Biggest box-office bombs of all time
Warner Bros.
Biggest box-office bombs of all time
Nicole Kidman in “The Invasion”
Making an expensive Hollywood movie is kind of like steering a gigantic cargo ship through a thunderstorm.
Onboard are hundreds of crew members, each performing a specific function. At the vessel’s main helm are a handful of leaders, including the captain (the director), who may still be beholden to the powers that be. Tensions run high and opinions can clash over the best course of action. It can seem like a miracle when the vessel arrives at its destination intact.
Stacker is honoring the occasions when big-budget vehicles fail to deliver the goods by ranking the biggest box-office bombs of all time using data from The Numbers. Rankings were compiled based on worldwide box office earnings only and do not incorporate video or other retail sales. Only the first 1,000 movies with the highest reported budgets were considered for this story.
Sometimes it’s easy to pinpoint where it all went wrong. Perhaps the storyline was difficult to follow or there were unexpected bumps that required a major change, such as bringing in a new director or having to recast the lead. Even a top-notch director and stellar cast aren’t always enough to prevent disaster at the box office.
Keep reading to discover the biggest box-office bombs of all time and determine how many you’ve seen.
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Walt Disney Pictures
#50. Around the World in 80 Days
Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan, and Cécile de France in “Around the World in 80 Days”
– Estimated loss: $38 million
– Production budget: $110 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $72 million
– Release date: June 16, 2004
A remake of the 1956 film based on Jules Verne’s classic novel, this action-adventure romp about an eccentric inventor who tries to travel the globe in 80 days stars Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan, and Cécile de France. It took plenty of liberties with its source material and deviated wildly from the plot of its predecessors, facts that likely led to it being a commercial failure.
Fox Animation Studio
#49. Titan A.E.
An animated still from “Titan A.E.”
– Estimated loss: $38.2 million
– Production budget: $75 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $36.8 million
– Release date: June 16, 2000
Combining traditional animation with CGI, “Titan A.E.” takes place in a distant future where Earth has been destroyed. A young man named Cale (voiced by Matt Damon) is threatened by killer aliens, so he must help locate an important spaceship, the Titan, before mankind perishes for good. The movie has a fairly strong fanbase to this day, but not enough to save it from tanking.
R.P. Productions
#48. Oliver Twist
Barney Clark in “Oliver Twist”
– Estimated loss: $38.3 million
– Production budget: $65 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $26.7 million
– Release date: Sept. 23, 2005
Roman Polanski directed this adaptation of the classic Charles Dickens story about a London orphan who joins a group of pickpockets to survive. Rotten Tomatoes perfectly summarizes why the movie was a commercial failure: Its visual style and character perspectives make it “a very impersonal experience.”
Warner Bros.
#47. The Invasion
Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig in The “Invasion”
– Estimated loss: $39.9 million
– Production budget: $80 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $40.1 million
– Release date: Aug. 17, 2007
“The Invasion,” a sci-fi film about a psychiatrist who suspects an alien invasion is altering humans’ emotional capacity, likely struggled to find an audience for two reasons. First, it was originally pitched and advertised as a remake of the 1956 hit “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” but the final product ended up being something else entirely: a fact that the average moviegoer likely wasn’t aware of before buying their ticket. Second, the fact that the film had two directors and two writing teams inevitably led to an awkwardly disjointed final product.
New Line Cinema
#46. Son of the Mask
Bill Farmer, Liam Falconer, and Ryan Falconer in “Son of the Mask”
– Estimated loss: $40.1 million
– Production budget: $100 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $59.9 million
– Release date: Feb. 18, 2005
A stand-alone sequel to “The Mask,” “Son of the Mask” follows Tim Avery (Jamie Kennedy) as he becomes a first-time father. This iteration had an entirely new cast, director, and writing team and, as a result, possessed none of the original film’s magic. Audiences and critics were wildly disappointed with the finished product.
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Universal Pictures
#45. Meet Joe Black
Claire Forlani and Brad Pitt in “Meet Joe Black”
– Estimated loss: $40.3 million
– Production budget: $85 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $44.7 million
– Release date: Nov. 13, 1998
Director Martin Brest was coming off the success of “Scent of a Woman” when he helmed this 1998 melodrama, in which a personified Death walks among the living in the form of a man named Joe Black (Brad Pitt). With a rich media magnate (Anthony Hopkins) as his guide, Death learns about life and even falls in love with a woman.
A remake of 1934’s “Death Takes a Holiday,” the film used a large percentage of its budget to depict the extravagant lifestyle of its wealthy characters. If Brest thought things would pick up for him with his next project, he was dead wrong: His next project was “Gigli,” which took the word “turkey” to another level.
CJ Entertainment
#44. The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle
Live actors in a scene with animated characters
– Estimated loss: $40.9 million
– Production budget: $76 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $35.1 million
– Release date: June 30, 2000
Turning a beloved children’s cartoon into a feature film might have seemed like a great idea to Hollywood executives, including Robert De Niro, who also starred, but this flop from 2000 proved to be an adaptation that few people were requesting. Like a low-budget follow-up to “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?,” this embarrassingly bad film mixes animation and live-action for an effect that was campy at best.
20th Century Fox
#43. Flight of the Phoenix
Dennis Quaid in front of an airplane in a desert
– Estimated loss: $41 million
– Production budget: $75 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $34 million
– Release date: Dec. 17, 2004
After a plane crashes in the Mongolian desert, survivors work on building a new plane from the wreckage in the 2004 remake of “Flight of the Phoenix.” Originally slated for release on a crowded Christmas lineup, the film was bumped up to Dec. 17—which did nothing to help its chances at the box office. Dennis Quaid, Tyrese Gibson, Giovanni Ribisi, and Hugh Laurie star.
Dino De Laurentiis Company
#42. The Last Legion
Colin Firth and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in “The Last Legion”
– Estimated loss: $41.6 million
– Production budget: $67 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $25.4 million
– Release date: Aug. 17, 2007
Part historical drama, part fantasy epic, “The Last Legion” blends the true story of the fall of the Roman Empire with legends like that of King Arthur. Based on a novel of the same name by Valerio Massimo Manfredi, the film lacked the sparkling writing and well-thought-out pacing of its source material.
Appian Way
#41. Live by Night
Ben Affleck in “Live by Night”
– Estimated loss: $43.2 million
– Production budget: $65 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $21.8 million
– Release date: Dec. 25, 2016
Ben Affleck wrote, directed, produced, and starred in this historical crime drama about a Florida bootlegger-turned-mobster. It seems the studio knew the film might be a flop from the start, seeing as the release date was changed no fewer than six times. In the end, nearly everyone agreed that while pieces of the film were good, it just lacked that certain something that would take it from derivative to memorable.
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Franchise Pictures
#40. 3000 Miles to Graceland
Christian Slater dressed as Elvis
– Estimated loss: $43.3 million
– Production budget: $62 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $18.7 million
– Release date: Feb. 23, 2001
When it comes to this 2001 clunker, the shocking news isn’t that it bombed—it’s that it cost so much to make in the first place. “3000 Miles to Graceland” follows a group of criminals who rob a casino and then turn on one another during an Elvis impersonation week. Its cast includes Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner, Courteney Cox, and Christian Slater, among numerous others. As it turns out, more than $12 million of the movie’s supposed budget went straight into an executive’s pocket, prompting one of the financiers to sue.
Atlas Entertainment
#39. Rollerball
LL Cool J in a red helmet playing rollerball
– Estimated loss: $44.1 million
– Production budget: $70 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $25.9 million
– Release date: Feb. 8, 2002
1975’s “Rollerball” is a dystopian film that takes swipes at an omnipresent corporate culture; its 2002 remake has the hallmarks of Hollywood money-grab. Drained of any social commentary, the plodding film takes place in the present day and centers on a violent, imaginary sport. And this time around, its critics were taking the harshest swipes.
Archive Photos // Getty Images
#38. Virus
Jamie Lee Curtis and Billy Baldwin in a scene from “Virus”
– Estimated loss: $44.4 million
– Production budget: $75 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $30.6 million
– Release date: Jan. 15, 1999
After boarding a Russian space vessel, members of an American crew come face to face with a deadly alien in this box-office fiasco from 1999. Most of the production budget presumably went toward special effects, and critics were accordingly impressed with the movie’s visual aesthetic. There was just one problem: The filmmakers forgot to include an original or compelling story.
Warner Bros.
#37. Red Planet
A woman in a space suit floating in outer space
– Estimated loss: $46.5 million
– Production budget: $80 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $33.5 million
– Release date: Nov. 10, 2000
While a movie about terraforming Mars might seem prescient in retrospect, “Red Planet” is mostly just a failed sci-fi thriller. In the film, Robby Gallagher (Val Kilmer) partakes in the first manned expedition to Mars, where he and his fellow astronauts encounter a range of deadly obstacles. After tanking on the domestic and international front, the movie earned itself the nickname “Dead Planet.”
TriStar Pictures
#36. Hudson Hawk
Bruce Willis lying in a coffin
– Estimated loss: $47.8 million
– Production budget: $65 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $17.2 million
– Release date: May 24, 1991
Every decade seems to have its signature flop; for the 1990s, it was “Hudson Hawk.” In the film, a cat burglar is blackmailed into stealing a precious work of art while eluding the wrath of various cartoonlike characters. Bruce Willis didn’t just play the lead role; he helped come up with the initial story.
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New Line Cinema
#35. Last Man Standing
Bruce Willis stands in a dusty street pointing a gun
– Estimated loss: $48.9 million
– Production budget: $67 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $18.1 million
– Release date: Sept. 20, 1996
Gritty director Walter Hill and occasionally gritty actor Bruce Willis teamed up for this remake of Akira Kurosawa’s “Yojimbo,” a movie that reportedly also inspired 1964’s “A Fistful of Dollars.” Willis plays a drifter who’s caught in the middle of a war between Irish and Italian gangsters; violence and sarcastic remarks ensue. However, it wasn’t enough to draw audience numbers—it tanked disastrously.
Warner Bros.
#34. Father’s Day
Robin Williams and Billy Crystal in “Father’s Day”
– Estimated loss: $49.3 million
– Production budget: $85 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $35.7 million
– Release date: May 9, 1997
Warner Bros. had high expectations for “Father’s Day,” seeing as it starred Robin Williams and Billy Crystal at the height of their respective careers with comedy veteran Ivan Reitman directing. However, Premiere magazine quoted a Warner Bros. insider saying, “When we saw the movie, it took the wind out of us.” Meanwhile, this film was just one among many major disappointments for the studio that year.
Summertime Entertainment
#33. Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return
Animated scene of a little girl and a giant bird surrounded by candy
– Estimated loss: $49.9 million
– Production budget: $70 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $20.1 million
– Release date: May 9, 2014
Based on the book “Dorothy of Oz” by L. Frank Baum’s grandson, Roger Stanton Baum, this computer-animated children’s movie follows our Kansas girl as she returns to the magical city to help save it from a villainous Jester. Despite having a star-studded cast including Lea Michele, Dan Aykroyd, Jim Belushi, Kelsey Grammer, Hugh Dancy, Oliver Platt, Patrick Stewart, and Martin Short, the film was a total flop thanks to its bland plot, cardboardlike characters, terrible animation, and bizarre original songs. The film lost so much money it caused the studio that produced it, Summertime Entertainment, to shut down completely.
British Broadcast Corporation
#32. Hard Rain
Morgan Freeman and Christian Slater in “Hard Rain”
– Estimated loss: $50.1 million
– Production budget: $70 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $19.9 million
– Release date: Jan. 16, 1998
This 1998 actioner ups the stakes by pitting an armored truck driver (Christian Slater) against a gang of thieves (led by Morgan Freeman) during a catastrophic rainstorm. A disaster film in every sense, “Hard Rain” was plagued by all sorts of problems during filming and in post-production. After a series of reshoots and delays, the movie came out around the same time Slater was dealing with a major scandal involving drug abuse and violent behavior. Between that and the negative reviews, it was dead on arrival.
Warner Bros.
#31. Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000
John Travolta wearing lots of prosthetic makeup
– Estimated loss: $50.3 million
– Production budget: $80 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $29.7 million
– Release date: May 12, 2000
More than a mere box-office bomb, “Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000” is one of the most ridiculed flops of all time. This big-budget sci-fi thriller—which depicts the future rebellion of mankind against alien overlords (aka Psychlos)—is penned by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Flaunting long dreadlocks and bad teeth, John Travolta plays a Psychlo named Terl. Travolta, a Scientologist, was a producer on the film as well.
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Legendary Entertainment
#30. Blackhat
Chris Hemsworth making a phone call
– Estimated loss: $50.3 million
– Production budget: $70 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $19.7 million
– Release date: Jan. 16, 2015
After making a string of notable films in the mid-to-late 1990s, director Michael Mann’s output became uneven at best, culminating with this 2015 fiasco. The movie, bogged down by cheap-looking cinematography and a muddled storyline, sees Chris Hemsworth tackling a global ring of cyber terrorists. Most moviegoers didn’t show up to see “Blackhat,” and those who did were largely underwhelmed.
Universal Pictures
#29. R.I.P.D.
Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds in “R.I.P.D.”
– Estimated loss: $50.9 million
– Production budget: $130 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $79.1 million
– Release date: July 19, 2013
Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds might sound like a match made in Hollywood heaven, but the two actors simply couldn’t make 2013’s “R.I.P.D.” work. Based on a comic book, the film comes off as a poorly executed “Men in Black” imitation with the walking undead substituted for aliens.
Chris Lee Productions
#28. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
CGI characters sitting in a spaceship
– Estimated loss: $51.9 million
– Production budget: $137 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $85.1 million
– Release date: July 11, 2001
When making an expensive film based on a video game, it’s probably wise to avoid discarding the elements that made the game such a big hit in the first place. But that’s what this 2001 movie did, and the result was an epic financial disaster. Much of the film’s budget went toward employing photorealistic computer animation, quite groundbreaking for its time and a primary selling point, but it fell flat with audiences and critics.
FilmNation Entertainment
#27. Reminiscence
Hugh Jackman and Thandiwe Newton in “Reminiscence”
– Estimated loss: $52.5 million
– Production budget: $68 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $15.4 million
– Release date: Aug. 18, 2021
“Reminiscence” isn’t a bad film by any stretch of the imagination—it’s just not quite as good as producers Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan’s other project, “Westworld.” Both media pieces feature similar themes and are neo-noir, science fiction stories, which obviously led audiences to compare the two. In the end, viewers felt “Westworld” was more original and unique than “Reminiscence.” The favoritism showed in lackluster ticket sales.
Paramount Pictures
#26. Timeline
A group of archeologists standing in a medical facility
– Estimated loss: $53.3 million
– Production budget: $80 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $26.7 million
– Release date: Nov. 26, 2003
Adapted from the bestselling novel by Michael Crichton, this 2003 adventure flick follows a group of archaeologists who travel back in time to 14th-century France. The film might have cost $80 million to produce—$109 million when adjusted for inflation—but critics felt it looked downright cheap. That’s without mentioning its muddled plot, poor writing, cheesy tone, and stiff acting. Audiences weren’t too excited about it either.
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Paramount Pictures
#25. Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins
Andrew Koji and Henry Golding in “Snake Eyes”
– Estimated loss: $53.3 million
– Production budget: $88 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $34.7 million
– Release date: July 21, 2021
Intended as a reboot of the G.I. Joe franchise, “Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins” was not the fun, campy romp fans hoped it would be. Instead, the film was a dull, poorly shot feature whose only real purpose seemed to be setting the stage for future installments in the series. The only bright spot in the entire thing was Henry Golding’s performance.
Paramount Pictures
#24. Lucky Numbers
John Travolta smiles in the driver seat of a convertible
– Estimated loss: $55 million
– Production budget: $65 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $10 million
– Release date: Oct. 27, 2000
“Lucky Numbers” proved anything but lucky once its numbers came in. Directed by Nora Ephron (“Sleepless in Seattle”), the comedy follows a down-and-out weatherman (John Travolta) as he engages in a lottery scheme. Why the movie cost so much to make is anyone’s guess. It came out the same year as “Battlefield Earth,” proving the year 2000 was simply not a good one for Travolta.
Franchise Pictures
#23. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever
A man and woman struggle outside an industrial facility
– Estimated loss: $55.7 million
– Production budget: $70 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $14.3 million
– Release date: Sept. 20, 2002
A skilled FBI agent (Antonio Banderas) must team up with his mortal enemy (Lucy Liu) to take down a common enemy in this 2002 clunker. More than just a huge box-office bomb, it holds the distinction of having a 0% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Universal Pictures
#22. The 355
Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger, Jessica Chastain, and Lupita Nyong’o in “The 355”
– Estimated loss: $56.1 million
– Production budget: $75 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $18.9 million
– Release date: Jan. 6, 2022
A group of female spies from organizations worldwide must work together to prevent WWIII in this action flick. Jessica Chastain, Penelope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, Diane Kruger, and Lupita Nyong’o starred in this film written and directed by Simon Kinberg. It seems the film’s online marketing was to blame for its box office failure, as it led many fans to believe the movie would be more clichéd and unimaginative than it actually is.
Warner Bros.
#21. Osmosis Jones
Two animated characters in a surreal landscape
– Estimated loss: $56.4 million
– Production budget: $70 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $13.6 million
– Release date: Aug. 10, 2001
Decades before Pixar’s “Inside Out” took viewers inside the human brain, this 2001 animated flick explored the wonders of the human body—a zookeeper named Frank DeTorre’s body, to be exact.
By swallowing a contaminated egg, Frank (Bill Murray) unleashes a deadly virus that could potentially destroy him from the inside out. It’s up to a white blood cell named Osmosis Jones to save the day—with help from a cold pill, of course. Directed by gross-out kings the Farrelly brothers and featuring voices from various comedic talent, the movie kept things strictly PG, appealing to essentially no one as a result.
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DMG Entertainment
#20. Playmobil: The Movie
Anya Taylor-Joy’s animated character in “Playmobil: The Movie”
– Estimated loss: $58.7 million
– Production budget: $75 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $16.3 million
– Release date: Aug. 7, 2019
Set in the world of Playmobil toys (which, for the uninitiated, are adjacent to Legos) this animated children’s movie follows a young girl as she attempts to save her brother after he’s literally sucked into this make-believe universe. Like many other movies on this list, it had quite the star-studded cast—including Anna Taylor-Joy, Jim Gaffigan, Adam Lambert, Kenan Thompson, Meghan Trainor, and Daniel Radcliffe—but their star power wasn’t enough to save it from being a commercial failure. Most viewers felt the film was just a glorified advertisement and that both the plot and original musical numbers came second to selling more toys.
Warner Bros.
#19. The Postman
Kevin Costner in a scene from “The Postman”
– Estimated loss: $59.2 million
– Production budget: $80 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $20.8 million
– Release date: Dec. 25, 1997
One might hear the words “Kevin Costner flop” and think of movies like “Waterworld,” but “The Postman” remains his biggest box-office bomb. Costner directed and starred in the film, which takes place in post-apocalyptic America and follows a self-made postman as he delivers mail. If you’re not intrigued, neither were movie crowds—it failed abysmally.
Warner Bros.
#18. Soldier
Kurt Russell and other cast members from “Soldier”
– Estimated loss: $60.4 million
– Production budget: $75 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $14.6 million
– Release date: Oct. 23, 1998
Another dud from Paul W.S. Anderson, this 1998 movie takes place in a future society where soldiers are trained from birth. One of those soldiers is Todd 3465 (Kurt Russell), who’s left for dead on a distant planet and is eventually tasked with fighting off a new breed of trained killers. The film mostly comes across as a knock-off “Universal Soldier.”
Columbia Pictures Corporation
#17. Stealth
Jamie Foxx and Jessica Biel wearing fighter pilot gear
– Estimated loss: $61.6 million
– Production budget: $138 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $76.4 million
– Release date: July 29, 2005
An action-movie veteran with four decades of experience under his belt, director Rob Cohen has run the full gamut in terms of quality, though most of his films are considered pretty bad. Meanwhile, this 2005 atrocity remains his biggest bomb to date. In the movie, starring Jessica Biel and Jamie Foxx, three pilots struggle to contain an artificial intelligence program before it kicks off a world war.
Touchstone Pictures
#16. The 13th Warrior
A woman tends to a wounded Antonio Banderas
– Estimated loss: $63.3 million
– Production budget: $125 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $61.7 million
– Release date: Aug. 27, 1999
Originally named “Eaters of the Dead,” the title of the Michael Crichton novel upon which it was based, this John McTiernan film underwent drastic re-edits and a name change before arriving in theaters. Such significant restructuring only added to the movie’s already bloated production costs and subsequent losses. In the film, Antonio Banderas plays a prophesied warrior who helps a clan of Vikings fend off an enemy threat.
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Nickelodeon Movies
#15. Monster Trucks
A young man and woman sneak alongside a truck
– Estimated loss: $63.4 million
– Production budget: $125 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $61.6 million
– Release date: Dec. 29, 2016
Representing Paramount Animation’s first live-action film and 2017’s first major flop, “Monster Trucks” chronicles the adventures of a young boy and his oil-eating creature friend. Long before the movie was released, early reactions to the trailer ranged from muted to scathing—the outlook was so grim that Paramount’s parent company, Viacom, declared the film as a write-down before it even premiered.
Walt Disney Pictures
#14. Onward
Tom Holland’s character in “Onward”
– Estimated loss: $66.6 million
– Production budget: $200 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $133.4 million
– Release date: Feb. 28, 2020
Disney-Pixar’s “Onward,” about two elf brothers who set out to find a magical artifact that will bring their deceased father back to life for 24 hours, was one of the first film victims of the COVID-19 pandemic. Released just a week before most theaters around the country shut down to help stem the spread of the virus, the movie was simply unable to sell tickets and recoup production costs. Still, it managed to be a critical and audience favorite once it hit streaming services, earning nominations for Best Animated Feature Film at the Golden Globes and Academy Awards.
Touchstone Pictures
#13. The Alamo
A group of men carrying rifles in the Old West
– Estimated loss: $68.1 million
– Production budget: $92 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $23.9 million
– Release date: April 9, 2004
What began as a project intended for Ron Howard ended up in the hands of John Lee Hancock, and things only got worse from there. True to its name, the movie depicts the famous 1836 showdown, where Davy Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton) and James Bowie (Jason Patric) helped a relatively small group of Texans and Tejano men fend off a Mexican army of more than 2,000 soldiers. The battle might have been victorious, but the film was an outright failure for Disney.
HCC Media Group
#12. The Nutcracker in 3D
A toy soldier and a young girl look into the distance
– Estimated loss: $69.5 million
– Production budget: $90 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $20.5 million
– Release date: Nov. 24, 2010
Financed primarily by Russian bankers, though filmed in English, this 2010 film barely penetrated the U.S. market and earned just $13.9 million in Russia. Consequently, the investors reportedly lost up to 90% of their backing. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s masterful ballet will live on, but this poorly received adaptation has already been forgotten.
Twentieth Century Fox
#11. Monkeybone
Brendan Fraser in a scene from “Monkeybone”
– Estimated loss: $69.6 million
– Production budget: $75 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $5.4 million
– Release date: Feb. 23, 2001
According to actress Rose McGowan, “Monkeybone” could have been an incredible movie had Fox Studios not fired its original director, Henry Selick. Instead, the film—about a cartoonist (Brendan Fraser) who gets trapped in a world of his own creation—remains one of the biggest flops of all time.
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20th Century Studios
#10. The Last Duel
Jodie Comer in a scene from “The Last Duel”
– Estimated loss: $69.9 million
– Production budget: $100 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $30.1 million
– Release date: Oct. 13, 2021
If you ask director Ridley Scott why he thought this Ben Affleck-Matt Damon-written film was a box-office failure, he’d tell you it was all millennials’ fault. In an interview, Scott said millennials simply weren’t interested in anything beyond their cellphones, and that’s why no one bought tickets to the film. No word on whether he thought its subject (the true story of the last trial by combat in medieval France) or the film’s slow pacing may have had anything to do with it losing nearly $70 million.
Columbia Pictures Corporation
#9. How Do You Know?
Reese Witherspoon and Owen Wilson stand inside an elevator
– Estimated loss: $70.4 million
– Production budget: $120 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $49.6 million
– Release date: Dec. 17, 2010
As the man behind shows like “The Simpsons” and movies like “Broadcast News,” James L. Brooks is responsible for some of Hollywood’s finest offerings. This 2010 dramedy is not one of them. Starring Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Jack Nicholson, and Paul Rudd, the movie finds its protagonist (Witherspoon) in the middle of a light-hearted love triangle. Apparently, Brooks decided to reshoot the beginning and end after completing the film, thereby inflating its already outrageous budget. Meanwhile, the lead actors earned a combined payday of $50 million, which didn’t help the bottom line either.
3 Arts Entertainment
#8. Chaos Walking
Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley in “Chaos Walking”
– Estimated loss: $72.9 million
– Production budget: $100 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $27.1 million
– Release date: Feb. 3, 2021
Set on a planet where everyone can hear each other’s thoughts and women have ceased to exist, “Chaos Walking” follows a man (Tom Holland) as he seeks to protect a girl (Daisy Ridley) who has crashlanded in his backyard. The film was critiqued by early viewers for its disjointed storylines, uneven pacing, and underdeveloped characters. Combined with the amount of negative critical reception it received, the film was certain to become a box-office failure.
Carolco Pictures
#7. Cutthroat Island
Geena Davis holds a rifle aboard a pirate ship
– Estimated loss: $73.5 million
– Production budget: $92 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $18.5 million
– Release date: Dec. 22, 1995
Geena Davis and Matthew Modine are a pair of pirates in this legendary turkey from Davis’ then-husband, Renny Harlin. In later interviews, Harlin blamed part of the film’s failure on production company Carolco, which was going under at the time. Another element in the film’s demise? Harlin’s own hubris in the wake of successful efforts like “Die Hard 2” and “Cliffhanger.” A handful of poor casting choices didn’t help either. Consequently, “Cutthroat Island” went down like a hole-ridden ship.
Franchise Pictures
#6. A Sound of Thunder
Edward Burns in a scene from “A Sound of Thunder”
– Estimated loss: $73.7 million
– Production budget: $80 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $6.3 million
– Release date: Sept. 2, 2005
Adapting a classic short story by Ray Bradbury, this 2005 sci-fi film explores the unintended effects of time travel. The movie features a scientist who travels back in time to the dinosaur era, strays off the designated path, and changes history in catastrophic ways. “The Simpsons” tackled the very same premise in a “Treehouse of Horror” segment.
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Survival Pictures
#5. The Promise
A scene from “The Promise” set in Turkey
– Estimated loss: $79.4 million
– Production budget: $90 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $10.6 million
– Release date: April 21, 2017
Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian was eager to see a big-budget movie about the Armenian genocide of 1915, so he paid for most of it himself. The result was this 2017 historical drama that floundered at the box office. That’s in part due to some aggressive opposition from the Turkish government, though lukewarm critical reception certainly didn’t help. Adding to its tragedy, Kerkorian passed away before production began.
Centropolis Entertainment
#4. Moonfall
Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, and John Bradley in “Moonfall”
– Estimated loss: $90.9 million
– Production budget: $150 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $59.1 million
– Release date: Feb. 3, 2022
One of the most expensive independent films ever made, “Moonfall” is about a group of former astronauts and conspiracy theorists who discover the truth about the moon after it suddenly leaves Earth’s orbit. Anxieties about a possible COVID-19-induced shutdown (which affected how many theaters the movie was sent to) and mixed critical reviews led this project to be a commercial failure.
Castle Rock Entertainment
#3. The Adventures of Pluto Nash
Peter Boyle and Eddie Murphy in a scene from “The Adventures of Pluto Nash”
– Estimated loss: $92.9 million
– Production budget: $100 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $7.1 million
– Release date: Aug. 16, 2002
After spending nearly two decades in development, “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” finally arrived in theaters in 2002 and swiftly became one of the most infamous duds of the modern era. Starring Eddie Murphy as a lunar nightclub owner in the year 2087, the film went big on camp and short on laughs—a significant drop in quality compared to the actor’s better films. Murphy later said in an interview: “I know two or three people that liked this movie.”
New Line Cinema
#2. Town & Country
Diane Keaton and Warren Beatty in a scene from “Town & Country”
– Estimated loss: $94.6 million
– Production budget: $105 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $10.4 million
– Release date: April 27, 2001
In a textbook case of movie-making gone awry, this disaster reportedly started with a production budget of around $14 million, which climbed to $40 million after several big names—namely Diane Keaton, Garry Shandling, Goldie Hawn, and Warren Beatty—joined the cast. The costs only escalated from there, and that was before the extensive reshoots in the wake of negative test screenings. Ultimately, it took three years for the movie—about the farcical exploits of an architect (Beatty)—to arrive on the big screen, where it went down in flames.
Walt Disney Pictures
#1. Mars Needs Moms
CGI characters in a scene from “Mars Needs Moms.”
– Estimated loss: $110.5 million
– Production budget: $150 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $39.5 million
– Release date: March 11, 2011
This already forgotten Disney film, which cost more than $150 million to make, earned just over $6 million on its opening weekend. Produced by Robert Zemeckis, the film employs motion-capture animation, giving it an off-putting aesthetic. Whatever the reason, the stink on this one was so powerful that Disney removed the word “Mars” from an upcoming film title just to avoid conjuring associations. That film was “John Carter,” which tanked anyway.
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