating that they had "come to the conclusion that Jim and John Thomas should never be allowed to write a screenplay ever again."
Box office The film premiered in cinemas on March 10, 2000, in wide release throughout the U.S. During its opening weekend, the film opened in first place, grossing $22,855,247 in business showing at 3,054 locations. The film
The Ninth Gate came in second place during that weekend grossing $6,622,518. The film's revenue dropped by 50% in its second week of release, earning $11,385,709. For that particular weekend, the film fell to second place screening in 3,060 theaters.
Erin Brockovich unseated
Mission to Mars to open in first place, grossing $28,138,465 in box office revenue. During its final weekend in release, it opened in a distant 72nd place with $17,467 in revenue. The film went on to top out domestically at $60,883,407 in total ticket sales through an 18-week theatrical run. ==Home media==