Sometimes, even with the help of A-list Hollywood stars, thrilling screenplays, and stunning visuals, some movies are simply destined to fail at the box office. No amount of star power behind such pictures can save these projects from themselves, with production woes, budget issues and uninspired storytelling often being a major leading factor to their ultimate demise with moviegoers. Big-screen blunders are nothing new in Tinseltown, but there are a select few with notorious reputations that precede them.
Few can forget the promotional mess that was the box-office bust John Carter, a creative endeavor that would go down in history as having one of cinema’s worst receptions thus far. Just like Brad Pitt’s animated adventure Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas couldn’t seem to attract audiences and its failure almost led to DreamWorks going bankrupt. From Disney adaptations to poorly-conceived action flicks, these are 10 of the biggest box office bombs of all time and just how much money they lost when adjusted for inflation. Some of these figures aren’t the most precise, as advertising, home media sales, and the refusal of studios’ to announce exactly how much they lost are all contributing factors.
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10 Tomorrowland ($103-171 million)
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Despite having both the power of Disney and Hollywood A-lister George Clooney backing up the sci-fi spectacular, 2015’s Tomorrowland failed to captivate audiences with its wondrous tale of a brilliant-yet-cynical inventor who teams up with a savvy, aspiring scientist to travel to the titular alternate dimension.
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Clooney shares the screen alongside fellow stars Hugh Laurie, Britt Robertson, and Kathryn Hahn in the visually stunning film, which is based on the futuristic Magic Kingdom-themed land at the iconic amusement parks. While the thrilling aesthetics, action sequences and compelling performances earned praise, Tomorrowland’s choppy screenplay and failure to properly explore the marvelous world left audiences wanting more.
9 Pan ($98-171 million)
Warner Bros. Pictures
Touting a star-studded cast led by Hugh Jackman, Rooney Mara and Amanda Seyfried, the 2015 fantasy film Pan serves as a unique spin on the beloved J. M. Barrie novel that provides audiences with an origin story for both The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up and a fictionalized Blackbeard.
Criticism and controversy plagued both the production and release of the picture, with many outraged over the decision to cast a white actress (Mara) as the Native American Tiger Lily. A petition was even created urging Warner Bros. studios to stop casting Caucasian actors in roles that were meant for people of color; Mara herself would later express her regret in taking on the part in the box-office bomb. The film is widely estimated to have lost Warner Bros. more than $100 million.
8 Mars Needs Moms ($120-173 million)
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Following the heroic actions of a nine-year-old little boy to rescue his kidnapped mother from a Martian society, the 2011 animated sci-fi flick Mars Needs Moms should have been a slam dunk with moviegoers but ended up a dud of epic proportions. Director Robert Zemeckis and Disney had partnered up to create ImageMovers Digital Studio back in 2007, with Mars Needs Moms being the second and final CGI performance-captured film released under the company; the underwhelming performance of both A Christmas Carol and failure of Mars Needs Moms ultimately led to the studio being shut down.
When analyzing why the Disney production did so poorly, The New York Times mused, “Critics and audiences alike, with audiences voicing their opinions on Twitter, blogs and other social media, complained that the Zemeckis technique can result in character facial expressions that look unnatural.”
7 Battleship ($177 million)
Universal Pictures Releasing
Based on the popular board game of the same name, the 2012 sci-fi action extravaganza Battleship had all the key elements to be a blockbuster hit: a superb ensemble cast, thrilling action sequences and a gripping showdown between man and an alien enemy.
Sadly, the adaptation couldn’t seem to make movie magic and instead became a notorious box office bomb, losing both Hasbro and Universal hundreds of millions of dollars. While the Peter Berg picture earned praise for its electrifying visuals, many critics felt the filmmaker chose style over substance and the screenplay, dialogue and lack of character development being critiqued.
6 Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas ($184 million)
DreamWorks Animation
Even sensational leading man Brad Pitt couldn’t save the 2003 animated adventure Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, an adaptation of the Persian fictional tale that follows the eponymous hero as he travels the seas in search of a highly-coveted ancient artifact known as the Book of Peace.
Despite audiences awarding the flick a solid A- CinemaScore rating, it still failed to attract a widespread audience at the box office and faced steap competition with fellow releases like Finding Nemo, Hulk and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. The crushing financial loss of the animated film almost caused DreamWorks to go bankrupted, with then-CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg commenting, “I think the idea of a traditional story being told using traditional animation is likely a thing of the past.”
5 Cutthroat Island ($187 million)
MGM/UA Distribution Co.
Renny Harlin directed the 1995 swashbuckler adventure Cutthroat Island, featuring a cast led by Geena Davis, Matthew Modine, and Frank Langella. The film follows a spunky female pirate in search of a mysterious, hidden island home to a lucrative hidden treasure. The production of the picture was infamously turbulent, with recasts, rewrites and shooting delays all contributing to a bloated budget that doomed the fate of the flick.
Its production company Carolco Pictures went on to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a month before its release, and went on to become one of the most notorious box office bombs in cinema history. Cutthroat Island’s failure caused pirate-themed films to lose their bankability until the success of 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
4 Mortal Engines ($189 million)
Universal Pictures
Based on the Philip Reeve novel of the same name, the 2018 steampunk film Mortal Engines takes place a thousand years in the future where cities have become motorized on wheels, and centers on a brave young woman who must fight to stop London from destroying everything in its path. The adaptation was unsuccessful in connecting with audiences and critics, with many finding it a soulless and uninspired venture that lacked an effective screenplay and direction.
Mortal Engines was a massive bust at the box office, despite author Reeve himself being satisfied with the picture; he praised the film and said, “Christian Rivers has done a fantastic job - a huge, visually awesome action movie with perfect pace and a genuine emotional core … there are many changes to the characters, world, and story, but it’s still fundamentally the same thing.”
3 The 13th Warrior ($112-210 million)
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
The charismatic Antonio Banderas portrays famous court poet and traveler Ahmad ibn Fadlan in the 1999 action historical fiction drama The 13th Warrior, loosely based on the Michael Crichton novel Eaters of the Dead. The film chronicles his relationship with a group of Vikings whom he joins forces with to fight a frightening foe.
The initial budget of the picture started at $85 million but soared to a reported $160 million, causing it to face a large uphill battle to recoup its finances at the box office. The lackluster performance of The 13th Warrior caused fellow co-star Omar Sharif to temporarily retire from acting, with the lauded Egyptian movie star not taking on a new role until 2003’s Monsieur Ibrahim.
2 The Lone Ranger ($186-221 million)
Troubled with budget issues and production woes from the get-go, 2013’s western action flick The Lone Ranger faced its fair share of hurdles and headaches that all contributed to it notoriously becoming one of the biggest box-office duds in cinema history. All the turmoil and disputes regarding finances almost led to the adaptation being outright canceled, and the production setbacks led to an inflated budget of an estimated $225-250 million.
After severely under-performing during its opening weekend, the film’s leading stars, director Gore Verbinski, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer accused critics of ignoring the film’s qualities and focusing on the bloated budget instead of the flick itself, and was a colossal fail for Walt Disney Pictures.
1 John Carter ($133-236 million)
Walt Disney Pictures
With an estimated budget of nearly $350 million, Disney’s 2012 sci-fi action flick John Carter had to seriously deliver at the box office to make up for the fact it was one of the most expensive films ever made. Sadly, the thrilling intergalactic adventures of the titular army captain just couldn’t fill the seats needed to recoup its astronomical total costs; its profound failure is widely considered to be the result of terrible promotion, having been declared “one of the worst marketing campaigns in movie history.”
The fallout of the big-screen extravaganza’s massive failure led to Walt Disney Studios head Rich Ross resigning and the outright cancelation of two future installments. Despite a seemingly tarnished legacy, John Carter has been retrospectively assessed and deemed far better than its reputation reflects.
