There is nothing like the promise of a chapter closing to draw people to the movie theater, especially when tied to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This weekend, “ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” which says goodbye to this iteration of the space misfits and its driving creative voice, director James Gunn, earned $114 million in ticket sales from 4,450 locations in North America, according to studio estimates Sunday.
From left, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord, Dave Bautista as Drax, Karen Gillan as Nebula in a scene from “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.”
Internationally, where the film opened in 52 territories including China, “Vol. 3” earned $168 million, giving it a $282 million global debut.
Domestically, it’s both an impressive sum for any movie and slightly less than what we’ve come to expect from a Marvel opening. Last year on the same weekend, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” riding on the success of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” raked in $187.4 million in its first three days in North America. And in November, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” also opened over $181.3 million.
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But things have come back to earth this year, at least by high-flying superhero standards. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” debuted just over $106 million on its way to $474 million worldwide. At rival studio DC/Warner Bros., “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” only made $133.4 million total. The question on some analysts’ minds this weekend is whether it’s because of the specific character or a bigger issue of “superhero fatigue.”
“Guardians Vol. 3” bumped “ The Super Mario Bros. Movie ” out of first place after four weekends atop the charts and kicked off the summer movie season, a vital and usually profitable corridor for Hollywood that runs through Labor Day and often accounts for 40% of a year’s box office.
For Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian, it’s still a solid opening for the summer season, which he said is poised to deliver the most robust profits since 2019.
“Though ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s’ debut may reflect a bit of audience fatigue for the reliable superhero genre, this is just the beginning for what promises to be an irresistible movie marketplace with a killer combination of appealing films for every taste and every audience demographic,” Dergarabedian said.
The next major superhero movie on the schedule is DC’s “The Flash,” set for June 16, which has its own flurry of intrigue around it because of star Ezra Miller’s legal and personal troubles.
“Guardians Vol. 3” sees the return of actors Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel. Reviews have been mostly positive, but a little more divided than previous installments. And it remains difficult to compare a pre-pandemic opening such as Vol. 2’s $146 million debut (May 2017) with a post-pandemic one.
“Vol. 3″ is Gunn’s last Guardians/Marvel movie as he turns his focus to leading DC Studios.
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” added $18.6 million in its fifth weekend to take second place, bringing its domestic total to $518.1 million. Globally, it has now surpassed $1.1 billion.
Third place went to “Evil Dead Rise” with $5.7 million, and in fourth place was “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” with $3.4 million — both were holdovers.
Studios left the weekend mostly clear for the superhero behemoth, but Screen Gems and Sony did debut their new Priyanka Chopra Jonas romantic comedy “Love Again” (featuring Celine Dion and some new songs) in 2703 locations. It made a modest $2.4 million to take the fifth place spot.
Biggest box-office bombs of all time
Biggest box office bombs of all time
Making an expensive Hollywood movie is kind of like steering a gigantic cargo ship through a thunderstorm. Onboard are hundreds of crew members, with each one 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. Like any crisis, tensions run high, and opinions can clash over what the best course of action may be. With so much turbulence afoot, and with so much at stake, it can seem like a miracle when the vessel arrives at its destination intact.
Stacker is honoring the occasions in which big-budget vehicles fail to deliver the goods—ranking the biggest box office bombs of all time. Using The Numbers as a data source, rankings were compiled based on worldwide box office earnings only, and do not incorporate video or other retail sales. Also note that only the first 1,000 movies with the highest reported budgets were considered for this story, and numbers have been adjusted for inflation.
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 a stellar cast aren’t always enough to prevent disaster at the box office. The biggest flop on this list had a talented and popular leading cast, but the film saw an estimated loss of $134 million.
Read on to find out which two films based on Michael Crichton novels and which three of Kevin Costner’s films landed on this list. Without further ado, here are the biggest box office bombs of all time—see if you can recall seeing any of them in theaters.
You may also like: Biggest box office winners of all time
#50. Windtalkers
– Estimated loss: $52 million
– Production budget: $160 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $108 million
– Release date: June 14, 2002
Legendary action director John Woo was riding high off the success of movies like “Mission Impossible II” and “Face/Off” when he reunited with actor Nicolas Cage for “Windtalkers.” Based on a true story, the film takes place during World War II, and centers on Windtalkers: Navajo marines who use their native language to speak in code to elude the enemy. Rather than explore the nuanced implications of the movie’s own premise, Woo stuck closely to what he knew best, and mostly just blew stuff up—and the movie bombed on an epic scale.
#49. Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return
– Estimated loss: $53 million
– Production budget: $74 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $21 million
– Release date: May 9, 2014
This computer-animated follow up to “The Wizard of Oz” was brought to audiences by Summertime Entertainment, representing the company’s first and last project. In the movie, Dorothy heads back to Oz, where she squares off against an evil jester. While the film’s paltry box office performance was bad news for investors, two of its producers reportedly walked away with a handsome profit, thanks to some shady fundraising practices.
#48. Blackhat
– Estimated loss: $53 million
– Production budget: $74 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $21 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 sees Chris Hemsworth tackling a global ring of cyberterrorists, and was bogged down by cheap-looking cinematography and a muddled storyline. As a result, most moviegoers didn’t show up to see “Blackhat,” and the ones that did were largely underwhelmed.
#47. Flight of the Phoenix
– Estimated loss: $54 million
– Production budget: $99 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $45 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.
#46. In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
– Estimated loss: $54 million
– Production budget: $70 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $15 million
– Release date: Jan. 11, 2008
“In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale,” Jason Statham battles a bunch of animal-like warriors while rescuing his kidnapped wife and avenging the death of his son. Despite the film’s abysmal performance at the box office, director Uwe Boll released a follow-up film in 2011.
#45. R.I.P.D.
– Estimated loss: $55 million
– Production budget: $140 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $85 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.
#44. Titan A.E.
– Estimated loss: $56 million
– Production budget: $109 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $53 million
– Release date: June 16, 2000
Combining traditional animation with CGI, this 2000 film 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.
#43. The Last Castle
– Estimated loss: $56 million
– Production budget: $85 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $29 million
– Release date: Oct. 19, 2001
This 2001 thriller centers on a court-martialed general (Robert Redford), who leads a prison uprising against his captors. Overseeing the prison is a smug and unjust warden named Col. Winter, played by the late James Gandolfini at the height of his “Sopranos” fame. The movie initially cost $60 million—$85 million when adjusted for inflation—to produce, with $16 million going toward Redford and Gandolfini’s respective salaries.
#42. Flyboys
– Estimated loss: $56 million
– Production budget: $75 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $18 million
– Release date: Sept. 22, 2006
It might be called “Flyboys,” but this 2006 war movie never got off the ground. Set during WWI and based on a true story, the film follows a number of young Americans as they volunteer to fight on behalf of the French military—eventually forming a high-flying squadron known as the Lafayette Escadrille.
#41. All the King’s Men
– Estimated loss: $57 million
– Production budget: $68 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $12 million
– Release date: Sept. 22, 2006
This 2006 remake of a previous Best Picture winner chronicles the political rise and fall of Willie Stark, whose character is loosely based on outspoken former Louisiana Gov. Huey Long. Unlike its 1949 predecessor (or the prestigious novel it was based on), this version was both a critical and commercial failure. Not even its cast of A-listers—including Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, and Anthony Hopkins—could save it. Adding insult to injury, the #1 movie the week this opened was “Jackass: Number Two.”
#40. Gods and Generals
– Estimated loss: $57 million
– Production budget: $75 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $18 million
– Release date: Feb. 21, 2003
The story of Stonewall Jackson, a Confederate commander, leapt onto the big screen in 2003—and nobody seemed to care. Based on a book of the same name, “Gods and Generals” is a prequel to director Ron Maxwell’s 1993 effort, “Gettysburg.” Maxwell returned in 2013 with yet another Civil War-era picture, “Copperhead,” which barely registered at the box office.
#39. The Fan
– Estimated loss: $58 million
– Production budget: $88 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $30 million
– Release date: Aug. 16, 1996
He might not be a big name these days, but in the mid-1990s, actor Wesley Snipes was certifiable A-list talent. Big names like Robert De Niro and director Tony Scott were also on the roster of this 1996 flop, which tells the tale of a salesman (De Niro) who becomes obsessed with a professional baseball player (Snipes).
#38. The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle
– Estimated loss: $59 million
– Production budget: $111 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $51 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 DeNiro, who starred as well, but this turkey 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.
#37. 3000 Miles to Graceland
– Estimated loss: $61 million
– Production budget: $88 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $26 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. As it turns out, however, over $12 million of the movie’s supposed budget went straight into an executive’s pocket, prompting one of the financiers to sue. The film is about a group of criminals who rob a casino during Elvis impersonation week, and then turn on one another. Its cast includes Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner, Courteney Cox, and Christian Slater, among numerous others.
#36. Rollerball
– Estimated loss: $61 million
– Production budget: $97 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $36 million
– Release date: Feb. 8, 2002
1975’s “Rollerball” is a dystopian film that takes swipes at an omnipresent corporate culture, yet 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.
#35. Meet Joe Black
– Estimated loss: $62 million
– Production budget: $131 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $69 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 1939’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.
#34. The Great Raid
– Estimated loss: $63 million
– Production budget: $77 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $14 million
– Release date: Aug. 12, 2005
Set during WWII, “The Great Raid” sees members of the 6th Ranger Battalion embarking on a seemingly impossible mission to rescue over 500 POWs from a Japanese camp. The film—which is based on actual events—was originally slated for a 2003 release, but due to numerous delays, it didn’t see the light of day until 2005. It opened to lukewarm reviews and little fanfare.
#33. Wyatt Earp
– Estimated loss: $64 million
– Production budget: $106 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $42 million
– Release date: June 24, 1994
Less than a year after “Tombstone” wowed audiences with its compelling characters and epic gun battles, there came this 1994 biopic, starring Kevin Costner as Wyatt Earp. Clocking in at over three hours, the film cost more than twice as much as “Tombstone” to make and earned about half as much domestically. Meanwhile, its failure was a mere appetizer for Costner, as you’ll see later in the list.
#32. Monster Trucks
– Estimated loss: $65 million
– Production budget: $128 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $63 million
– Release date: Jan. 13, 2017
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.
#31. Supernova
– Estimated loss: $66 million
– Production budget: $87 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $22 million
– Release date: Jan. 14, 2000
In this sci-fi thriller, the six-member crew aboard a deep-space hospital ship brings aboard a young man and an alien artifact and soon finds itself under attack. The movie encountered numerous obstacles during development and production while its budget continued to balloon. After countless hirings, firings, disputes, and negative test screenings, a barely watchable final product landed in theaters—losing about $66 million.
#30. Beyond Borders
– Estimated loss: $66 million
– Production budget: $82 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $16 million
– Release date: Oct. 24, 2003
In Angelina Jolie’s first passion project, she and Clive Owen forge a romance while visiting a variety of war-torn nations. Oliver Stone was initially attached to direct, but he ended up dropping out due to production and budget issues, leaving the project in the hands of director Martin Campbell. Despite the film’s horrendous reviews and anemic earnings, Jolie would continue to explore similar terrain in her later work.
#29. Virus
– Estimated loss: $67 million
– Production budget: $113 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $46 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.
#28. Red Planet
– Estimated loss: $68 million
– Production budget: $116 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $49 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, 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 both the domestic and international front, the movie earned itself the nickname of “Dead Planet.”
#27. Turbulence
– Estimated loss: $68 million
– Production budget: $86 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $18 million
– Release date: Jan. 10, 1997
The mid-1990s might have been kind to plane-based action movies like “Executive Decision,” “Con-Air,” and “Air Force One,” but not so much to this 1997 thriller, in which a serial killer (Ray Liotta) wreaks havoc aboard a 747. The poster art asks potential viewers: “Can you survive the ride?”
#26. Timeline
– Estimated loss: $73 million
– Production budget: $109 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $36 million
– Release date: Nov. 26, 2003
Adapted from the bestselling novel by Michael Crichton, this 2003 adventure flick follows a group of archaeologists as they 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.
#25. Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000
– Estimated loss: $73 million
– Production budget: $116 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $43 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. Look no further than its IMDb rating of 2.5, or its Rotten Tomatoes score of just 3% as proof. 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.
#24. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
– Estimated loss: $73 million
– Production budget: $194 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $120 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.
#23. Holy Man
– Estimated loss: $74 million
– Production budget: $92 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $19 million
– Release date: Oct. 9, 1998
In this 1998 misfire, Eddie Murphy plays a spiritual man named G, whose over-the-top personality helps a TV shopping network achieve meteoric success. Murphy was certifiable box office gold throughout the 1980s and 1990s, but the magic was starting to fade—four years later, he would headline “The Adventures of Pluto Nash,” another notorious bomb.
#22. Missing Link
– Estimated loss: $76 million
– Production budget: $102 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $26 million
– Release date: April 12, 2019
A last-minute Oscar nomination gave this Hugh Jackman-led animated film about a friendly Sasquatch a box office push that keeps it from ranking higher on this list, but it wasn’t good enough to keep the film from skating deep into the red. Laika, the animation studio behind the project, is one of the few stop-motion production outfits in 2021, but they can’t seem to figure out how to find an audience the size of, say, Pixar’s. From an animation obsessive’s perspective, Laika is one of the best in the game. But, on paper, they’re racing to figure out how to stay afloat.
#21. Father’s Day
– Estimated loss: $77 million
– Production budget: $133 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $56 million
– Release date: May 9, 1997
Starring Robin Williams and Billy Crystal at the height of their respective careers, and directed by comedy veteran Ivan Reitman, Warner Brothers had high expectations for “Father’s Day.” 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 a number of major disappointments for the studio that year.
#20. Hard Rain
– Estimated loss: $77 million
– Production budget: $108 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $31 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 right around the same time that Slater was dealing with a major scandal involving drug abuse and violent behavior. Between that and the negative reviews, it was dead on arrival.
#19. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever
– Estimated loss: $78 million
– Production budget: $97 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $20 million
– Release date: Sept. 20, 2002
A skilled FBI agent (Antonio Banderas) must team up with his mortal enemy (Lucy Liu) in order 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.
#18. Last Man Standing
– Estimated loss: $78 million
– Production budget: $107 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $29 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 also reportedly 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 on a disastrous level.
#17. Stealth
– Estimated loss: $79 million
– Production budget: $177 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $98 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 the majority of his films are considered pretty bad. Meanwhile, this 2005 atrocity remains his biggest bomb to date. In the movie, three pilots struggle to contain an artificial intelligence program before it kicks off a world war; Jessica Biel and Jamie Foxx star.
#16. Osmosis Jones
– Estimated loss: $80 million
– Production budget: $99 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $19 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’s body to be exact. By swallowing a contaminated egg, Frank unleashes a deadly virus that has the potential to 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 a range of comedic talent, the movie kept things strictly PG—and appealed to essentially no one as a result.
#15. The Nutcracker in 3D
– Estimated loss: $80 million
– Production budget: $103 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $24 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. Tchaikovsky’s masterful ballet will live on, but this poorly received adaptation has already been forgotten.
#14. Lucky Numbers
– Estimated loss: $80 million
– Production budget: $95 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $15 million
– Release date: Oct. 27, 2000
“Lucky Numbers” proved to be anything but lucky once its numbers came in. Directed by Nora Ephron of “Sleepless in Seattle” fame, 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, but it came out the same year as “Battlefield Earth;” the year 2000 was simply not a good one for John Travolta.
#13. How Do You Know?
– Estimated loss: $81 million
– Production budget: $138 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $57 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 comedy-drama 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.
#12. The Promise
– Estimated loss: $81 million
– Production budget: $92 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $11 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, which completely 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 of the film began.
#11. Hudson Hawk
– Estimated loss: $88 million
– Production budget: $120 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $32 million
– Release date: May 24, 1991
Every decade seems to have its signature flop, and 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 cartoon-like characters. Bruce Willis didn’t just play the lead role, he helped come up with the initial story.
#10. The Alamo
– Estimated loss: $90 million
– Production budget: $122 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $32 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.
#9. The Postman
– Estimated loss: $92 million
– Production budget: $125 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $33 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 both directed and starred in the film, which takes place in a 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.
#8. Soldier
– Estimated loss: $93 million
– Production budget: $115 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $22 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 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 of “Universal Soldier.”
#7. A Sound of Thunder
– Estimated loss: $95 million
– Production budget: $103 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $8 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. Specifically, the movie features a scientist who travels back in time to the dinosaur era, strays off the designated path, and ends up changing history in catastrophic ways. “The Simpsons” tackled the very same premise in a “Treehouse of Horror” segment.
#6. The 13th Warrior
– Estimated loss: $95 million
– Production budget: $188 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $93 million
– Release date: Aug. 27, 1999
Originally going by “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.
#5. Monkeybone
– Estimated loss: $98 million
– Production budget: $106 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $8 million
– Release date: Feb. 23, 2001
According to actress Rose McGowan, “Monkeybone” could have been an incredible movie, had Fox Studios not fired the 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.
#4. Cutthroat Island
– Estimated loss: $121 million
– Production budget: $151 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $30 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 blames 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 and became the biggest money loser of its time.
#3. Mars Needs Moms
– Estimated loss: $123 million
– Production budget: $167 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $44 million
– Release date: March 11, 2011
This already-forgotten Disney film, which cost over $150 million to make, earned just over $6 million 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.
#2. The Adventures of Pluto Nash
– Estimated loss: $129 million
– Production budget: $139 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $10 million
– Release date: Aug. 16, 2002
#1. Town & Country
– Estimated loss: $134 million
– Production budget: $149 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $15 million
– Release date: April 27, 2001
In a textbook case of moviemaking gone awry, this disaster reportedly started with a production budget of around $14 million, which climbed to $40 million after a number of 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 would take 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.
Biggest box-office bombs of all time
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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#50. 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.
#49. 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.
#48. 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.”
#47. 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.
#46. 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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#45. 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.
#44. The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle
– 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.
#43. Flight of the Phoenix
– 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.
#42. 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.
#41. 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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#40. 3000 Miles to Graceland
– 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.
#39. 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.
#38. 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.
#37. Red Planet
– 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.”
#36. Hudson Hawk
– 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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#35. Last Man Standing
– 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.
#34. 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.
#33. Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return
– 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.
#32. 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.
#31. Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000
– 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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#30. Blackhat
– 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.
#29. 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.
#28. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
– 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.
#27. 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.
#26. Timeline
– 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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#25. Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins
– 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.
#24. Lucky Numbers
– 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.
#23. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever
– 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.
#22. 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.
#21. Osmosis Jones
– 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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#20. 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.
#19. 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.
#18. 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.”
#17. Stealth
– 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.
#16. The 13th Warrior
– 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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#15. Monster Trucks
– 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.
#14. 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.
#13. The Alamo
– 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.
#12. The Nutcracker in 3D
– 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.
#11. 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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#10. 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.
#9. How Do You Know?
– 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.
#8. 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.
#7. Cutthroat Island
– 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.
#6. 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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#5. The Promise
– 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.
#4. Moonfall
– Estimated loss: $90.9 million
– Production budget: $150 million
– Worldwide box office gross: $59.1 million
– Release date: Feb. 3, 2022
#3. 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.”
#2. 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.
#1. 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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