The most memorable and infamous box office bombs

Let’s start with the infamous bomb that…was kind of not a bomb? Make no mistake, “Waterworld” was a bad movie. Kevin Costner began the process of spending a lot of his goodwill he earned from “Dances With Wolves.” Also, at the time this was the most-expensive movie ever made. In the United States, it did flop, but thanks to a good performance overseas, and unexpected popularity on VHS, it did turn a profit. That being said, when you make the priciest movie ever “Barely make a profit” is not the end goal.

Peter Jackson knows how to turn a book into a huge hit movie. Well, at least when hobbits and elves are involved. What about a movie based on a steampunk world where cities move around on cogs and gears? Jackson was one of the screenwriters on this movie, but apparently there weren’t enough fans of the book. Reportedly, “Mortal Engines” lost its studio a stunning $174 million. By some measures, that makes it the biggest bomb of all time just based on sheer numbers.

If you want the true biggest bomb of 1995, you need to look here. Heck, it’s even another water-heavy movie. This was not the year for seafaring, evidently. Renny Harlin directed his then-wife Geena Davis in this pirate adventure, but nobody was happy with it. It made only $10 million in the box office, and may have killed its production company Carolco Pictures.

Johnny Depp playing Tonto. Who could have figured this was going to go wrong? Evidently people weren’t digging the idea of Armie Hammer as a movie star. Indeed, it hasn’t happened for him yet, despite his clear talent. While it did get a couple of Oscar nominations – for visual effects and makeup, it barely made more than its budget. When you factor in marketing costs for a Disney movie, well…

Fun fact: Eddie Murphy used to be a huge movie star. That stopped being the case around the time of “The Adventures of Pluto Nash.” Critics hated it and so did filmgoers apparently. Well, at least the ones who actually went to go see it. “Pluto Nash” flopped, and Murphy’s career has never been the same. And yet, somehow “Norbit” still feels like the nadir of his career.

“John Carter from Mars” is a somewhat intriguing title. When you cut the “from Mars” part of that, you end up with an incredibly generic title. That might work for  Oscar bait like “Michael Clayton,” but trying to get people to flock to see a blockbuster simply called “John Carter?” It didn’t work. How many people didn’t even realize this was a sci-fi movie with space travel in it? Maybe that would have made it more money?

Michael Cimino basically got a blank check after “The Deer Hunter” won Best Picture. United Artists would come to regret that. Cimino’s film was a mess behind the scenes and its budget ballooned to staggering numbers for the time. When it hit theaters, it made a mere $3.5 million. Even in 1980, that was terrible. United Artists basically went out of business, and you could argue that “Heaven’s Gate” ended the era of the ‘70s auteur filmmaker.

How does a middling romantic comedy end up with a budget of $120 million. Well, when your cast includes Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd, and Jack Nicholson. In fact, this is – to date – Nicholson’s last acting role. James L. Brooks used to be a crowd-pleasing filmmaker. For “How Do You Know,” there was barely a crowd to please.

Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger back in their most-iconic roles. James Cameron back producing and working on the story. Would this be the movie that returned the “Terminator” franchise to glory? No, it turns out. People basically shrugged at the film, which didn’t make its budget back. There had been plans for more “Terminator” movies. Now there isn’t.

If you want the true Costner bomb, it’s “The Postman.” Costner starred and directed this nearly-three-hour post-apocalyptic epic about, well, a postman delivering mail. Critics panned it, and it only made $20 million in the theaters. This time, there would be no VHS Renaissance either.

Of all the bombs on this list, this was the easiest one to call. A big-budget adaptation of an incomprehensible novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology? Starring John Travolta, one of the biggest names in Scientology? One look at the trailer let you know this movie was going to be terrible. It won seven Razzies when it came out, and ended up winning Worst Film of the Decade as well. Needless to say, it didn’t make its budget back.

“Bruce Almighty” was a huge hit, and Steve Carell was a rising star. He had a small role in “Bruce Almighty,” but that was a Jim Carrey film. Still, we knew that Carell could carry a production. Just look at “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “The Office.” No Carrey, though, seemed to kill people’s interest. “Evan Almighty,” a riff on Noah’s Ark, fell just short of making back its budget.

We’re a long way from “The Matrix” changing the world. Since then, the Wachowskis have failed to make a single film that really satisfied people. Sure, there have been some financial successes, but critics have been out on the Wachowskis. For “Jupiter Ascending,” critics, fans, and the box office all told the same story. This insane tale involving rocket boots and Eddie Redmayne eating every last morsel of scenery was a pure and simple flop.

In 1956, an adaptation of “Around the World in 80 Days” won Best Picture. It shouldn’t have, but it was clearly not a flop. The 2004 version, though, was a slog that was met with a shrug of apathy. Starring Jackie Chan and Steve Coogan, the Disney film still managed to barely make a dent in the box office, especially in the United States. They should have just let this story stay un-rebooted.

This movie has a hilarious name, but beyond that it had nothing going for it. In fact, Rotten Tomatoes once named “Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever” the worst movie of all time. Nobody cared to see it either, as it didn’t come close to making back its $70 million budget.

You know the story here. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were a couple, but people were pretty sick of them. Oh, and “Gigli” was also a terrible movie. It wasn’t all “Bennifer” backlash that made this a flop. Martin Brest had directed hits like “Beverly Hills Cop” and “Midnight Run.” He never directed another movie after “Gigli.”

A movie starring Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds as dead people in charge of keeping their fellow souls from fleeing the afterlife? Not a terrible idea for a movie. Unfortunately, the execution was awful. The film isn’t funny, and nobody was happy with it. It takes a lot of special effects to make a movie like this, which is a big reason why the movie had a big budget that it couldn’t make back.

Do you even remember that “Tomorrowland” came out? Has a movie with this much ostensible clout ever made less of an impact? Brad Bird was directing a movie written by Damon Lindelof starring George Clooney based on an attraction at Disneyland. The marketing was ubiquitous, but the film came and went without making any noise. It made a decent amount of money in the box office, but “Tomorrowland” was expected to be a huge hit. Instead, it barely made back its massive $190 budget before factoring in those marketing costs.

“Ishtar” has a reputation as the worst movie ever, and that’s unfair. It’s actually perfectly a fine, a solid B- or a C+. Unfortunately, the movie had a huge budget and huge stars in Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman. That got the rumors churning, so when the movie wasn’t a hit, the backlash began. “Ishtar” was a big bomb, as it barely made over $14 million. Unfortunately, that hurt the career of director Elaine May.

Bruce Willis’ fingerprints are all over “Hudson Hawk.” He didn’t just star in it. He co-wrote it and made the theme song. The return of Bruno, indeed. “Hudson Hawk” was an absolute failure, and it’s considered one of the worst movies ever. Unlike “Ishtar,” its reputation has not been reconsidered at all. Overseas success saved the film from being a horrible flop, but it only made $17 million in the United States.

Comic book movies are huge. Marvel characters are in some of the biggest movies ever. Surely, a Fantastic Four movie could hit it big, right? Nope! Josh Trank’s movie landed with a thud. Trank had been a rising director, but he ended up in director jail for a bit after “Fantastic Four” proved a dull affair that was somehow worse than the “Fantastic Four” movies with Jessica Alba and Chris Evans.

“Krull” has no stars and is not based on any known characters. So how did it end up with a budget that ballooned to around $30 million? Script revisions and set changes, evidently. There was hope to make “Krull” a sci-fi hit for Columbia. Instead, it couldn’t make back its budget. The film is now a cult movie, but that doesn’t stop it from being a bomb.

Sorry, Ryan Reynolds. We’re double dipping on you. “Green Lantern” did lead Reynolds to a relationship with Blake Lively, which is nice for them. It also made him a punchline and put a real crimp in him as a movie star. Of course, nobody has made “Green Lantern” a bigger punchline than Reynolds himself. Just watch a “Deadpool” movie sometime.

The first “X-Men” movies in this series, the revamped version with James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, were successful. “Dark Phoenix” decidedly was not. The movie had a massive budget of $200 million, but people were seemingly tired of the X-Men, and didn’t have any interest in seeing the Dark Phoenix story again. By some measures “Dark Phoenix” was the biggest bomb of 2019, and it ended plans for this to be the start of a new trilogy. The “X-Men” films are dead.

“Star Wars” movies print money, right? There was a reason that they seemed to have plans to release a new one every year. In addition to the trilogy built around Rey and Kylo Ren, they were releasing these “Star Wars Story” movies. “Rogue One” was a critical and commercial success. Now they were making a movie about Han Solo, maybe people’s favorite “Star Wars” character. The critics, and fans, were lukewarm at best on “Solo.” It’s the lowest-grossing live-action “Star Wars” movie and the first to be considered a commercial failure. Suddenly, the plans for an annual “Star Wars” movie were over.