Top 10 Worst Billion-Dollar Movies

There’s nothing inherently wrong with giving audiences exactly what they want. Nevertheless, one can point to the “Fast & Furious” saga’s eighth chapter as the moment where Dom Toretto’s platitudes about family finally started losing their touch. “The Fate of the Furious” doesn’t skimp on what makes these movies easy to enjoy. But, as the first film to be released after Paul Walker’s passing, it frequently struggles to carve out an identity for itself. The moving tribute paid to the actor in “Furious 7” was justifiably cause for celebration. But without an everyman like Brian O’Conner to keep things grounded, the tonal inconsistencies and implausible logic become far more noticeable. “Fate” allowed this movie to coast off its built-up fan base rather than its own merits.

Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy took in nearly $3 billion and a collective 17 Academy Awards. So it was only a matter of time before filmgoers would get to return to Middle-earth once more. While the first “Hobbit” film’s billion dollar haul made it clear that love still remained, the decision to split a relatively slim novel into three films quickly showed signs of weakness. While the characters, both old and new, are all mostly likable, the sense of adventure is hampered by endless exposition and a misguided use of CGI to bring certain creatures to life. The action would pick up in later installments, but notably reduced box office receipts indicates that “An Unexpected Journey” did not make the greatest first impression.

Like most of the live-action remakes Disney has tackled, “Aladdin” flies a magic carpet of nostalgia in its best moments, but is egregiously miscalculated in its worst. It deserves credit for trying something new with a story we all know and love, but the changes it opts for cause it to lose the very magic that made the original so beloved. Despite having everything from an energetic Will Smith to immortal music at its disposal, “Aladdin” never fully wishes itself free from the shadow of its predecessor. It’s more than a little frustrating when something with promise settles for being average and squanders its chance to find a place in our hearts. But you know what they say: “phenomenal cosmic power, itty bitty living space.”

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the Minions were a phenomenon in the early 2010s. But they are animated proof that you can have too much of a good thing. Their hilarious slapstick made them an endearing aspect of the first two “Despicable Me” movies, but their best qualities only emerge when they have a villain to follow. This origin story, which sees the little yellow guys search throughout history to find the perfect master, is ultimately a harmless and occasionally wholesome adventure. But the comedy isn’t as fresh as it once was, with the Minions’ indecipherable gibberish quickly wearing thin on even the most patient viewer. But when your target audience is kids and their paying families, sometimes simplicity is the name of the game.

It’s no surprise that good will toward “The Lion King” propelled this “live-action” reimagining to a staggering $1.6 billion in revenue. But that number should be taken with a grain of salt, as it’s likely a reflection of how many people saw the movie and not how many times they saw it. Once you remove your nostalgia-tinted glasses, this “Lion King” has little to offer on the first watch, let alone multiple watches. A beat-for-beat recreation, its startling lack of originality is worsened by its pursuit of realism. While not lacking in technical prowess, its phoned-in performances and CGI’d cast of animals leave it deprived of the soul that makes the original such a timeless classic. We can’t feel the love with this one.

“Star Wars” is always going to do good business, yet it’s hard to know who is most responsible for taking the saga to such an egregious low. Regardless of where you stand on “The Last Jedi” and its bold choices, “The Rise of Skywalker” did virtually nothing to rectify its predecessor’s reputation. If the question was whether Episode IX would finish the established story or give into viewer demands, the answer was a deafening “neither.” Entire plot threads were wiped off the slate, while characters we were just getting invested in were practically exiled so that the series could pointlessly resurrect its biggest antagonist. It was an illogical attempt to salvage credibility, and it amounted to one of the least satisfying finales in recent memory.

It was the wrong movie at exactly the right time. “Alice in Wonderland” represented just the kind of mind-expanding 3D adventure people were craving in a post-“Avatar” landscape. On top of that, it made the idea of re–experiencing a Disney classic in live-action a rather fresh concept. Unfortunately, despite turning a huge profit, its biggest selling points turned out to be temporary novelties. Although the film’s visuals were fitting for director Tim Burton, the overindulgence in style left much of the story struggling to keep up. In fact, the movie thoroughly misunderstands Lewis Carroll’s original text by casting its eccentric characters aside to make way for an out-of-touch story of warring factions. Suffice it to say Disney didn’t learn many lessons from this one.

Considering this was once the most expensive movie ever made, the executives at Disney probably breathed a sigh of relief when it crossed the billion dollar threshold. And it’s a good thing, too, as this unnecessary “Pirates of the Caribbean” continuation hasn’t inspired many rewatches since. “On Stranger Tides” has an intriguing premise on paper, as Captain Jack Sparrow squaring off against Blackbeard on a hunt for the Fountain of Youth sounds like an adventure for the ages. But the welcome returns of Jack and Hector Barbossa were done dirty by the confusing plot and uninteresting new characters. What should have been a back-to-basics quest is instead padded with poorly written humor, underdeveloped action, and enough superfluous side plots to fill a treasure chest.

To paraphrase Ian Malcolm, the producers of the “Jurassic World” series were so preoccupied with whether or not they could resurrect this franchise that they didn’t stop to think if they should. While not without state-of-the-art CGI, Universal’s wild overestimation of the saga’s critical capabilities reached a fever pitch with this sixth (and sadly not final) chapter. “Dominion” already does fans a disservice due to the lack of chemistry between its old and new school characters. But in fashioning a plot around a locust plague, it does the unthinkable by making the dinosaurs almost completely irrelevant. Throw in action sequences that really belong in other franchises, and “Dominion” ironically evolves into one of the power-mad, money-hungry beasts the Spielberg original tried to warn us about.

In hindsight, nothing was gonna stop Michael Bay from finding new ways to enrage “Transformers” fans as long as his movies kept making money. 2011’s “Dark of the Moon” should have been all the proof we needed that a billion dollars couldn’t make up for obnoxious characters and incoherent action. And yet, “Age of Extinction” took the franchise to an all-time low three years later. Quadrupling down on the franchise’s biggest flaws, it not only serves up a story more convoluted than the first three films combined, but also overhauls its human cast to disastrous effect. The worst part is that Bay lifelessly directs the movie as if box office success is a guarantee, and makes all of the wrong choices simply because he can.




Is there a movie you were surprised made a billion dollars? Let us know down in the comments!