Hollywood’s Biggest Box Office Flops

Gotti (2018)

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How is it possible to butcher a story about John Gotti’s life this much? Directed by Kevin Connolly (E from Entourage), 2020’s Gotti is one of the worst mob movies you will ever watch (if you subject yourself to that type of punishment). John Travolta plays the infamous gangster and you will never be able to forget it. Instead of being immersed in the story, you will only be able to see Travolta throughout the film’s run. There was seemingly no attempt to change Travolta’s appearance other than giving him grey hair. You will learn more about Gotti by spending five minutes on Wikipedia than you will by watching this movie for close to two hours.

Fantastic Four (2015)

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Yikes. Almost a decade after Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis and Ioan Gruffudd starred as the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, a new group of Hollywood stars put on superhero outfits in 2015’s Fantastic Four. Unfortunately, the likes of Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Miles Teller and Jamie Bell couldn’t save the film from being an epic failure. Despite starting strong, the film quickly spiraled out of control due to numerous factors — ranging from bad dialogue to lousy storytelling. In the end, the superhero flop lost an estimated $80-100 million.

The 13th Warrior (1999)

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Do you see the look on Antonio Banderas’ face? That look of pure confusion is fitting. After all, how could a Banderas-starrer lose nearly $130 million? Just one year after Banderas starred in The Mask of Zorro, the accomplished actor led The 13th Warrior. Unfortunately, the film’s plot didn’t hold its own when compared to the film’s aesthetics. While the film also had a few exciting battle scenes, the story is flat, uninteresting, and leaves the audience begging for the credits to roll. This is likely a project that Banderas would be happy to forget.

Alexander (2004)

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The stars came out for Alexander. Directed by Oliver Stone, this epic tale featured Colin Farrell (as Alexander The Great), Angelina Jolie, Rosario Dawson, Val Kilmer, Jared Leto and Christopher Plummer. With such a talented cast, the hype surrounding Alexander was immense. Tragically, the film is an unmitigated disaster. Farrell was, shall we say, the wrong choice to play the starring role. Jolie’s performance was similarly disastrous. The film itself was boring and far too long — clocking in at nearly three hours of runtime. If you have watched Alexander in its entirety, we feel your pain.

The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)

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Amongst the box office flops on this list, The Fall of the Roman Empire may be the best film. Starring Christopher Plummer as Commodus, Alec Guinness as Marcus Aurelius, and Sophia Loren as Lucilla, the film — at the time — featured the largest outdoor film set of all-time. The grandeur of the film was matched by the cast’s performance and the accompanying score — Dimitri Tiomkin earned an Oscar nomination for Best Music, Substantially Original Score. Despite the film being very good, the production costs ultimately trumped the box office results. The Fall of the Roman Empire lost an estimated $14 million.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

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Critics didn’t like it at all, and neither did the viewing public — Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was a putrid film that understandably bombed at the box office. A computer-animated movie, The Spirts Within failed at nearly every turn. The film was visually impressive, but that is about the only good thing going for it. The story was bland. Some of the CGI body movements were distractingly-bad. By the year 2065 (the year the events of the film take place), this film will hopefully be long-forgotten.

Evan Almighty (2007)

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Bruce Almighty >>>>>> Evan Almighty. Four years after Jim Carrey (Bruce), Jennifer Aniston, Morgan Freeman and Steve Carell delighted audiences with Bruce Almighty, Carell and Freeman joined forces to introduce us to Evan Almighty. Freeman and Carell reprised their roles as God and Evan Baxter, respectively. This time around, however, God called upon Evan to help him out. With a flood of biblical proportions imminent, God tasks Evan with building an ark. The film failed to capture the magic of its predecessor and suffered at the box office as a result. $104 million in the red, not great!

Bucky Larson: Born To Be A Star (2011)

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Some people may find Nick Swardson funny. With that being said, even Swardson’s biggest supporters have to admit that Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star is one of the worst comedy films of all-time. Seriously, there is nothing funny about this movie. The ‘jokes’ are humorless. The star, Swardson, is unamusing. The only thing that kept this film from losing more money was that it wasn’t too expensive to make. Stay far away.

I Know Who Killed Me (2007)

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Lindsay Lohan has starred in some entertaining, successful films over the years — I Know Who Killed Me isn’t one of them. As she did in 1998’s The Parent Trap, Lohan plays two roles in this film. First, Lohan plays the role of Aubrey Fleming. A high school student, Fleming unexpectedly disappears one night and remains missing for two weeks. Fleming is eventually found unconscious in the woods, but when she wakes up she identifies as Dakota Moss — a character that Aubrey created in a school project. Lohan’s performance is not great, and the same can be said for the film overall.

Cutthroat Island (1995)

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Geena Davis is an Academy Award-winning actress (Best Supporting Actress for The Accidental Tourist), but you wouldn’t know it after watching Cutthroat Island. Following the death of her father, Morgan Adams (Davis) takes control of his ship and embarks on a journey to find Cutthroat Island. Of course, the island is home to buried treasure. Davis is not believable as a pirate, nor is the tale being told throughout the film. The production budget approached $100 million, and the film brought in less than $20 million at the box office. Keep re-watching Pirates of the Caribbean.

The Promise (2016)

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Any film that stars both Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac should be rather enjoyable (and good). Unfortunately, the two talented performers couldn’t save The Promise from being a poor film. Taking place in 1914 during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the Armenian Genocide, Isaac’s Michael — a medical student — meets a woman named Ana (Charlotte Le Bon). The two grow close over their shared Armenian heritage, but a love triangle ensues when it is revealed that Ana has a boyfriend (Bale). Unfortunately, the focus of the film is in the wrong place and it suffers as a result. A lot of potential, but ultimately The Promise disappointed…just look at how much money the film supposedly lost.

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

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This film’s inclusion on this list proves that even the biggest movie franchises are susceptible to bombing at the box office. Released in 2018, Solo: A Star Wars Story was centered around one of the galaxy’s biggest personalities — Han Solo. Despite featuring a strong cast including the likes of Game of Thrones‘ Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson and Thandiwe Newton, fans didn’t quite get behind the new Star Wars tale. There was nothing special about this entry, and the near $100 million loss is evidence of that.

The Alamo (2004)

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Remember the Alamo? Hopefully, you recall learning about the actual event…and, for your sake, don’t remember much about the 2004 film The Alamo. Based on the 1836 standoff between a group of Americans (Texans) and Mexican dictator General Santa Anna, this film stars Dennis Quaid — as American General Sam Houston — Billy Bob Thornton as Davy Crockett, and Emilio Echevarría as Gen. Santa Anna. War movies typically don’t perform too well, and The Alamo was just another fail added to the tally.

House of the Dead (2003)

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What the bloody hell is going on with this guy? He looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze if he ran into a buzz saw headfirst. This failure of a film, directed by Uwe Boll, is an adaptation of a popular video game centered around battling a hoard of zombies. You would be hard-pressed to find someone who enjoyed this catastrophe. On Rotten Tomatoes, House of the Dead has a 3% on the Tomatometer and a 10% audience score — with over 25,000 ratings accounted for.

Robin Hood (2018)

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Jamie Foxx, an Oscar-winning actor, couldn’t save Robin Hood from being a disaster. A darker take on the classic story, 2018’s Robin Hood was a flop from the moment it entered theaters. Taron Egerton missed the mark playing the titular character. Additionally, the story was painfully boring and, at times, rather embarrassing. After this terrible film, we wouldn’t mind if the story of Robin Hood was kept off the big screen for years to come — and after the Foxx starrer lost approximately $100 million, that will likely be the case.

Battleship (2012)

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$220 million…that is the staggering amount of money Battleship is said to have lost. For starters, we must ask — did Hollywood have to make a movie about a board game? Starring Rihanna in her acting debut, former Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker, and Liam Neeson, execs hoped people would flock to the theaters to watch Battleship. Instead, word got out that the film was an unmitigated disaster. The alien attack was underwhelming. The movie was too long and failed to develop a meaningful connection with the audience. All the SFX in the world couldn’t prevent this Naval war film from sinking. 

Pan (2015)

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With Hugh Jackman, Amanda Seyfried and Rooney Mara all committed to Neverland, people had high hopes for 2015’s Pan. The film follows a 12-year-old boy named Peter (Levi Miller) as he is taken from his native London and brought to Neverland. Once in this new, magical place, Peter meets James Hook — not the main villain of this adaptation — and Tiger Lily (Mara). As Peter begins down the road that leads to him becoming Peter Pan, he teams with Hook and Tiger Lily to take down a dastardly pirate — Blackbeard (Jackman). Sounds decent enough, but the audience didn’t agree. Pan lost a boatload of money.

Conan the Barbarian (2011)

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There is only one person who should have ever played Conan, and that would be Arnold Schwarzenegger. Alas, Hollywood opted to remake Conan the Barbarian in 2011 and cast Jason Momoa for the titular role. It was a near-impossible task for Momoa to live up to Schwarzenegger’s performance — and he certainly didn’t come close to accomplishing his desired feat. The film was a mess all around and ended up losing an estimated $60-66 million. Sometimes it is best to leave cult classics in the past.

Precious Cargo (2016)

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Bruce Willis is one of the biggest action stars of all-time. Without question, Willis is one of the first names brought up when discussing the genre’s greatest stars. However, Precious Cargo is an action film that Willis should have stayed away from. Best summed up as a heist film, the only convincing heist that Precious Cargo pulled off was taking money out of your wallet. The script was bland and the acting was underwhelming. A solid argument can be made that Precious Cargo is the worst heist movie in the history of cinema.

The Mummy (2017)

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In 1999 and again in 2001, Brendan Fraser energized fans around the world with his work in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, respectively. More than 20 years later, the two films remain incredibly popular and still hold up well. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of 2017’s The Mummy. Starring Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe, the reboot was panned by critics and the public alike — and was regarded as one of the worst movies of the year. The film grossed over $400 million…and still approximately lost close to $100 million.

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003)

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DreamWorks surprisingly missed the mark with Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. An animated adventure film starring Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Joseph Fiennes, Dennis Haysbert and Michelle Pfeiffer, Sinbad told the story of a sailor (Pitt) and a stowaway (Zeta-Jones) who were given 10 days to save a prince from being executed. While the film isn’t terrible. it was always going to get killed at the box office. Why? Take a look at some of the films that opened the same weekend — Terminator 3, Finding Nemo, Legally Blonde 2.

Supernova (2000)

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James Spader (The Blacklist), Angela Bassett (What’s Love Got to Do with It), Robert Forster (Jackie Brown) — take a bow. The three of you have had great careers. However, Supernova was a disaster. An estimated loss of $83 million was accompanied by reviews like these:

“A crash course from the start.”

“A mission that should have been aborted long ago.”

“A super bore.”

“Goes nowhere and when it gets there, it’s not anywhere.”

Annihilation (2018)

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Annihilation was crushed at the box office for no fault of its own. A sci-fi thriller, Annihilation is a borderline terrific film. With a strong cast including Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Oscar Isaac and Jennifer Jason Leigh, Annihilation is an engaging, creepy, and smart film. A few things led to the movie losing more than $10 million at the box office. For starters, Paramount reached an international distribution deal with Netflix — leading to the film never reaching theaters overseas. In terms of America, Annihilation went up against Black Panther and Game Night. If you haven’t seen this movie, the time is now.

Mac and Me (1988)

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“An alien trying to escape from NASA is befriended by a wheelchair-bound boy.”

………………

This E.T. rip-off should have never been filmed. Imagine taking one look at the alien pictured above and thinking, “Wow, we are going to make so much money.”

47 Ronin (2013)

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Keanu Reeves has enjoyed a massive career resurgence in recent years. His work in the John Wick franchise, Toy Story 4, and Knock Knock has been celebrated. Things have gone so well that Reeves even reprised his iconic role of Neo for The Matrix Resurrections. A year before he first played John Wick, however, Reeves appeared in the failure known as 47 Ronin. Reeves played Kai, a mixed-blood Samurai living in Japan. Sound confusing? Perhaps a bit weird? The audience agreed.