20 Biggest Box Office Bombs Of All Time

Summary

• Hollywood’s biggest box office bombs teach us that big budgets and star-studded casts don’t always guarantee success.
• John Carter’s astronomical loss highlights the risks of creating big-budget franchises from lesser-known source material.
• The failure of Disney’s animation Strange World reminds us that even industry giants can experience massive financial flops.

While not every movie can be a financial hit, the biggest box office bombs of all time prove that some projects can take down careers, genres, and even studios. While movie studios do everything possible to ensure they take as few risks as possible, investing in a film is always a gamble. The common criticism that Hollywood only produces reboots, sequels, remakes, and spinoffs is not without justification. This claim comes from the fact that, for studios, an intellectual property with proven potential and a built-in fan base will always be more appealing than an unknown, original prospect.

However, this approach does not always bear fruit. The box office failure of superhero movies in 2023 shows that no genre is going to be a surefire hit forever. While superhero movies were once the biggest earner, they have now made for some costly losses. This can be the same for big ambitious productions that spiral out of control, attempts to start franchises that fail to launch, and star-studded movies that don’t interest audiences. Regardless of the confidence going in, these box office bombs have made an unfortunate mark in Hollywood history.

20 How Do You Know (2010)

Loss: $140 Million

Many box office bombs are testaments to misplaced ambition, but 2010’s How Do You Know is an exception to this rule. A modest romantic comedy, How Do You Know somehow cost $120 million to produce. The salaries of the star-studded cast contributed to the high price tag, with Reese Witherspoon ($15 million), Owen Wilson ($10 million), and Jack Nicholson ($12 million) making a lot for their work.

Along with the hefty salaries for the talented cast, another issue with the film’s budget stemmed from writer-director James L. Brooks’ filmmaking style. He moved at a meticulous pace and the time that everything took only added to the pricetag. Ultimately though, nothing about How Do You Know’s familiar story justified this sky-high cost.

A familiar romance, How Do You Know saw Witherspoon’s softball player struggling to choose between Wilson’s charming baseball player and Paul Rudd’s white-collar criminal. Viewers chose neither, resulting in a $140 million loss. While the careers of the stars of the movie were not noticeably harmed, the underperforming movie led to Brooks not making another film until next year’s Ella McCay.

19 Heaven’s Gate (1980)

Loss: $144 Million

Michael Cimono’s Heaven’s Gate is often seen as the movie that ended the auteur-driven mindset of Hollywood. A wildly ambitious epic Western, Heaven’s Gatecost$44 million and earned back less than $4 million.

A true tragedy of ambition, Heaven’s Gate takes place alongside Damien Chazelle’s Babylon and director Richard Kelly’s underrated sci-fi flop Southland Tales as a quintessential case of a visionary director whose carte blanch opportunity proved to be a financial disaster. The movie is an epic that mixes romance and war with the story of a sheriff who struggles to protect immigrant farmers in 1890’s Wyoming. Like those aforementioned films, Heaven’s Gate has many defenders.

Lush, immersive, and surprisingly affecting, Heaven’s Gate is still undeniably as overlong and meandering as critics claimed. Adjusted for inflation, Cimino’s Western lost $144 million. Despite having directed the Best Picture winner, The Deer Hunter, this movie all but ended Cimino’s career.

18 A Wrinkle In Time (2018)

Loss: $152 Million

Director Ava DuVernay’s adaptation of the famous young adult novel A Wrinkle In Time assembled an impressive cast, including Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, and Oprah Winfrey. The movie stars Storm Reid as a young girl whose scientist father goes missing, motivating her on a journey alongside her friends to travel across time and space to find him.

The story is a beloved one and there was certainly a lot of talent involved. However, this was not enough to save A Wrinkle In Time from a disastrous box office performance upon its release in 2018. With a budget of $130 million, A Wrinkle In Time earned a little less than that number at the box office. While this may not sound too bad, A Wrinkle In Time’s marketing and promotional budget means that the movie lost somewhere in the realm of $152 million.

17 Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Loss: $155 Million

With 2020’s Wonder Woman 1984, there is the tricky question of the COVID-19 pandemic and its box office impact. Most of the bombs from the era were affected by theater closures caused by the pandemic, and it is impossible to know whether these movies might have performed better if released later. This is especially true as the studio made the unprecedented decision to also release the film for at-home streaming during its theatrical run.

However, the only version of Wonder Woman 1984’s box office performance that viewers can use to gauge is the one that happened. Released in December 2020, the Wonder Woman sequel earned around $46 million in the U.S. and around $123 million worldwide. This resulted in Wonder Woman 1984 losing somewhere around $155 million.

Despite starting out as one of the DCU’s most successful properties, Wonder Woman 3 was canceled after this movie. While the pandemic changed the way audiences could see the movie and certainly limited its box office potential, a smaller factor could have also been the critical and audience reception, which was decidedly more mixed than the acclaimed first installment.

16 Mulan (2020)

Loss: $159 Million

Another movie whose box office underperformance is inexorably tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mulan‘s live-action Disney remake, was released in theaters in September 2020. Like the beloved animated original, Mulan tells the story of the titular heroine, a young woman in Imperial China who is being pushed down one path in life as a dutiful wife, but challenges tradition when she poses as a male soldier and takes her father’s place in the army.

Earning lukewarm critical write-ups and significant criticism from non-Western reviewers, Mulan 2020 had a disastrous showing at the box office. Costing around $200 million, Mulan 2020 earned a mere $70 million. Mulan’s losses totaled around $159 million, a far cry from the 1998 original.

In stark contrast with its live-action re-imagining, that animated classic cost $90 million and earned over $300 million. However, like Wonder Woman 1984, Mulan was only released in countries in which the movie theaters had reopened amid the pandemic. In the United States and many other countries, the movie was released on Disney+.

15 Dark Phoenix (2019)

Loss: $155 Million

Dark Phoenix was intended to be a star vehicle for Game of Thrones heroine Sophie Turner, who played the uncontrollable, tragic anti-villain Phoenix in this 10th X-Men movie. The story saw Jean Grey struggling with her new and extreme powers while being torn between her X-Men friends and a race of aliens attempting to use her as the ultimate weapon. It is an adaptation of a beloved comic book storyline that many fans feel was poorly done in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand.

However, the response to Dark Phoenix was even worse than the 2006 version, with it being called a messy, misjudged story that signaled the X-Men franchise reaching the end of its run. An overstuffed cast, convoluted plot, and hasty re-shoots all contributed to the failure of director Simon Kinberg’s Dark Phoenix, which earned $252 million worldwide on a budget of $200 million. Thanks to marketing, this meant a $155 million loss for the studio at the end of the day.

The movie was released in the aftermath of the deal struck by Fox and Disney that would mean the MCU regained the rights to the X-Men characters. This suggested the X-Men Fox franchise was over, and the audience might have already been moving on, looking ahead to the MCU’s take on these characters. The movie’s many delays likely didn’t help matters with the movie originally scheduled for a Fall 2018 release.

14 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

Loss: $155 Million

In the early 2000s, video game adaptations seemed like a major moneymaking opportunity for Hollywood studios. While the critical failure of 1993’s Super Mario Bros and 1995’s Mortal Kombat should have given executives pause, there was too much excitement and too much money to be made in this new medium for anyone to consider temperance. As a result, viewers got a star-studded adaption of the incredibly popular Final Fantasy franchise in 2001’s Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

The movie details humanity’s fight against alien phantoms who have taken control of Earth, with a scientist pushing back against the military’s approach and seeking a non-destructive way to win the war. A “photo-realistic” animated effort, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within lost $155 million and was largely responsible for the death of the studio responsible for the flop. The film was the most expensive video game adaptation at the time, but ironically alienated fans of the franchise due to it taking liberties with the story.

13 The Adventures Of Pluto Nash (2002)

Loss: $156 Million

At various points in his career, Eddie Murphy seemed too big to fail. In the ‘80s, a string of hits like Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, and 48 Hrs made him an A-list leading man, only for just as many flops to ruin his reputation. In the ‘90s, Murphy reinvented himself as a family movie hero and enjoyed another set of successes with Dr. Doolittle and The Nutty Professor, both of which spawned sequels.

However, this streak came crashing to a halt with 2002’s sci-fi comedy The Adventures of Pluto Nash, which lost a staggering $156 million upon release. While Murphy was a huge star at the time, the movie proved that no A-list talent can make up for a poorly received project.

In the end, it was the disastrous critical reaction that is likely responsible for the movie’s financial failure. The movie earned 5% on Rotten Tomatoes and was nominated for five Golden Raspberry Awards in 2003, including Worst Picture. The bad word-of-mouth sunk the film while the sci-fi setting ballooned the budget to $100 million, making its failure stand above the typical poorly received comedy.

12 Turning Red (2022)

Loss: $167 Million

In 2022, the tween comedy Turning Red saw Pixar take a creative risk by aging up the studio’s target demographic. Where earlier Pixar movies were aimed at small children (despite their large fandom among all ages), Turning Red’s older protagonist and more mature jokes meant the fantasy comedy was aimed at preteens. The movie follows a young girl who, along with dealing with the other challenges of being a teenager, contends with turning into a giant red panda whenever she gets excited.

While the pandemic played a part in Turning Red’s failure, the decision to release Turning Red theatrically in countries without Disney+ meant the movie earned $20 million on a budget of $175 million. All told, Turning Red lost somewhere in the realm of $167 million. Given the fact that theatrical movies were starting to make a comeback, with the likes of Scream, Uncharted, and The Batman all finding success around the same time, there were some who felt Disney should have had more faith in Turning Red given its critical acclaim.

While it and other Pixar movies were given theatrical releases in 2024 to make up for the Disney+ release, it’s not surprising that not too many people turned out to see a film that was available to watch for the last two years.

11 Titan A.E. (2000)

Loss: $170 Million

With 1997’s underrated Anastasia, director Don Bluth proved that he could do anything Disney could. However, the ambition of 2000’s Titan A.E., proved that, just like Disney, Bluth could also deliver some costly flops. The story of a young hero sent to save the human race after an alien species destroys the planet, Titan A.E. melded traditional 2D animation with 3D CGI to innovative effect. It combined that with an A-list voice cast, including Matt Damon, Nathan Lane, and Drew Barrymore.

However, those impressive elements weren’t enough to lead the movie to box office success as it took in $36.8 million at the worldwide box office and suffered a $170 million loss for Fox Animation Studios. There are a number of factors to account for this, including some stiff competition at the box office from the likes of Mission: Impossible 2 and Gone in 60 Seconds. Ultimately, Titan A.E. was also a more violent animated movie than the family-friendly audience was likely looking for.

10 King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword (2017)

Loss: $183 Million

Director Guy Ritchie’s career looks like a rollercoaster when charted as a series of box office performances. While Ritchie’s early movies were huge financial hits, he followed them with commercial duds like Swept Away. When he returned to blockbuster success with the Sherlock Holmes movies, Ritchie followed this up with 2018’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. The movie is the latest take on the Arthurian legend with Charlie Hunnam playing the titular role as a more reluctant hero.

A financial and critical catastrophe, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword lost somewhere in the realm of $183 million when its $175 million budget was met with less than $150 million at the box office.

The movie went through a lot of variations until settling on a version that was meant to set up a larger shared universe, but the franchise building only hampered the already overly complicated story in the eyes of many fans. However, at the center of it all, many analysts suggested audiences simply grew tired of the character and didn’t need a new King Arthur movie.

9 Tomorrowland (2015)

Loss: $185 Million

2015’s ambitious sci-fi drama Tomorrowland starred George Clooney as a disillusioned inventor who is transported to the titular futuristic alternate reality along with a teenage master scientist. The movie was an anticipated live-action return for Brad Bird, who had started his career with acclaimed animated movies like The Iron Giant and The Incredibles. Bird then impressed people with his live-action debut in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, setting the stage for this original sci-fi story.

Costing around $190 million, Tomorrowland earned back less than $210 million, resulting in a loss of $185 million. The movie’s marketing took partial blame for the failure with the trailers neither offering much excitement nor giving a good enough idea of what the movie was about. Tomorrowland also wasn’t the hit with critics that Bird was used to. Subsequently, Bird has not returned to the live-action world since then.

8 Pan (2015)

Loss: $185 Million

Retellings of Peter Pan crop up every few years at the multiplex, but not all of them are guaranteed to succeed. 2015’s Pan served as a prequel story detailing how Peter Pan was brought to Neverland and formed his community of Lost Boys. It also features the beginning of his relationship with James Hook, who he partners with to battle the fearsome pirate Blackbeard, played by Hugh Jackman.

While Peter Pan movies have continued to make the character a well-known name in pop culture, like King Arthur, it serves as an example of studios not considering whether audiences actually have an interest in the property. The negative critical reaction and the sentiment of an unnecessary prequel also added to the movie’s issues. On a budget of $150 million, Pan earned back less than $130 million. As a result, the movie lost around $185 million.

7 Strange World (2023)

Loss: $197 Million

Disney’s history of animated releases has delivered some of the most beloved and successful movies of all time. However, the collection of the biggest box office bombs of all time also shows that it has delivered some massive failures as well. None have been as disastrous as Strange World. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, and Jaboukie Young-White, Strange World tells the story of a family of mismatched adventurers who go on a wild journey in search of a mysterious plant.

Strange World lost $197 million at the box office and suffered the added indignity of becoming the first animated Disney movie not nominated for an Oscar in over a decade. The movie’s massive loss put the studio under the microscope with questions about how it was faring in the wake of such bombs as these. While Strange World did not sink Disney, it is also surprisingly not the worst bomb the studio suffered thanks to the live-action projects.

6 Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas (2003)

Loss: $199 Million

2003’s animated adventure movie Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas stars the ever-charismatic Brad Pitt as the titular sailor and features supporting roles for Michelle Pfeiffer and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The movie is a big-budget adventure movie that follows the legendary titular pirate as he seeks a stolen treasure in order to save a prince from a curse.

Costing $60 million and grossing $80 million, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas lost almost $200 million when adjusted for inflation. This almost bankrupted Dreamworks and its failure was so bad that it was suggested it changed animated movies forever. The beautifully hand-drawn animation for the film was a big part of its cost, and as a result, it became the last animated movie of that kind to be made by Dreamworks as they made the switch to CGI movies.

5 Cutthroat Island (1995)

Loss: $202 Million

Director Renny Harlin’s failure Cutthroat Island was a pop culture punchline for most of the ‘90s, with the movie earning many laughs at its expense. The movie follows a female pirate as she races her rivals to reach a fabled island filled with treasure. The movie was meant to be a throwback to swashbuckling epics of the past but had to contend with the chaotic production which saw several rewrites and recasting before the finished product was sent to theaters.

Costing between $90 and $100 million, Cutthroat Island made a legendarily terrible $10 million upon release. Adjusted for inflation, that amounts to a $202 million loss for the swashbuckling adventure movie.

While stars Geena Davis and Matthew Modine recovered their careers after this shipwreck, the production company Carolco Pictures was sunk by Cutthroat Island’s failure. It was often seen as the reason for ending the pirate movie genre for so long and its failure nearly caused Disney to turn down Pirates of the Caribbean nearly a decade later.

4 Mortal Engines (2018)

Loss: $204 Million

Author Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines is a highly popular young adult sci-fi novel. Released in 2001, Mortal Engines received positive reviews and sold exceptionally well but despite this, the book took almost two decades to receive a movie adaptation. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic reality in which cities are movable vehicles that consume others to survive.

By the time Mortal Engines eventually hit screens in 2018, the young adult hysteria craze was fading. With the likes of Divergent and Ender’s Gametrying and failing to recapture the success of The Hunger Games, Mortal Engines seemed destined to suffer a similar fate before it even hit theaters. Costing somewhere between $100-$150 million to produce, Mortal Engines made less than $84 million at the box office. This translated to a $204 million loss and ended the franchise before it had even truly begun.

3 The 13th Warrior (1999)

Loss: $227 Million

Die Hard director John McTiernan headed back to the period action territory for 1999’s The 13th Warrior, an action epic set in the distant past. A star vehicle for Antonio Banderas, The 13th Warrior was an adaptation of author Michael Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead which, in turn, was a loose retelling of Beowulf. Banderas plays a diplomat who, while on a mission, falls in with a band of fierce warriors who are tasked with defeating a mysterious Viking threat.

Unlike the earlier Crichton adaptation of Jurassic Park, The 13th Warrior bombed at the box office. Costing as much as $160 million, The 13th Warrior earned less than $62 million, resulting in a $227 million loss. The brutal violence and grim nature of the movie did not attract the same kind of audience that made period action movies like Braveheart a hit. Following his amazing career, which also included The Hunt for Red October and Predator, the failure of The 13th Warrior led to the decline of McTiernan’s career.

2 The Lone Ranger (2013)

Loss: $240 Million

The Lone Ranger reunited Pirates of the Caribbean franchise star Johnny Depp with the original director of those acclaimed blockbusters, Gore Verbinski. An update of a classic pop culture hero, The Lone Ranger seemed guaranteed to be a huge summer hit with Armie Hammer as the wronged cowboy who teams with a mysterious Comanche man named Tonto (Johnny Depp) to bring justice to the Old West.

The movie was reported to have budgetary issues early on, with the production growing unwieldy. In the end, the film was made for $225–250 million and barely made that back at the worldwide box office, losing $240 million in the process. With such a massive budget, The Lone Ranger was seen as being set up to fail. There was also criticism about the violent nature of the movie mixed with its good sense of humor which made it confusing as to who the target audience was meant to be.

1 John Carter (2012)

Loss: $255 Million

Like The Lone Ranger, 2012’s John Carter was an attempt to revisit the popular serials of the ‘30s. Trapped in development hell for decades, this adaptation of the famous Edgar Rice Burroughs character was intended to be the first in an ambitious sci-fi adventure movie trilogy. The story follows a Civil War soldier who is transported to Mars where he becomes entangled in a long-standing war between different factions of the planet.

With a budget of $263 million, John Carter was one of the most expensive movies ever made, and its marketing budget added almost another $100 million to this figure. John Carter eventually earned $284 million upon release, resulting in a historic $255 million loss that made the movie the biggest box office bomb of all time. The failure of John Carter continues to be examined over a decade later, with many theories about how it failed so miserably.

There is a lot of blame put on the confidence in making a massive big-budget franchise out of a character who, while popular at one period, was not likely recognizable to many mainstream audiences. The marketing for the movie was also criticized, with the first trailer being met with a lukewarm reaction and the movie struggling to raise enthusiasm after that. Similar to Brad Bird with Tomorrowland, Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton returned to animation following this flop.