Biggest Movie Flop of All Time

[TheeeChosenOne]

Forgot to add "Cutthroat Island" starring Geena Davis and Mathew Modine, Directed by her Swedish Director husband who did Die Hard 2, Renny Harlin.


Michael Douglas bailed on that stinker once he found the script was secretly rewritten at the last moment by Reni Harlin to make his wife Geena Davis a stronger character than the Michael Douglas character. They brought in top screenwriters at the last minute to save the script, spending millions on writers fees. Too little time and not enogh material to work with, there was nothing that could be done to save the script............The main reason for script failure was that the project was committed before there was even a script. Literally, a script was written while in pre-production. Everyday while shooting (which costs millions each day to shoot on the water) new pages were written hours earlier before filming :Q :Q.......piecing together such incoherrent story flow lead to the movie getting disastrous reviews.

Foreseeing all these problems ahead of time like a fortune teller, Michael Douglas left the movie before filming, thereby marking the movie a jinx in Hollywood insider circles. As a result, not one male actor that could carry a movie wanted to take on this dogsh!t of a role--not even at huge offered salaries :Q .

In dire straits, they finally found an actor (Mathew Modine) to do the movie--a guy who didn't have a hit in years as was barely on the radar at all, even at his height.

The poor movie proved to be the death knell to Geena Davis' top Diva Star Status at the time. Renny Harlin and Geena Davis divorced soon thereafter as a result of the inherent stress.

 

[TheeeChosenOne]

Biggest Money Losers, Based on Absolute Loss on Worldwide Gross

Release Date... Movie .........Distributor....... Budget .....Worldwide Gross....... Loss
1) 4/27/2001 Town & Country New Line $105,000,000 $6,712,451 -$101,643,775
2) 7/11/2001 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Sony $137,000,000 $74,400,000 -$99,800,000
3) 8/16/2002 Adventures of Pluto Nash, The Warner Bros. $100,000,000 $4,411,102 -$97,794,449
4) 8/27/1999 13th Warrior, The Buena Vista $125,000,000 $59,800,000 -$95,100,000
5) 12/22/1995 Cutthroat Island MGM/UA $92,000,000 $9,910,021 -$87,044,990
6) 6/14/2002 Windtalkers MGM/UA $115,000,000 $74,900,000 -$77,550,000
7) 2/13/1998 Sphere Warner Bros. $90,000,000 $37,068,294 -$71,465,853
8) 11/10/2000 Red Planet Warner Bros. $80,000,000 $17,473,245 -$71,263,378
9) 12/25/1997 Postman, The Warner Bros. $80,000,000 $17,650,704 -$71,174,648
10) 11/25/1998 Babe: Pig in the City Universal $80,000,000 $18,319,860 -$70,840,070
11) 5/12/2000 Battlefield Earth Warner Bros. $80,000,000 $21,471,685 -$69,264,158
12) 7/19/2002 K-19: The Widowmaker Paramount Pictures $100,000,000 $64,000,000 -$68,000,000
13) 6/30/1995 Judge Dredd Buena Vista $85,000,000 $34,668,829 -$67,665,586
14) 2/23/2001 Monkeybone 20th Century Fox $70,000,000 $5,409,517 -$67,295,242
15) 12/25/2001 Ali Sony $109,000,000 $85,300,000 -$66,350,000
16) 6/30/1999 Wild, Wild West, The Warner Bros. $175,000,000 $217,700,000 -$66,150,000
17) 11/17/2000 6th Day, The Sony $82,000,000 $34,543,701 -$64,728,150
18) 12/6/1996 Daylight Universal $80,000,000 $32,908,290 -$63,545,855
19) 8/10/2001 Osmosis Jones Warner Bros. $70,000,000 $13,596,911 -$63,201,545
20) 9/20/2002 Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever Warner Bros. $70,000,000 $14,294,842 -$62,852,579

 

[Wuffsunie]

Originally posted by: TheeeChosenOne
Biggest Money Losers, Based on Absolute Loss on Worldwide Gross

Release Date... Movie .........Distributor....... Budget .....Worldwide Gross....... Loss

Okay, where did you get that? North American box office figures I could believe for that, as some of them look familiar. Others I'm pretty sure don't account for global figures. Link me!

(*Shudders* can't believe that turd of a movie Wild Wild West cost $170 million to make)

-- Jack

 

[rh71]

Battlefield Earth! I knew it had to be on some list...

 

[JC]

Gigli? JLo and her entourage prolly make more than the movie....

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: yukichigai
Let's not forget Reindeer Games. Oh man was that an awful flick.

Hmm, I liked it.

 

[TheeeChosenOne]

Originally posted by: Wuffsunie

Originally posted by: TheeeChosenOne
Biggest Money Losers, Based on Absolute Loss on Worldwide Gross

Release Date... Movie .........Distributor....... Budget .....Worldwide Gross....... Loss

Okay, where did you get that? North American box office figures I could believe for that, as some of them look familiar. Others I'm pretty sure don't account for global figures. Link me!

(*Shudders* can't believe that turd of a movie Wild Wild West cost $170 million to make)

-- Jack

You're wish is my command:

LINK

 

[touchmyichi]

Not that I've seen it, but wasn't cleopatria an academy award winner? Its funny that a movie that is actually good got #4.

 

[TheeeChosenOne]

It's funny to see Warren Beatty has 2 biggest money losers of all time:

Town & Country
Ishtar


I find the guy to be a terrible actor. A vain, egocentric actor who's lucky stars aligned on him at the right minute on the right day in the right year to put him on the map as a movie actor.

 

[Spoooon]

Originally posted by: touchmyichi
Not that I've seen it, but wasn't cleopatria an academy award winner? Its funny that a movie that is actually good got #4.

Winner: Best Costume Design (Color), Best Special Effects, Best Cinematography (Color), Best Interior Decoration (Color)

Nominee: Best Picture, Best Actor (Rex Harrison), Best Editing, Best Score (Substantially Original), Best Sound

Maybe it was simply because the movie was so expensive.

 

[Nocturnal]

GIGLI

 

[Thump553]

That article started as a good, apparently factual read. I think it got sidetracked along the way into panning movies the author hated, versus those that were big money losers. I'd be amazed if Showgirls didn't actually make pretty good money, after all the video rentals were taken into consideration. It was, after all, a visually attractive movie.

Sad to say, I've seen most of the movies mentioned, except I never even heard of Town and Country. Ishtar (not listed in the article) truely belongs in a class by itself-not only did it lose huge gobs of money, but it has the distinction of being an essentially two person movie starring two world class (and very bankable) actors that is literally unwatchable. I caught it on TV once (a very rare occurence) and could only last through five minutes of it.

I was always disappointed in The Postman. I'm not a real big Costner fan, but I always liked his story choices (actual original stories versus remakes or sequels on sequals). And the David Brin book is quite excellent. The movie, though, is painful.

I never saw Battlefield Earth, but the book is excellent-the only Hubbard book I could stomach.

 

[rudder]

Originally posted by: minendo
Waterworld was also a huge flop.

but at least it made more money than it cost to produce.

 

[Spoooon]

Originally posted by: Thump553
That article started as a good, apparently factual read. I think it got sidetracked along the way into panning movies the author hated, versus those that were big money losers. I'd be amazed if Showgirls didn't actually make pretty good money, after all the video rentals were taken into consideration. It was, after all, a visually attractive movie.

Sad to say, I've seen most of the movies mentioned, except I never even heard of Town and Country. Ishtar (not listed in the article) truely belongs in a class by itself-not only did it lose huge gobs of money, but it has the distinction of being an essentially two person movie starring two world class (and very bankable) actors that is literally unwatchable. I caught it on TV once (a very rare occurence) and could only last through five minutes of it.

I was always disappointed in The Postman. I'm not a real big Costner fan, but I always liked his story choices (actual original stories versus remakes or sequels on sequals). And the David Brin book is quite excellent. The movie, though, is painful.

I never saw Battlefield Earth, but the book is excellent-the only Hubbard book I could stomach.

Battlefield Earth was a pretty wretched movie. I watched about 30 minutes of it on HBO (or whatever channel) and turned it off once I could stomach no more.

 

[SagaLore]

I don't think they advertised it or clarified it enough. I saw maybe a few commercials about it, and had no clue what the movie's point was.

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: TheeeChosenOne
Biggest Money Losers, Based on Absolute Loss on Worldwide Gross

Release Date... Movie .........Distributor....... Budget .....Worldwide Gross....... Loss
1) 4/27/2001 Town & Country New Line $105,000,000 $6,712,451 -$101,643,775
2) 7/11/2001 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Sony $137,000,000 $74,400,000 -$99,800,000
3) 8/16/2002 Adventures of Pluto Nash, The Warner Bros. $100,000,000 $4,411,102 -$97,794,449
4) 8/27/1999 13th Warrior, The Buena Vista $125,000,000 $59,800,000 -$95,100,000
5) 12/22/1995 Cutthroat Island MGM/UA $92,000,000 $9,910,021 -$87,044,990
6) 6/14/2002 Windtalkers MGM/UA $115,000,000 $74,900,000 -$77,550,000
7) 2/13/1998 Sphere Warner Bros. $90,000,000 $37,068,294 -$71,465,853
8) 11/10/2000 Red Planet Warner Bros. $80,000,000 $17,473,245 -$71,263,378
9) 12/25/1997 Postman, The Warner Bros. $80,000,000 $17,650,704 -$71,174,648
10) 11/25/1998 Babe: Pig in the City Universal $80,000,000 $18,319,860 -$70,840,070
11) 5/12/2000 Battlefield Earth Warner Bros. $80,000,000 $21,471,685 -$69,264,158
12) 7/19/2002 K-19: The Widowmaker Paramount Pictures $100,000,000 $64,000,000 -$68,000,000
13) 6/30/1995 Judge Dredd Buena Vista $85,000,000 $34,668,829 -$67,665,586
14) 2/23/2001 Monkeybone 20th Century Fox $70,000,000 $5,409,517 -$67,295,242
15) 12/25/2001 Ali Sony $109,000,000 $85,300,000 -$66,350,000
16) 6/30/1999 Wild, Wild West, The Warner Bros. $175,000,000 $217,700,000 -$66,150,000
17) 11/17/2000 6th Day, The Sony $82,000,000 $34,543,701 -$64,728,150
18) 12/6/1996 Daylight Universal $80,000,000 $32,908,290 -$63,545,855
19) 8/10/2001 Osmosis Jones Warner Bros. $70,000,000 $13,596,911 -$63,201,545
20) 9/20/2002 Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever Warner Bros. $70,000,000 $14,294,842 -$62,852,579

Damn, can't believe I forgot that one. I can tell you this though: if the movie hadn't had the Final Fantasy name attached it would be an okay SciFi flick. You have good actors, an amazing villian and some incredible graphics. It just wasn't a script that was up to par with the rest of the Final Fantasy series.

I actually thought Osmosis Jones was pretty funny. Not the funniest thing in the world, but it was okay.

Finally, I think the main problem with Waterworld was clashing acting styles. You had Kevin Costner being the noble and distant hero, but then you had Dennis Hopper playing the over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek villian, not to mention the other numerous, humorous components of the movie. I think had it either been all comedy or all serious it would have done better.