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Caveman movies do not have an estimable track record of critical or commercial success.
Lets take a look, shall we?
Portraying the "stone age" was popular in the silent era, including Buster Keaton ("Three Ages") and D.W. Griffith ("Bruteforce"), and later, Laurel & Hardy ("Flying Elephants").
ONE MILLION B.C. (1940) was produced and directed by Silent comedy king Hal Roach, but it was not a comedy ... at least not intentionally. Although more of a "B movie" (or a "BC" movie, actually), it was the first big studio cave man hit. With Lon Chaney challenged for the leadership of the tribe by young hunk Victor Mature, and the stunning Carole Landis as the cavegirl-next-door. In glorious Black & White, the cheezy effects were nominated for an Oscar!
Before the technicolor remake with Raquel Welch 26 years later, there were a few other crappy little caveman movies:
Return of the Ape Man (44)
Prehistoric Women (50)
World Without End (56)
Teenage Caveman (58)
Monster on the Campus (58)
Dinosaurus! (60)
Valley of the Dragons (61)
Eegah! (62)
Some, like PREHISTORIC WOMEN and TEENAGE CAVEMAN (with young Robert Vaughn), used the structure of 1 MIILION B.C., with prehistoric cave folk in their native habitat (absurdly depicted as it was). Other movies brought cavemen into the modern world (EEGAH, RETURN OF THE APE MAN, DINOSAURUS!), and some others put modern men into a prehistoric environment (VALLEY OF THE DRAGONS, WORLD WITHOUT END). These 3 basic storytelling tropes evolved into the entirety of the sub-genre.
Then Raquel came along in Hammer Film's remake of 1 MILLION B.C. (1966) and sealed the deal, with her fur bikini-full of technicolor widescreen pulchritude. Ray Harryhausen great SFX dinosaurs made it memorable, too.
The next year (1968) featured Charlton Heston amongst the primitive tribesmen of Earth's future, instead of its past, in PLANET OF THE APES; and then Stanley Kubrick took the caveman to its high water mark, in the 1st section of the historic 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.
After that, some caveman movies took their cue from Ms. Welch's sexually charged cavewoman. From 1970-72, there were a trilogy of Italian sexploitation movies ("when women had tails""when women lost their tails", "when women played ding dong"... i shit you not).
There was also the "modern man/prehistoric world" pics, like THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT (75) and its sequel, THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT (77), based on E.R. Burroughs books.
The 1980s had satires, like Ringo Starr's CAVEMAN (81) and the sex comedy CAVEGIRL (85). CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR (86) wasn't supposed to be funny, but sure was. The decade's "cave man in his own world" movies also ncluded Jean-Jacque Annaud's QUEST FOR FIRE (82), which attempted seriousness and featured the discovery of the missionary position, amongst other prehistoric inventions. The italian exploitation film CONQUEROR OF THE WORLD (83) took the violence to repulsive levels, but the docu-drama style of MISSING LINK (88) gave the genre more credibility.
In the "cave man in the modern world" line, ICEMAN (84) was a serious attempt to capture the sense of isolation inherent in this type of story. The regression of William Hurt into a primitive state in ALTERED STATES (80) was fun, but took itself way too seriously.
This storyline is picked up with purely comic intent in the 90s with Brendan Fraser's ENCINO MAN. Soon after, THE FLINTSTONES (94) live-action comedy (and its sequel, VIVA ROCK VEGAS, in 2000), brings over-the-top cartoonishness to the forefront to bury the genre for good.
And now, popmeister Emmerich has made a mishmash of the genre for a new generation, with cutting edge CGI SFX in "10,000 B.C." I hear it does suck hard, though. So i guess it won't recusitate this genre, one as old as the movie industry itself.
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