12 Most Momentous Movie Flops
Estimated Budget: $44 Million
Gross: $3.4 Million
Director: Michael Cimino
Starring: Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, Is
Estimated Budget: $44 Million
Gross: $3.4 Million
Director: Michael Cimino
Starring: Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, Isabelle Huppert, Jeff Bridges
The flop that changed Hollywood and destroyed a studio. The 1970’s had seen an unprecedented rise in director power in Hollywood. The first generation of “Film Majors” came into their own, with young guns like Scorsese, Copolla, Spielberg and Lucas arriving on the scene with massive successes. Producers indulged directors because directors were delivering hits. Michael Cimino was a promising screenwriter, who’s second directorial effort, The Deer Hunter, had won multiple Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director. His was given carte blanche on his third film, a story of the settling of the west, with a sprawling ensemble cast and epic scope.
United Artists
Estimated Budget: $37 Million
Gross: $37.9 Million
Director: Willard Huyck
Starring: Lea Thompson, Tim Robbins, Jeffrey Jones, C
Estimated Budget: $37 Million
Gross: $37.9 Million
Director: Willard Huyck
Starring: Lea Thompson, Tim Robbins, Jeffrey Jones, Chip Zien
In 1986 George Lucas ruled the galaxy. The “Star Wars” trilogy and the “Indiana Jones” films had been enormous successes and had basically (along with “Jaws” and “E.T.”) created the idea of "The Blockbuster.” Fans waited with baited breath to see what he would do next. The announcement that he would produce longtime friend and screenwriting partner Willard Huyck's adaption of cult-comic “Howard the Duck” was met with some guarded optimism. Perhaps we would see a return of the Lucas who had made a striking Huxley-esque debut with “THX-1138,” or the Lucas who directed the wistful nostalgia with a rock ‘n’ roll sound track of “American Graffiti,” or the risk-taking Lucas of the first “Star Wars” film. (Consider the oddity of casting the film's handsome set carpenter, Harrison Ford, for the role of Han Solo. It's a gamble that obviously paid off for all parties involved, but can you imagine it happening now in modern focus-tested Hollywood?)
Universal Pictures/Lucasfilm
Estimated Budget: $55 Million
Gross: $14.3 Million
Director: Elaine May
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Warren Beatty, Isabelle Adjani
Estimated Budget: $55 Million
Gross: $14.3 Million
Director: Elaine May
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Warren Beatty, Isabelle Adjani, Charles Grodin
If Heaven’s Gate destroyed the power of the star directors of the 60’s and 70’s (Hit-machine Spielberg excluded), Ishtar destroyed the power of star actors of those decades…as well as the directing career of comedy legend Elaine May. Conceived as a sort of tribute to the Crosby and Hope films of the 40’s, aging playboys Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman partied their way around Morocco, while occasionally shooting a film. The tremendous egos of the two stars and May’s inexperience, combined with the difficulty of shooting in the desert caused the film to go wildly over budget.
Columbia Pictures
Estimated Budget: $98 Million
Gross: $10 Million
Director: Renny Harlin
Starring: Geena Davis, Matthew Modine, Frank Langella, M
Estimated Budget: $98 Million
Gross: $10 Million
Director: Renny Harlin
Starring: Geena Davis, Matthew Modine, Frank Langella, Maury Chaykin
Prior to Pirates of the Carribean (which took a very different approach) Seafaring movies were considered box office poison, better left in the days of Errol Flynn. But Director Renny Harlin, fresh off of a successful Die Hard sequel and Cliffhanger (the beginning of Stallone’s old man action hero phase) was convinced that with he and his wife Oscar winner/Mensa member/Olympic Archerer (es?) Geena Davis could revitalize the genre with 90’s action movie effects. They were wrong and the failure of this film would be the end of the most successful phases of both of their careers, as well as their marriage.
MGM
Estimated Budget: $175 million
Gross: $264 million
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Starring: Kevin Costner, Dennis Hopper, Jeanne Tripp
Estimated Budget: $175 million
Gross: $264 million
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Starring: Kevin Costner, Dennis Hopper, Jeanne Tripplehorn
The classic example of a vanity project gone awry, and the unchecked ego of star power. The successes of The Body Guard, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and Dances With Wolves had rendered Kevin Costner unstoppable. The budget on this “Mad Max on the Water” film ballooned many times over but no one could reign Costner in.
Universal Pictures
Estimated Budget: $140 Million
Gross: $238 Million
Director: Joel Schumacher
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney, Ch
Estimated Budget: $140 Million
Gross: $238 Million
Director: Joel Schumacher
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney, Chris O'Donnell, Uma Thurman
The first time the Internet brought down Hollywood. The two Tim Burton Batman films were largely well received by fans. The first of Joel Schumacher’s two films in the franchise, Batman Forever, had been different and certainly more cartoony, but the franchise still had the goodwill of the fans. But at the time, a site run by a self-proclaimed film geek out of Austin TX had begun to swell in popularity.
Warner Bros.
Estimated Budget: $73 Million
Gross: $29.7 Million
Director: Roger Christian
Starring: John Travolta, Barry Pepper, Forest Whita
Estimated Budget: $73 Million
Gross: $29.7 Million
Director: Roger Christian
Starring: John Travolta, Barry Pepper, Forest Whitaker, Kim Coates
This one almost deserves a special category all its own…sure, it shares qualities with the ego driven vanity projects, as Travolta was at the heights of his post-Pulp Fiction comeback. It’s certainly a bloated effects driven film that the 90’s saw plenty of. But in a way, the film this most biographically resembles is Mel Gibson’s The Passion
Warner Bros.
Estimated Budget: $75.6 Million
Gross: $7.2 Million
Director: Martin Brest
Starring: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Bartha<
Estimated Budget: $75.6 Million
Gross: $7.2 Million
Director: Martin Brest
Starring: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Bartha
It's easy to forget that "Bennifer" was a thing in the early 2000’s. Considering their respective career turns – his reinvention as a family man and working man's Oscar-winning director and her surrender to the role of cartoon diva and entertainer of despots – it makes even less sense. Unfortunately, their chemistry was equally baffling on screen.
Columbia Pictures
Estimated Budget: $250 Million
Gross: $282.7 Million
Director: Andrew Stanton
Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Mo
Estimated Budget: $250 Million
Gross: $282.7 Million
Director: Andrew Stanton
Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciarán Hinds
It’s hard not feel some sympathy for the people involved in the making of this film. Clearly a labor of love for Andrew Stanton, a Pixar director responsible for the massively successful Finding Nemo and Wall-E, the film was based on one of the seminal novels of early science fiction, The Princess of Mars, written by Tarzan author Edgar Rice Burrows.
Walt Disney Studios
Estimated Budget: $209 Million
Gross: $303 Million
Director: Peter Berg
Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, Rihanna, B
Estimated Budget: $209 Million
Gross: $303 Million
Director: Peter Berg
Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, Rihanna, Brooklyn Decker, Liam Neeson
Some flops are due to poor execution. Some flops are due to misjudging an audiences appetite for its subject matter. But some just seem like bad ideas from the start. Let’s even ignore the fact that they made a movie out of a kitschy old board game…naval battle, particularly in the age of metal ships has never made for compelling film.
Universal Pictures
Estimated Budget: $225 Million
Gross (To Date): $149.5 Million
Director: Gore Verbinski
Starring: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, Wil
Estimated Budget: $225 Million
Gross (To Date): $149.5 Million
Director: Gore Verbinski
Starring: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, William Fichtner
The warning signs were there on this one from the beginning. The property had been out of the public eye for a long, long time and a generation of kids grew up having never heard of it. The character of Tonto was always going to be problematic, even before the casting of the negligibly Native-American Johnny Depp.
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Estimated Budget: $100 million
Gross: $82,102,379
Director: Pitof
Starring: Halle Berry, Benjamin Bratt, Lambert Wilson, Frances Conroy
It’s hard to even know where to start with this one. As Michelle Pfeiffer, Anne Hathaway and even the great Eartha Kitt can tell you, Catwoman can be a great character…as a dangerous foil to Batman with an undercurrent of dark sexuality. But without the caped crusader she’s just a jewel thief in weird S&M gear. Add to that the fact that the Batman franchise had yet to be revived by Christopher Nolan and sat in the campy ashes of that Joel Schumacher had left it in. So the producers basically eschewed all of the Batman mythos and made their own. This made no one happy. Add to this Berry’s plastic performance and Sharon Stone’s bizarre one and you have a film that no one particularly wanted.
DC Comics