20 Hollywood summer blockbusters that failed miserably

In 2023, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” made over $1 billion worldwide, second most to “Barbie.” This was the first movie based on a Nintendo property in decades, because “Super Mario Bros.” scared the company off. Reasonably so, for the record. Nothing about the live-action “Super Mario Bros.” made a lick of sense, and the bananas plot and unappealing aesthetics helped nothing. Released around Memorial Day weekend, the film debuted fourth in the domestic box office and did not make back its budget.

Superhero movies were not born when “Iron Man” and “The Dark Knight” came out in 2008 and reshaped the theatrical landscape, but they were a spottier selection in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. Halle Berry had been part of the ensemble in the semi-successful “X-Men” movies, and she got a chance to play Catwoman in a $100-million blockbuster. The most memorable thing about this woeful movie is that Berry, fresh off winning an Oscar, showed up to accept her Razzie for “Catwoman.” Warner Bros. would get on track with “Batman Begins” the next summer, and “Catwoman” would be buried. Perhaps in a litter box.

The poster said it all: “From the director of Iron Man.” Fresh off laying the building blocks for the MCU, Jon Favreau got a chance to direct “Cowboys & Aliens,” as close to an original project (it was based on a largely unknown graphic novel) as modern Hollywood gets on the blockbuster front. While the title was almost comically generic, the movie boasted Daniel Craig AND Harrison Ford. “Cowboys & Aliens” Made $174.8 million worldwide, but that’s a problem when your film cost $163 million to make. Throw in the extensive marketing budget, and “Cowboys & Aliens” was a major flop. Favreau would retreat to making the low-budget dramedy “Chef” before turning to Disney remakes and “The Mandalorian.”

Will Smith was the face of the summer blockbuster. Arguably both “Independence Day” in 1996 and “Men in Black” in 1997 were the defining summer movies of those years. In 1998, Smith skipped the summer, but “Enemy of the State” was both a critical and commercial hit. Hype was high for “Wild Wild West.” The song Smith recorded for the movie had become a number-one hit. Then “Wild Wild West” came out and it was…bizarre. And not very good. The movie debuted big, because it was 4th of July weekend and people didn’t know it was bad yet. “Wild Wild West” would taper off quickly, and domestically it would finish out of the top 10 in box office returns. Smith was now fallible, and he’d never fully rebound.

Martin Brest is still alive. He directed “Beverly Hills Cop” and “Midnight Run.” He also has not directed a film since 2003. That’s how poisonous “Gigli” was as a project. The story did not justify a summer blockbuster release or a $75-million budget, but it had Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez during Bennifer 1.0, and that made it a cultural event. However, that also inspired hostility from people who wanted to see the Hollywood it couple fail. Oh, they failed. “Gigli” is awful, and it made $7.6 million worldwide. Yes, you read that right. That’s how Brest’s career died.

“Speed?” It’s pretty much the platonic ideal of a summer thriller. Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock were minted as stars, and it made 10 times its budget. A sequel made sense. Even when they couldn’t get Reeves back, having Bullock probably justified taking a shot at it. On the other hand, when you replace Reeves with Jason Patric, you also shouldn’t be quadrupling your budget. Plus, having “Speed 2: Cruise Control” set on a boat was a dumb idea, something Bullock has even acknowledged in recent years. After topping the box office for one week, it fell to fifth in its second week and relied heavily on international ticket sales to make back its budget (though when you throw in marketing, it assuredly lost money).

A couple of mediocre, but moderately successful, Fantastic Four movies had been made. By 2015, though, Marvel was huge, and 20th Century Fox had the rights to the superhero team. Director Josh Trank was given his first foray into major studio filmmaking. They even got Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan for the movie. Fox was going to have a big, successful superhero franchise on its hands. Yeah, that didn’t happen. “Fantastic Four” was panned, a planned sequel was swiftly canceled, and Trank’s directing career has gone completely sideways. This was an epic fiasco, however you cut it.

Eddie Murphy’s peak was behind him, but he had been a massive movie star, and a summer blockbuster staple, for many years. To kick off the 2000s, he had made “Nutty Professor” and “Dr. Dolittle” sequels that, while not critically acclaimed, were marginal commercial successes. Also, there was “Shrek.” However, there was also “The Adventures of Pluto Nash,” one of the biggest failures in American film history. Murphy’s career has never recovered. Arguably, it was the end of him as a movie star. Considered one of the worst movies ever made, “Pluto Nash” made $7.1 million worldwide off of a budget of $100 million. You know, maybe “Gigli” wasn’t such a disaster after all!

Mattel didn’t do a full Nintendo, but prior to “Barbie,” movies based on Mattel properties were rare, and usually low budget and direct-to-video after “Masters of the Universe.” That being said, if Mattel had wanted a successful blockbuster, they probably shouldn’t have gone to Cannon to produce it. The He-Man movie did have Dolph Lundgren and also Frank Langella chewing scenery as Skeletor, but the movie debuted third in the domestic box office. Even with all the toys and the cartoon, “Masters of the Universe” landed with a thud, and it did not make its budget of $22 million back.

You might be dubious about the idea of a movie about a playboy anthropomorphic duck had aspirations of being a summer blockbuster, but I give you one name: George Lucas. Lucas produced “Howard the Duck” for Universal, and in the 1980s that made it a summer event. Not only that, but “Howard the Duck” cost somewhere in the range of $30 million to $37 million to make, which was not cheap in 1986. While the film has generated a cult of irony around it, the movie was a flop, and was long considered one of the worst ever made.

This is a case of a failed blockbuster that failed less commercially and more logistically. “The Last Airbender” is probably M. Night Shyamalan’s worst movie, which is really saying something because his filmography is teeming with trash. While some of his films are entertaining in how bad they are, “The Last Airbender” is simply a snooze. The movie made $320 million worldwide, which on a budget of $150 million likely means it made some money, even with the marketing budget. That being said, Paramount didn’t drop $150 million for a critically-derided movie that barely turned a profit. Plans for a trilogy were immediately nixed.

You star in a movie like “Die Hard,” which defies all expectations, and Hollywood lets you get away with some stuff. Like, say, co-writing the story for your own vanity project. Bruce Willis stars in “Hudson Hawk,” where he gets to smirk and sing standards and do all the stuff Willis likes to do. In good projects, that’s fun. In “Hudson Hawk,” it was a chore. The film made back its budget, and then some, but only because of international returns. “Hudson Hawk” made only $17 million domestically, which is staggeringly poor.

Ryan Reynolds hadn’t found the right vehicle for his particular skill set yet. Jeff Bridges was en route to being typecast as Rooster Cogburn time and time again. Together, they are both ill-served by “R.I.P.D.,” but “R.I.P.D.” is also ill-served by them. The supernatural action-comedy (already a big swing) is not funny and not action-packed, though it is supernatural. It nailed one out of three. “R.I.P.D.” made back about half its budget, leaving Reynolds to wait around for “Deadpool” to get off the ground.

It has proven a recurring theme on this list. A movie star seems they can do no wrong, and then they do. Arnold Schwarzenegger was able to bounce back from, “Last Action Hero,” though. The movie is ambitious, so much so it has earned a cult following that we understand. Steamrolled by “Jurassic Park,” which was released a week earlier, “Last Action Hero” did make money worldwide, because Schwarzenegger was a huge star whose appeal translated internationally easily. It was also a huge disappointment and a setback for all involved.

There are two stories to tell with “Waterworld.” In the one involving cold, hard numbers, it doesn’t belong on this list. In the one involving sociocultural impact and feelings in the zeitgeist, it does. People didn’t believe in Kevin Costner when he set out to direct and star in “Dances with Wolves.” Then it was a hit and won Best Picture. He followed it up with “Waterworld” (which he didn't direct but was viewed fully and wholly as a "Kevin Costner project"). The movie made $264.2 million worldwide. It was not a flop. However, reports abounded about Costner’s out-of-control production. When all was said and done, “Waterworld” cost upwards of $175 million to make. It was, at the time, the most expensive movie ever made. Culturally, it was accepted and internalized that “Waterworld” was a failure. Many people probably assume it lost a ton of cash. In the cultural lexicon, “Waterworld” is synonymous with “hubristic fiasco,” and thus in that sense it does belong here.

Yeesh. “The Lone Ranger” is essentially radioactive at this point. Its two stars, Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp, are not the most popular cultural figures. Even aside from that, at the time “The Lone Ranger” had disaster written all over it, and that came to fruition. The movie cost a reported $250 million to make (when the studio is saying, “Actually it was only $225 million!” you know things are bleak). Worldwide, it eked over $260 million despite bad reviews. Of course, when all was said and done it lost a ton of cash, and now it has been memory holed forever.

“Wait a second,” you may be saying, “I know ‘The Avengers’ was a huge hit.” Take a look at that year, though. We aren’t talking about the Marvel movie. No, this is the 1998 movie starring Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman based on the old British TV show. Make no mistake, Warner Bros. envisioned this as a summer blockbuster. The studio dropped $60 million on it. It made $54.7 million worldwide. Warner Bros. would probably happily take the Time Stone so they could return and not make this “The Avengers.”

Well, at least “Lightyear” gave us that amazing Chris Evans tweet. Every “Toy Story” film proper has been a huge hit, but “Lightyear” was a mess. For starters, most people could not figure out what, exactly, “Lightyear” was supposed to be. Apparently, it’s the movie that Andy saw in 1995 canonically. All we know is that it somehow cost $200 million to make and it made $226.4 million worldwide. Unless it generated a ton of Disney+ subscriptions, it cost the studio a ton of money.

Paramount made one tactical error when it comes to “Dead Reckoning Part One,” and not just that it is basically half a movie. The studio released it July 12. A week later, “Barbenheimer” happened. More to the point, “Oppenheimer” grabbed basically every IMAX screen in the world, relegating “Dead Reckoning” to secondary status. This for a movie that cost $291 million to make. That, plus the marketing, caused an issue. It made $567.5 million worldwide, but modern filmmaking is complicated. “Variety” reported that, by falling short of $600 million, the movie lost Paramount $100 million. While another “Mission: Impossible” movie is coming, it is getting a new title, because Paramount does not want to do a “Part Two” for a movie that was kind of a failure.

“Jaws” birthed the summer blockbuster, so why not end here? The fourth, and final, “Jaws” movie proved to be a failed blockbuster. “Jaws: The Revenge” is considered one of the worst movies ever made. It made money, if only just, but it still was a failure. It’s a laughable movie, and certainly not a blockbuster.