Box Office Bomb: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Commonly cited possible reasons for box office failures:

* '''[[Dueling Movies|Competition]]''': This is particularly often in effect with [[Summer Blockbuster|summer blockbusters]]. People have a limited amount of brainless action they would watch, and if there's a lot of that available, some titles may be neglected. They also tend to be high-budget, and as such if the movie flops, it costs a ''lot''. There is, however, often a principle similar to [[Award Snub]] in nature: several good movies (with similar target audiences) are released simultaneously, thus one of them performs truly spectacularly, another one flops, but both are considered [[Vindicated by History|great in hindsight]] (the hit ''[[E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial|ET the Extraterrestrial]]'' and the flop ''[[Blade Runner]]'', for example).

* '''Poor marketing''': Many a bomb became so despite (or due to) being an excellent movie in general. [[Never Trust a Trailer|Incorrect]] or [[Misaimed Marketing|misleading]] information about them (or just plain ''lack'' of marketing) makes audiences rely exclusively on word-of-mouth, which is generally not enough for a movie to successfully perform. The internet has made this situation a bit better, but not that much. These movies almost always achieve [[Cult Classic|cult status]] and can later become profitable on DVD.

 

Note that the figures provided here for budgets and box office returns don't usually tell the whole story. A studio usually only sees about half of a film's box office take, with the rest going to theaters and (often) the actors, director, etc. involved with the production. The budgetary figures provided by the studios, meanwhile, only cover the production costs; distribution and marketing, especially for [[Summer Blockbuster|summer blockbusters]], also eat up substantial amounts of studio money. Unless noted otherwise, it's safe to assume that a film on this list cost a lot more than the studio said it did. Plus, remember to take inflation into account when looking at films made decades in the past; ''[[Cleopatra]]'''s $44 million budget in the early '60s would be equivalent to $310 million in 2010 dollars. Finally, an independent film or studio is less able to absorb huge losses than a major studio, so the threshold for a bomb is lower for them. The lower figures (both budget and box-office) for older films and indie films can be deceptive.

 

 

[[Critical Dissonance]] is often at full force here, with critics liking it. [[Vindicated By Video]] often helps (especially with [[Better on DVD]] thrown in), as does [[Vindicated by Cable]].

----

* Almost all films directed by [[Orson Welles]] were bombs (yes, even the [[Acclaimed Flop|critically-acclaimed]] ''[[Citizen Kane]]''), except ''The Stranger'', a thriller Welles made simply to prove that he could work successfully inside the studio system if he wanted to.

* Most [[Pirate]] movies made in the past few decades were flops. ''[[Cutthroat Island]]'' is one of the most notorious cases, standing as the biggest box-office bomb in history after inflation. ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' finally broke this trend.

* Disney's ''[[The Black Cauldron]]'' was their first flop.

* Most movies about rock music, ''[[School of Rock]]'' being an exception.

* Many movies based on [[Video Game Movies Suck|video games]].

* Everything made by Uwe Boll.

----

* ''[[The Adventures of Baron Munchausen]]'' (1988) -- Budget, $46,630,000. Box office, $8,083,123.

* ''[[The Alamo]]'' (2004) -- Budget, $145 million. Box office, $25,819,961.

* ''[[Around the World In 80 Days]]'' (2004) -- Budget, $110 million. Box office, $72,178,895.

* ''[[Astro Boy (film)|Astro Boy]]'' (2009) -- Budget, $65 million, Box office, $39,886,986.

* ''Bandslam'' (2009) -- Budget, $20 million. Box office, $12,225,023. A definite case of ''[[Misaimed Marketing]]''.

* ''Bucky Larson: Born To Be A Star'' (2011) -- Budget, less than $10 million. Box office, $2,529,395. It was taken out of theaters after only 2 weeks.

* ''[[Cats Don't Dance]]'' (1997) -- Budget, $32 million. Box office, $3,566,637. [[Screwed by the Network|It fell through the cracks]] after [[Warner Bros]] bought Turner just before the movie was released, and proceeded to not promote it at all.

* ''[[Delgo]]'' (2008) -- Budget, $40 million. Box office, $915,840. (No, that's not a typo.) It had the worst opening ever for a film playing in over 2,000 theaters, [[Medal of Dishonor|earning just $511,920 at 2,160 sites]].

* ''The Fall of The Roman Empire'' (1964) -- Budget, $19 million. Box office, $4,750,000. Comparisons with contemporary Roman epic ''Cleopatra'' are inevitable, although ''Fall'' had a substantially less [[Troubled Production]] and was much more well-received by critics. Audiences, however, had lost interest in sword and sandal epics following ''Cleopatra'' (and, unlike ''Cleopatra'', ''Fall'' has largely faded into obscurity since its initial release in 1964).

* ''[[The Garbage Pail Kids Movie]]'' (1987) -- Budget, $30 million. Box office, $1,576,615.

* ''Glitter'' (2001) -- Budget, $22 million. Box office, $5,271,666. This film's failure, along with that of the accompanying soundtrack album, sent [[Mariah Carey]]'s career [[Star-Derailing Role|into recession]] for several years. Being released the weekend after the September 11th attacks couldn't have helped either.

* ''[[The Golden Compass]]'' (2007) -- Budget, $180 million. Box office, $70 million (domestically), [[Germans Love David Hasselhoff|$372,234,864 (internationally)]]. Unfortunately, New Line Cinema had sold off the international distribution rights in order to raise enough money for the film's production, meaning that they only got the domestic gross, and never saw a penny of the international box office. As a result, [[Creator Killer|New Line was absorbed into]] [[Warner Bros]] soon after.

* ''[[Howard the Duck (film)|Howard the Duck]]'' (1986) -- Budget, $37 million. Box office, $37,962,774. Allegedly, two [[Universal]] executives [[Blood on the Debate Floor|got into a fistfight]] while arguing over who was to blame for greenlighting the film; both of them deny this.

* ''How Do You Know'' (2010) -- Budget, $120 million. Box office, $48,668,907.

* ''[[Hudson Hawk]]'' (1991) -- Budget, $65 million. Box office, $17,218,080.

* ''Inchon'' (1982) -- Budget, $46 million. Box office, $5,200,986. In 1995, it made the Guinness Book of World Records as "[[Medal of Dishonor|the biggest money-loser in history]]," later to be surpassed by the aforementioned ''[[Cutthroat Island]]''.

* ''[[Looney Tunes: Back in Action]]'' (2003) -- Budget, $80 million. Box office, $21 million (within the USA), $68 million (worldwide). The movie's financial failure led the WB to think the Looney Tunes don't have the lasting appeal that they hoped, canceling the planned Looney Tunes shorts in production. In light of this fiasco the Looney Tunes will probably never get another theatrical film release.

* ''[[Mars Needs Moms]]'' (2011) -- Budget, $150 million. Box office, $39,549,758. Its failure led to [[Disney]] shutting down ImageMovers Digital, the production company it had formed with [[Robert Zemeckis]] (the film's producer); he would later reopen the studio at [[Universal]].

* ''Monkeybone'' (2001) -- Budget, $75 million. Box office, $7.6 million (roughly). The film was significantly changed from its source material, and the resulting film was blasted by critics.

* ''Motherhood'' (2009) -- Budget $10 million. Box office $726,354. Easily the biggest bomb of [[Uma Thurman|Uma Thurman's]] career. Particularly notable for its British release, where it's the second-biggest flop of all time. It was shown in only one UK cinema and took £88 on its opening weekend. On its opening night it took £9. That's '''one ticket'''.

* ''[[The Postman (film)|The Postman]]'' (1997) -- Budget, $80 million. Box office, $17,626,234. This film succeeded where ''Waterworld'' failed, essentially [[Creator Killer|ending]] [[Kevin Costner]]'s A-list status and his run as writer and director of his own films, though he would continue finding moderate success as an actor.

* ''[[Radio Flyer]]'' (1992) -- Budget: $35 million. Box office: $4,651,977.

* ''[[Redacted]]'' (2007) -- Budget was a modest $5 million. Box office was a ''very'' modest $65,000. That's sixty-five ''thousand'' dollars. International revenues added another... $700,000.

* ''[[Rollerball]]'' (2002) -- Budget, $70 million. Box office, $25,852,764. It promptly [[Star-Derailing Role|ended]] Chris Klein's mainstream career.

* ''[[Showgirls]]'' (1995) -- Budget, $45 million. Box office, $20,350,754.

* ''[[Slither]]'' (2006) -- Budget, $15 million (not counting marketing costs), $29.5 million (counting them). Box office, $12,834,936.

* ''[[Supernova]]'' (2000) -- Budget, $90 million. Box office, $14,828,081.

* ''[[The 13th Warrior]]'' (1999) -- Budget, $85 million (not counting marketing costs), $160 million (counting them). Box office, $61,698,899.

* ''[[Treasure Planet]]'' (2002) -- Budget, $140 million, Box office, 109,578,115. This and the failure of ''[[Home on the Range]]'' led Disney to ([[The Princess and the Frog|temporarily]]) abandon the traditional animation format.

* ''[[Zyzzyx Road]]'' (2006) -- Budget: $2 million. Box office: $30. Yes, thirty bucks. To be fair, the film received only a one-week domestic release (playing one screen in Dallas) to comply with Screen Actors Guild rules. The producer had no intention otherwise of opening it in the U.S. until after it had foreign distribution. (Foreign gross to date: $368,000.)

 

{{reflist}}