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Biggest Film Flops

Of those i've seen:

Dune - it's rubbish
Soldier - crap
Wild Wild West - moderately amusing, I didn't hate it
Waterworld - fairly good, IMO.
 
Here's one time when being gouged due to movie ticket prices has been a good thing. I've had to become much more discerning about when to go see a film, so I've ended up seeing far fewer. Meaning that I've only seen one of the films on that list - "Dune". :lol:
 
I read about a 70s Korean War movie called "Inchon" I believe which was financed by some whacko religious cult, cost a bazillion dollars, and completely bombed at the box office, and is unavailable on any kind of release today.
 
Mr Light said:
I read about a 70s Korean War movie called "Inchon" I believe which was financed by some whacko religious cult, cost a bazillion dollars, and completely bombed at the box office, and is unavailable on any kind of release today.
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It cost $40m US to make (in 1982) and took roughly $5m, though rumour has it that the $40m budget was not accurate and it may have cost $60-100m.
 
I didnt hate Dune but it is not deserving of this list.
WWW was just horrid from the get go.
Without the Kung-Fu Cars Speed Racer would have been much better. The casting was almost perfect.
Soldier wasnt bad for what it was.
Battlefield Earth is one of the most horrible movies ever made. Read the book and be amazed at the story.
I would not have put POTA on this list at all. Replace instead with another KC winner Robin Hood.
 
I find it a little curious that this list only goes back so far. When discussing movie bombs, the first film to come to mind is nearly always Michael Cimino's "Heaven's Gate". It came out in 1980, so its cataclysmic failure never had anything to do with the cult of the same name.
 
Carpe Occasio said:
Any such list has to include Heaven's Gate. Cost 44 million to make and only made about 3.5 million. Destroyed director Michael Cimino's career and helped bring down United Artists.
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Neroon said:
I find it a little curious that this list only goes back so far. When discussing movie bombs, the first film to come to mind is nearly always Michael Cimino's "Heaven's Gate". It came out in 1980, so its cataclysmic failure never had anything to do with the cult of the same name.
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"The Guinness Book of Records lists "Cutthroat" as the biggest money loser. It cost over $100 million to make and distribute and earned only $11 million by 1996. "Heaven's Gate" might be an even bigger loss. Originally budgeted for $7.8 million, United Artist suggested they lost up to $100 million on the film."

http://www.modamag.com/budgetbusters.htm
 
I guess when considering "biggest bomb" there are always new candidates for the award. :lol:

For my money, a film that simultaneously loses that much money, destroys a promisiing director's career and effectively decimates an entire studio.... that's hard to beat.
 
Roger Wilco said:
I sort of liked Wild Wild West, loved the Steampunk concept, same with Waterworld. But I guess the idea behind the movie was better than the finished product in both cases.

auntiehill said:
I am somewhat fond, at least mildly so, of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, even if it was a spectacular flop. I thought it had a certain charm, despite its scatter-shot approach.
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That was a great movie! I don't care how much money it made or lost.
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I like it, too, but I recall the critical reception at the time being fairly brutal. But I've always had a certain amount of affection for it. It's just very charming---to me, anyway.
 
I love Hudson Hawk. I laughed my ass off in the theater. It has an irresistible premise... a cat burglar being blackmailed from retirement, and it turns on the comedy. Some of it is much too over the top for my taste, but the parts that work are extremely effective. The commentary track for it is very honest and informative. My favorite sequence is the scene where he meets the candy bars again in the Roman Square (from the phone booth to "Thanks Yogi").
 
^ People weren't really for pirate movies to make a comeback back then? Plus Geena Davis and Matthew Modine as the headliners?

It does say something when you look at the list of everyone who turned down the male lead for it to fall to Modine. I don't remember every name off hand, but I think they included -- Michael Douglas, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Charlie Sheen, Daniel-Day Lewis, Keanu Reeves, Jeff Bridges, Liam Neeson and even Gabriel Byrne turned it down!!!
 
Aragorn said:
^ People weren't really for pirate movies to make a comeback back then? Plus Geena Davis and Matthew Modine as the headliners?

It does say something when you look at the list of everyone who turned down the male lead for it to fall to Modine. I don't remember every name off hand, but I think they included -- Michael Douglas, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Charlie Sheen, Daniel-Day Lewis, Keanu Reeves, Jeff Bridges, Liam Neeson and even Gabriel Byrne turned it down!!!
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Argh! You shiver me timbers with talk like that.
 
I'm glad to say the only one of those that I've seen in the theater was Battlefield Earth! The two Costner films are the only other ones I've seen.

The only film I'd throw in there that hasn't been mentioned is the 2006 remake of The Poseidon Adventure - the film coast $160M and made only $60M domestically.
 
I've seen a number of these.

Dune - fairly detailed and interesting until Leto gets killed, then the film skipped a ton of story and raced to the end. And yeah, the Toto soundtrack was out-of-place and distracting. The miniseries covered the novel better and seems to be more about Paul transforming into a 'superbeing'. The film was much more of a son avenging his father story.

Soldier - I thought it was a decent scifi film. Did not realize that it would be considered a big-budget film.

Wild Wild West - yikes. It was awful. Good cast but the ridiculous script and total lack of humor killed it. Plus this film really did absolutely nothing in rekindling why people loved the TV show Wild Wild West in the first place.

Speed Racer - very well made and acted but I think it hurt to try and squeeze the events of the entire series into one long film. Plus for the target audience, this film should have been a lot shorter anyways.

Waterworld - never really interested me enough to sit through it all.

The Postman - decent film with a great message, but I bet it would have been better received if the film had been trimmed by about 30 minutes.
 
Soldier - So bad its good, mostly trite, derivative, and clumsy in tone but Jason Isaacs and Gary Busey are pure win. I'm rather surprised it cost 75 million considering its direct to video appearance.

Wild Wild West - Ugh, some good actors, nice SFX, big sets, imaginative setting, and hot henchwomen, but somebody completely forgot to write a decent, coherent, and dynamic script.

Dune - A fascinating folly and got me interested in the original book.

Waterworld - Are you're sure it was a genuine flop? Stupidly overblown and too derivative of Mad Max, Costner is a cryptic bore, but some of the action scenes and comedy was done well, while Dennis Hopper was a scenery chewing hoot.

Battlefield Earth - Again, so bad its good sci-fi twaddle. An amateurishly made ego trip of catastrophic and unintentionally comedic proportions.
 
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