Top 22 Biggest Box Office Fails of Each Year (2000 - 2021)
2000: “Titan A.E.”
Fox Animation Studios tried to kick off the century with an ambitious sci-fi epic. “Titan A.E.” followed the last Embers of humanity trying not to die out in space. Unfortunately, this potentially cool idea never stood a chance. During development, a lot of key people on the production team were fired. And even the voice talents of actors like Matt Damon and Drew Barrymore couldn’t distract audiences from a cliché heavy script. After premiering in 5th place at the box office, Titan A.E.’s financial hopes continued to plummet. Estimates say that the studio’s troubled epic caused them to lose around $100 million. To add insult to injury, Fox Animation studios closed not long after the movie bombed.
2001: “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within”
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When “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” premiered, it made cinematic history by being a completely photorealistic computer animated movie. But its groundbreaking nature might have also been its undoing. The film aimed to tell an original story where characters fought for survival against an invading alien force. Since this tale had a run time of around 1 hour and 46 minutes, the production had to worry about paying for animators, a new studio and promotion. Their efforts were met with mixed reviews from audiences and critics. After losing around 137 million at the box office, this title became one of the biggest video game movie failures of all time.
2002: “The Adventures of Pluto Nash”
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Over a decade after a “Pluto Nash” script floated into Hollywood’s orbit, legendary comedian Eddie Murphy joined the project. Although the fact he was playing a former criminal running a nightclub on the moon didn’t change, the rest of the script went through many alterations. None of the changes prevented the movie from becoming 2002’s biggest flop. Its plot was hard to follow, the pace was sluggish and not even Murphy could make the lame humor work. The original version of the movie was in such shambles that the studio spent millions on reshoots. However, that money went to waste once the public heard about this space disaster. “Pluto Nash’s” embarrassingly low 4% Rotten Tomatoes score proves rewrites can’t save everything.
2003: “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas”
An animated pirate named Sinbad nearly sunk Dreamworks Animation’s hopes for the future. The swashbuckling tale followed the titular character and his crew trying to get their hands on a magical item while avoiding supernatural threats at sea. While the movie wasn't a complete shipwreck with critics or audiences, it set sail at the worst possible time in the United States. “Sinbad” was released the same week as “Terminator 3” and competed with “Pirates of the Caribbean” during its second weekend. Since people flocked to the live-action Jack Sparrow, the animated movie made Dreamworks walk off the plank and fall into a financial disaster. Fortunately, the company avoided bankruptcy and left this pirate product at the bottom of its sea of movies.
2004: “The Alamo”
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During the early stages of this historical drama about a significant Texas conflict, the production had impressive talent. The great director Ron Howard was behind the camera and Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe were both attached. Although the studio managed to pivot after both of them left the project, “The Alamo’s” production went downhill. The historical drama was criticized for being dry as the desert in between its action scenes. And since “Alamo’s” three hour cut was trimmed down, character storylines had a few holes. A lack of a compelling cast and exciting narrative translated to the movie making less than half of its budget worldwide. Buena Vista Pictures definitely wanted to forget about the Alamo after producing this lackluster drama.
2005: “Stealth”
On paper, a movie where a jet with artificial intelligence goes Rogue sounds like it could be full of smart commentary and slick action scenes. But “Stealth” completely squandered its potentially cool premise and its considerable starpower. Unlikable characters, rough dialogue and terrible side plots ruined every chance this movie had at success. While the movie was being shot out of the sky by critics, audiences went to see films like “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” instead. Bad word of mouth and better theatrical options made it impossible for “Stealth” to recover after its rough opening week. After it crashed and burned, it’s estimated that the studio lost around $127 million.
2006: "Poseidon"
Not every movie about a ship disaster can be a Titanic success. In this thriller, a gigantic tidal Wave crashes into the RMS Poseidon. The story focuses on survivors avoiding water, working together and trying to get out of the wreck. “Poseidon’s” effects were impressive enough to earn an Oscar nomination the special effects and a Guinness World Record for its CG detail. So how did such a stunning film lose the studio the equivalent of $107 million dollars? The script just wasn’t that great. Audiences didn’t care to find out which characters got out alive from the sinking ship. Despite having impressive visuals, no one really wanted to see any of 2006’s “Poseidon” in theaters.
2007: “Evan Almighty”
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Although Steve Carell is one of the funniest actors around, he couldn’t rescue this comedy from washing out at the box office. Universal Pictures spent around 175 million dollars on everything from marketing “Evan Almighty” to building its sets. The high costs of assembling animals and promotion turned “Evan Almighty” into one of the century’s most expensive comedies. While the movie wasn't without its highlights, it didn't generate nearly enough laughs to justify its price tag. “Evan Almighty” needed a miracle to make a profit from the start. But despite opening up as the number one at the box office, low ticket sales meant the expensive “Evan” didn’t break even.
2008: “Speed Racer”
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Hollywood executives had been trying and failing to get a live-action Speed Racer movie made since 1992. Suddenly, the Wachowski siblings took the wheel. They did a fantastic job of making the story look and feel like an episode of the anime. While audiences didn’t mind the campy plot and characters, not enough paying moviegoers showed up to support “Speed Racer”. Potential viewers were probably watching a little movie called “Iron Man” that had debuted a week earlier. “Speed Racer” completely spun out so hard worldwide that it became the year’s biggest flop. While the movie was an embarrassing story for Warner Bros. in 2008, at least it now has a reputation of being somewhat of a cult classic today.
2009: “A Christmas Carol”
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Ebenezer Scrooge got a motion-capture makeover when he appeared in this 2009 take on the classic seasonal myth. While some aspects of the film looked a little uncanny for people’s tastes, Carrey’s performance as the title character and the story were mostly well-received. But it turns out Disney should’ve taken lessons from the stingy version of Scrooge about spending money. The company chose to promote its tale by sponsoring expensive marketing stunts. In one case, they put together a “Christmas Carol” themed train and sent it to dozens of cities. Unfortunately, when these bold tactics were combined with the poor reception the movie lost an estimated 137 million dollars. A few marketing executives probably got coal in their stockings for overspending on “Christmas Carol”.
2010: “How Do You Know”
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The fact that it cost around $50 million dollars just to pay the director and four actors was actually the least of this rom-com’s problems. This absurd story sees a man named Charles frame his son George for a federal crime. At the same time, a skilled softball player named Lisa has to deal with an unfaithful boyfriend. If she doesn’t fall for George during the utterly baffling climax, he’ll go to jail in place of his dad. And this is the story that came after key plot points were changed during production. “How Do You Know” eventually debuted at a miserable 8th place position at the U.S. box office. It’s a shame Jack Nicholson ended his fim career with this horrendous bomb.
2011: “Mars Needs Moms”
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If we ever found intelligent life on our neighboring red planet, we probably shouldn't show them this Disney disaster. In “Mars Needs Moms”, Milo has to search the Martian world to save his mother from an underground society. The aliens essentially want to transfer the essence of motherhood from a human into their special robots before terminating her. If audiences weren’t put off by the bizarre plot, the unsettling motion capture design definitely did the trick. Since the movie cost at least $150 million to make, empty seats were extremely bad news for Disney. It only managed to make just over a quarter of its initial budget worldwide. As of January 2022, it still had the reputation of being Disney’s biggest box office flop.
2012: “John Carter”
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Unfortunately for Disney, Mars spelled box office doom for them once again just a year after their last bomb. The company entrusted this sci-fi epic about a 19th century man going to the red planet to Andrew Stanton. Although he directed animated projects like the space masterpiece “Wall-E”, he hadn’t made any full length Hollywood live-action films. His lack of experience in this medium might’ve been why “John Carter” had extensive and costly reshoots. The final result was a film that only earned about a tenth of its massive budget back in the U.S. during its opening week. And since it got a lukewarm critical reception, the film hurtled down the charts and out of the public consciousness faster than a falling star.
2013: “The Lone Ranger”
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Believe it or not, The Mouse House completed a financial failure hat-trick. Disney had Hollywood’s worst box office bust for the third year in a row thanks to “The Lone Ranger”. Audiences were pretty split about how they felt about this modern western due to its odd pacing and jarring tonal shifts. Behind the scenes, it didn’t help that bringing this movie to life was so expensive that the two leads and director had to take pay cuts to keep the lights on. Unfortunately, the set was also affected by natural disasters that ran up the already gigantic budget. Some experts estimate that Disney lost close to $200 million dollars for this expensive misfire.
2014: “Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return”
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Released in the U.S. in 2014, this animated feature sees Dorothy travel back to a distant land to try and stop an evil Jester from taking over. The absolutely stacked cast included talents like Lea Michele as the titular protagonist, Martin Short as the main villain and Bernadette Peters as Glinda. But they were all stuck in a lackluster fantasy that could only scrape up an abysmal 17% on Rotten Tomatoes. After failing to make anywhere near its $70 million dollar price tag, the company that made the film closed its doors. Unlike Dorothy, the studio couldn’t just click its heels to get away from this financial nightmare.
2015: “Pan”
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Peter Pan is arguably one of the most recognizable and interesting fictional characters in pop culture. So, a movie that followed his origins while pitting him against the legendary pirate Blackbeard sounded like it would soar at the box office. However, reports suggest that Warner Bros. lost $164 million dollars by betting on this Lost Boy. The movie’s accusations of whitewashing, weak script and forgettable performances could be blamed for “Pan’s” failure. And both director Joe Wright and actress Rooney Mara also expressed disappointment with many aspects of the film years later. At the end of the day, it doesn’t seem like many people were happy that “Pan” took flight.
2016: “Ben-Hur”
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Since an earlier version of “Ben-Hur” won Best Picture, the production team decided to go all out on this 2016 film. They spent huge amounts of money on A list actors, a 3D conversion and to build chariots that kept breaking while they were filming the big racing scenes. But they should’ve budgeted more time into making the actors interesting. When the movie wasn’t giving us pulse-pounding action, we struggled to get invested in rough dialogue and flat performances. But not too many people got to know the yawn-inducing characters. “Ben-Hur” bombed right away and opened at sixth place in the U.S. box office. Honestly, executives probably should’ve kept their horses out of this remake race.
2017: “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword”
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Originally, Warner Bros. believed this fantasy film would kick off an action packed franchise. After retelling the classic story of King Arthur’s rise to power, there were plans for audiences to return to his round table at least four times. But spending over 200 million dollars on a bland retelling of a very old story didn’t go as planned. While Charlie Hunnam’s Arthur could lift a magical sword, he couldn’t manage to draw audiences in. American moviegoers ditched the bland retelling of an old story in favor of new fictional epics like “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.” “King Arthur” eventually lost around 150 million dollars and guaranteed that any talk of continuing the franchise was nothing more than a fairy tale.
2018: “Mortal Engines”
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Opening against the Oscar-winning “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” was surprisingly not the biggest obstacle “Mortal Engines” had to overcome. The film had an extremely high concept that centered around moving cities that essentially eat smaller settlements. As a scarred woman attempts to get revenge, she also must prevent a superweapon’s completion and avoid a cyborg. Although this seemingly random assortment of ideas was all loosely based on a book, readers didn’t exactly show up in droves to support it. “Mortal Engines” sputtered so hard at the box office that it couldn’t make back its massive budget after a worldwide release. While we still like to see original ideas onscreen, we understand why people let this complex film pass them by.
2019: “Terminator: Dark Fate”
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After “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” became a sci-fi classic, the franchise’s next three films all disappointed fans. But “Dark Fate” aimed to break that vicious cycle. Franchise favorites like Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger were back in a whole new story. Unfortunately, their return alone couldn’t bring the audience back to the theaters. Although critics liked the film more than the last two efforts, fans had seemingly lost faith in the series. Poor attendance caused the sci-fi outing to lose an estimated $134 million dollars. It’s safe to say that “Dark Fate’s” performance has terminated any chances this series might achieve its former glory.
2020: “Mulan” & “Wonder Woman 1984”
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Thanks to 2020 being a highly unusual year for a number of reasons, we had to take a different approach for this entry. Although both “Mulan” & “Wonder Woman 1984” were estimated to have lost over $140 million dollars each, it’s hard to tell who lost more. The two films coincidentally happen to follow two heroines with special abilities fighting to protect loved ones. And while audiences unanimously loved previous interpretations of Mulan and Wonder Woman respectively, reception to their pair of stories was mixed this time around. It’s impossible to know if either film would’ve thrived if they released at a different time. All we know for sure is that neither audiences nor the production teams for these films want a year like 2020 again.
2021: “Chaos Walking”
As of January 2022, it appears like “Chaos Walking” was 2021’s biggest box office bust. And it’s not hard to see why. This abstract sci-film sees a woman crash land on a planet that is seemingly only populated by men who project their thoughts out loud. In 2019, an original cut of this wild concept was said to be “unreleasable” and tried to make changes. Since the final product earned a mere 21% on Rotten Tomatoes, the first version must’ve been as bad as the executives claimed. Whether audiences heard about all the bad press or forgot the movie existed, it lost an estimated $112 million dollars. Maybe they would’ve been better off not releasing this movie at all.
