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of All-Time The Most Notable Examples |
Box-Office Index
Top 100 (Domestic) | Top 100 (Inflation-Adjusted) | Top 100 (Worldwide) | Film Franchises - Box-Office | Summer Blockbusters
Top Films (By Decade and Year) | Highest-Grossing Films By Genre Type | Greatest Box-Office Bombs, Disasters, and Flops
Greatest
Box-Office Bombs, Disasters and Film Flops: Films have
the potential to skyrocket the profits of a studio, or to send it into
ruins and bankruptcy.
Films that cost more to make than they acquire in revenue (both domestic and worldwide) are considered box-office catastrophes or bombs. Studios split grosses with theater owners, so even if a movie makes as much as its production budget, it's still losing, and that's before even considering marketing costs. A film often must make almost double its budget to become profitable. Most big box-office bombs are summer blockbusters which are enormously expensive and face stiff competition. There are many reasons for a film to "bomb" at the box-office - the major causes are lack of studio promotion, heavy competition from other movies released at the same time, exorbitant productions costs difficult to recoup and other production problems, negative word of mouth (especially in the era of the Internet and social media) or critical reviews, or other external factors such as bad timing or economic problems in society at large. Movie audiences often love to relish the fact that some films, such as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001), Cutthroat Island (1995) or Heaven's Gate (1980) turn out to be monumental flops (which bankrupted their studios), and are fascinated by the details of why certain directors/actors and their films fail. Sometimes an actor's or director's career suffers, sometimes not. Most A-list directors and actors have suffered through at least one major flop, including George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Ang Lee and Brian DePalma, to name just a few. Some films are unjustly labeled flops, such as Cleopatra (1963) and Waterworld (1995), although both are included in the descriptions. In recent years, some of these low-income producing films have become profitable (after initial box-office failures) with strong international grosses, and further profits from the sales of movies to TV syndication and to home video/DVD releases (or re-releases). A prominent example of a film which did very poorly in the US, (i.e., The Golden Compass (2007)) with only $70 million (domestic revenue), easily recouped its production budget costs of $180 million with $302 million (foreign revenue) - for a total of $372 million (worldwide). This kind of comeback has been particularly true for films in the cult films genre, such as Spielberg's 1941 (1979), or action films with a big name star, such as Last Action Hero (1993), Batman & Robin (1997) or Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997), or larger epics such as Alexander (2004) or Poseidon (2006). Bombs vs. Turkeys: This selection of box-office financial bombs is often significantly different from another category of films, known as "turkeys" -- or in other words, films which have been rated as the worst ever made. These clunkers have often received official Golden Raspberry Awards (or "Razzies") which were first awarded in 1981 (for films made in 1980), although some "turkeys" are included in this list (such as Showgirls (1995) and Basic Instinct 2 (2006)). The Razzie Awards were loosely based on the 1980 book The Golden Turkey Awards written by film critic Michael Medved and his brother Harry Medved. Many of the 'turkeys' were also described in Harry Medved's earlier 1978 book The Fifty Worst Films of All-Time. In 1984, the Medveds also wrote The Hollywood Hall of Shame: The Most Expensive Flops in Movie History -- detailing the biggest financial film disasters in Hollywood history up to that time. |
(chronological, by film title) Intro | Silents-1949 | 1950 -1966 | 1967-1969 | 1970-1974 | 1975-1977 | 1978-1979 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983-1984 | 1985-1986 | 1987-1989 1990-1991 | 1992-1994 | 1995 - 1 | 1995 - 2 | 1996-1997 | 1998 | 1999 2000 | 2001 - 1 | 2001 - 2 | 2002 - 1 | 2002 - 2 | 2002 - 3 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007-Present |
Top Ten Major Box-Office Flops of All-Time -
Inflation Adjusted |
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(biggest losers based upon inflation-adjusted dollars) |
Film Title, Year |
Losses (approx.) (inflation-adjusted) |
Budget (approx.) (doesn't include additional marketing costs) |
Revenue (Worldwide) |
Losses (approx.) (includes some marketing costs) |
The 13th Warrior (1999) |
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47 Ronin (2013) |
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Cutthroat Island (1995) |
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Mars Needs Moms (2011) |
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The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002) |
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The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) |
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Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) |
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John Carter (2012) |
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The Lone Ranger (2013) |
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Sahara (2005) |
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Heaven's Gate (1980) |
Major Box-Office Flops of All-Time |
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Film Title, Year |
Losses (approx.) (includes some marketing costs) |
Budget (approx.) (doesn't include additional marketing costs) |
Revenue (Worldwide) |
47 Ronin (2013) |
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Mars Needs Moms (2011) |
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The 13th Warrior (1999) |
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John Carter (2012) |
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The Lone Ranger (2013) |
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R.I.P.D. (2013) |
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Jack the Giant Slayer (2013) |
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Sahara (2005) |
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Stealth (2005) |
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The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002) |
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Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) |
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The Alamo (2004) |
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Pan (2015) |
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Green Lantern (2011) |
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Cutthroat Island (1995) |
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Evan Almighty (2007) |
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Jupiter Ascending (2015) |
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Treasure Planet (2002) |
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Town & Country (2001) |
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Supernova (2000) |
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The Nutcracker in 3-D (2009) (aka The Nutcracker: The Untold Story) |
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Windtalkers (2002) |
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The Wolfman (2010) |
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XXX: State of the Union (2005) |
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Hugo (2011) |
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Tomorrowland (2015) |
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How Do You Know (2010) |
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Cowboys & Aliens (2011) |
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The Great Raid (2005) |
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A Sound of Thunder (2005) |
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Around the World in 80 Days (2004) |
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Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (2000) |
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Speed Racer (2008) |
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The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) |
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Gigli (2003) |
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Alexander (2004) |
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Monkeybone (2001) |
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Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002) |
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Peter Pan (2003) |
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The Postman (1997) |
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Zoom: Academy for Superheroes (2006) |
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Poseidon (2006) |
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Beloved (1998) |
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Jack Frost (1998) |
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Fathers' Day (1997) |
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K-19: The Widowmaker (2002) |
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Driven (2001) |
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Land of the Lost (2009) |
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Conan the Barbarian (2011) |
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The Astronaut's Wife (1999) |
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Dudley Do-Right (1999) |
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Chill Factor (1999) |
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The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000) |
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Red Planet (2000) |
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Ali (2001) |
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Osmosis Jones (2001) |
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Instinct (1999) |
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Hart's War (2002) |
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Sphere (1998) |
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Lolita (1997) |
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Hard Rain (1998) |
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Soldier (1998) |
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Rollerball (2002) |
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Hudson Hawk (1991) |
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Inchon! (1982) |
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Ishtar (1987) |
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Heaven's Gate (1980) |
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The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) |