When BBC Worldwide partnered with Greenlight Media and the latter helped raise money for the film, the filmmakers reviewed over 70,000 hours of raw footage from The Blue Planet.

Filmmakers enlisted Fenton to compose the film's score, which was performed by the Berlin Philharmonic in their cinematic debut.

Variety reported, "'Deep Blue' world preemed at San Sebastian to applause Saturday.

[5] Not including the United States, Deep Blue was theatrically distributed in over 20 territories and grossed $30 million at the box office.

[9] Miramax Films acquired rights in December 2003 to distribute Deep Blue in North America.

Kern commended footage of deep-sea creatures as "so exotic they would be the envy of any science-fiction film".

In the end, a sliver of knowledge may be gained, or environmental concerns only briefly alluded to might be pondered, but mostly what remains are pretty pictures that quickly fade into oblivion.