"It's a Wonderful Life" Was Actually a Box Office Flop
For every great movie, there's a whole list of bad ones. Tough critical reviews, competing movies on opening weekend, and extremely high budgets are all factors that can lead to a box office bust. Grab some popcorn and settle in, because we're breaking down some of the worst box office performances in history — including many classic kids' movies and romantic comedies that actually have a cult following today.
The Christmas movie was released in 1946 and is today considered a classic, but the initial box office performance left the film at a deficit. With a $3.7 million budget, the Christmas movie earned just $3.3 million. But that same year the film was nominated for five Academy Awards, so maybe audiences were just waiting for the holidays?
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Today, Willy Wonka is considered one of the most beloved children’s films (it was even remade in 2005!), but when it was released in 1971 it only earned a modest $4 million at the box office.
Everyone was waiting for director Michael Cimino's next release after his 1997 hit Deer Hunter — but what they got was underwhelming. Cimino created his passion project, Heaven’s Gate, with blind faith from the studio. Sadly, audiences didn't connect with it and it posed a loss of more than $114 million (with inflation).
Even with a star-studded cast (Bruce Willis, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Alan Arkin, Jason Alexander, Kathy Bates, and Elijah Wood, to name a few) Rob Reiner's film North wasn't a hit with critics or audiences. After spending a $40 million budget, the film only brought in $7 million in ticket sales.
Cutthroat Island, starring Geena Davis, has held the title of the largest box office flop since its 1995 release. The pirate film only grossed a mere $10 million at the box office, while touting a $98 million production budget.
The horror film was released just days before halloween and nabbed the number one box office spot, earning $9.1 million in the opening weekend. However, the vampire film was slayed by Adam Sandler’s comedy Waterboy, which came out the following weekend and was a huge hit.
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Sandra Bullock and Ben Affleck's roadtrip romantic comedy started out as the number one film at the box office during its opening weekend, earning over $13 million. But the film's success was cut short by the premiere of The Matrix which, as you could guess, dominated box office sales.
Omar Sharif actually retired from acting after appearing in The 13th Warrior, and cites the film as the reason why. After undergoing costly reshoots, the film’s budget increased to an estimated $160 million — and the film only ended up earning $61.7 million in ticket sales worldwide.
If you were a fan of The First Wives Club, you wouldn’t have expected that another Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton team up could wind up being a box office flop. Sadly, Town & Country didn’t fare well with critics or audiences. The film only brought in $10 million worldwide after being given a $90 million budget.
Eddie Murphy was comedy gold in the '80s and '90s, but his celebrity status couldn't get it done for The Adventures of Pluto Nash. The space odyssey comedy lost over $95 million after only earning $4.4 million domestically and $2.6 million overseas.
Who could forget the faithful flop that brought Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez together? Sadly, with a budget of $54 million, Gigli only grossed a mere $3.7 million on its opening weekend and $7.3 million worldwide.
The hand-drawn animated film that was released by DreamWorks in 2003 seemed like a run of the mill children's movie, but it almost left the production company bankrupt. Not being able to compete against its competitor, Pixar's Finding Nemo, it only earned $80 million at the box office and lost an estimated $126.6 million for the production company.
With a worldwide gross of $82 million and a budget of $100 million, Catwoman is just another superhero box office flop. Lead actress, Halle Berry, accepted her Razzie Award for Worst Actress just a few years after scooping up her Oscar for Best Actress for Monster's Ball. In her acceptance speech, she thanked Warner Brothers for casting her in the "God awful movie."
Remaking the classic 1960 John Wayne film, The Alamo ran up its budget by creating the largest set in history and requiring costly edits after previews weren't well received. When the film finally premiered in 2004, it was up against Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and ended up only grossing about $22.4 million domestically.
Disney's Around the World in 80 Days didn't seem to spark the imagination of moviegoers. With a budget of $110 million, the film only grossed $72 million worldwide.
Jamie Foxx, Jessica Biel, Josh Lucas, and the director of The Fast and the Furious, Rob Cohen, teamed up to produce Stealth, a story about a Navy-made unarmed aircraft that goes haywire. Despite a strong cast, the movie didn’t perform at the box office and ended up with losses of at least $125 million dollars.
Although Sahara did well at the box office, earning over $119 million in its opening weekend, the high cost of production made it impossible for it to make any money. The film has become known for its over $160 million budget that kept it in the hole, despite relative success.
Yes, the first movie was a smashing success. However, Basic Instinct 2 — even though it still starred Sharon Stone — did not recreate the same movie magic. A full 15 years after the first film premiered, the sequel made just over $3.2 million on its opening weekend.
When Warner Brothers attempted to remake the 1960 Japanese anime series, the studio shelled out approximately $200 million. A large amount of that went to the special effects, which helped keep extremely negative reviews at bay, but the movie didn’t hit well with its intended audience: kids. All in all, it made only $93 million, a small portion of its overall budget.
The animated movie Delgo, starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt, is the lowest grossing animated film in history. With a budget of $40 million, Delgo failed to earn more than a mere $1 million at the box office.
Sandra Bullock picked up a Razzie for her role in All About Steve, a romantic comedy, also starring Bradley Cooper, which failed to earn more than $40 million at the box office. It did earn a profit, but the film was critically panned.
With big ticket names like Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Jack Nicholson, and Paul Rudd, How Do You Know seemed like it was destined to be a success. Instead, it was roasted by critics and only earned about $48.7 million.
Ryan Reynolds donned a green unitard and played a superhero in The Green Lantern, Warner Brothers' attempt to rival Disney’s Marvel success. The movie wasn’t a total disaster, gaining some decent reviews, but it only earned $219 million with a $200 million budget and didn't earn enough of a profit to cover the expenses of marketing and counter movie theater percentages.
The computer-animated Disney film Mars Needs Moms cost a whopping $150 million to make, plus an additional $60 million for marketing and promotion. In the end, the film proved disastrous, only churning out $39 million at the box office.
Disney went full steam ahead with John Carter, in an attempt to build a franchise around the fantasy novels. Instead, they wound up with a flop that cost them around $307 million to make and only brought in $284 million worldwide.
Although Keanu Reeves is enjoying a renaissance right now, the actor’s past is not without its flops — including 47 Ronin in 2013. The film started out with a budget of $175 million, but costs soon grew to $225 million. Unfortunately, the movie only ended up bringing in $151.8 million and was panned by critics.
Universal kept upping their budget for this supernatural detective comedy starring Jeff Bridges, bringing it to a whopping $130 million total, but to no avail. Critics were not a fan of the movie and it only grossed $78 million worldwide.
Disney barely gained a profit on The Lone Ranger, but did thanks to sales overseas. The film, inspired by the adventures of children’s fictional characters the Lone Ranger and his sidekick Tonto, only grossed $89 million in the United States, while having a budget of $215 million.
With an all-star cast, including Nicholas Hoult and Stanley Tucci, Jack the Giant Slayer was pegged to be the next great fantasy film. Unfortunately, it bombed at the box office, only earning $27 million on a $195 million budget.
In 2014, Warner Brothers went all in on the sci-fi action film Jupiter Ascending. With a budget of $176 million, things looked bleak after the film brought in only $47.3 million domestically. But, thankfully, the film performed better internationally, bringing the worldwide gross to about $183.9 million. Still, it was very much a bust.
20th Century Fox put out a reboot of Fantastic Four in 2015, which is now hailed as one of the biggest superhero disasters in movie history. Compared to other superhero mega-hits, the Fantastic Four only managed to pull in $25.6 million on its opening weekend, the lowest performance of the franchise.
George Clooney proved his name alone isn't always enough of a draw for moviegoers. This Disney film only grossed $209 million worldwide after an estimated $330 million budget. Instead of being the next big fantasy film that the studio had hoped for, they ended up with almost $140 million in losses.
Overseas sales saved Disney and Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s BFG from demise, as it grossed over $195 million worldwide. However, it opened with a tepid $18.7 million at the box office and is considered one of Spielberg’s biggest flops.
The scathing reviews of Gerard Bulter’s 2016 film, Gods of Egypt, seemed to keep people out of movie theater seats and the film ended up grossing a mere $31 million domestically.
The industrial disaster film Deepwater Horizon, about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, proved to also be a disaster at the box office. After shelling out a $110 million production budget, the film only brought in about $20 million in its opening weekend.
Director Tim Burton is known for his eccentric and over-the-top filmmaking and has seen great success in turning childhood classics into blockbuster hits. However, that wasn't the case with Alice Through the Looking Glass. The film brought in $299.5 million, but much of that was thanks to international audiences. Domestically, the film only earned about $77 million.
Dan Stevens left the comforts of Downton Abbey to take on the world of film. Unfortunately, one of his feature roles was in The Man Who Invented Christmas, which follows Charles Dickens as he pens A Christmas Carol. The movie earned a decent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but couldn’t compete with the other high-hitting holiday releases, including Coco, Justice League, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The film ended up bringing in only $8.1 million worldwide.
Despite starring Mathew McConaughey, The Beach Bum only grossed $1.7 million in its opening weekend on a wide release of 1,100 screens. The movie resulted in McConaughey's worst opening weekend to date.
The film adaptation of the acclaimed novel, The Goldfinch, was a highly-anticipated release starring Nicole Kidman and Ansel Elgort. But its lackluster opening weekend ($2.6 million) and scathing critic reviews kept it from ever grossing a profit. The film’s worldwide gross was just above $9.9 million, but the production budget was $45 million.
You can see what STX Entertainment was thinking with this film, as Frozen 2 and the Minion movies have been huge in the box office. But Playmobil: The Movie only brought in $668,000 on its opening weekend — a huge loss as various investors put in at least $75 million to the production. And it received a Rotten Tomatoes score of 17%.
Despite a host of powerhouse stars (Judi Dench, Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift, Idris Elba, James Corden, should we go on?), Cats only made $73.5 million worldwide. Unfortunately, it cost $95 million to make — and that's before marketing costs.
"It's a Wonderful Life" Was Actually a Box Office Flop
For every great movie, there's a whole list of bad ones. Tough critical reviews, competing movies on opening weekend, and extremely high budgets are all factors that can lead to a box office bust. Grab some popcorn and settle in, because we're breaking down some of the worst box office performances in history — including many classic kids' movies and romantic comedies that actually have a cult following today.
Plenty of now-beloved movies weren't always a success.
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