Why a lavish 1971 epic about the Romanovs became a commercial disaster

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Producer Sam Spiegel aimed for an epic masterpiece to rival his previous successes, but Nicholas and Alexandra struggled under the weight of its own ambition. Despite a massive budget and high-profile talent, the film failed to connect with audiences, leaving a legacy defined more by its production woes than its history.

The 1971 film Nicholas and Alexandra was born from producer Sam Spiegel’s desire to create a sweeping historical drama following his fallout with director David Lean. Based on Robert K. Massie’s 1967 biography, the project suffered from a revolving door of directors, including George Stevens and Anthony Harvey, before Franklin J. Schaffner was hired in July 1970. Spiegel, known for his perfectionism, faced tighter budget constraints from Columbia Pictures than in his past collaborations, forcing him to compromise on his ideal casting choices, such as Peter O'Toole and Vanessa Redgrave.

The production was an enormous undertaking, with principal photography spanning 20 weeks in Spain and Yugoslavia. Despite the film's visual opulence—which earned it Academy Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design—critics were divided. While some praised its exquisite taste, others, like Alex von Tunzelmann, found it bloated and unwieldy. The film was also plagued by historical inaccuracies, such as the inclusion of Pyotr Stolypin in scenes set after his 1911 assassination and anachronistic depictions of Stalin’s activities in 1903.

Commercially, the film was a failure. It cost $9 million to produce but grossed only $7 million, eventually losing Columbia $3 million by the end of the 1970s. Its reception highlights the difficulty of translating dense historical narratives into cinema; as critics noted, the film often felt like it had more history than its makers knew how to handle. Today, it remains a curious artifact of 1970s epic filmmaking, remembered for Tom Baker’s performance as Rasputin and its lavish, if overlong, commitment to detail.

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