Matthew Reine
Hollywood is a tough business. There are so many scripts that will never see the light of day and brilliant films that will never reach a wide audience. Some pictures are guaranteed hits due to the people and marketing involved while some seem like bad ideas from the start. Unfortunately, for various reasons, lots of films are financially unsuccessful and this happens quite often. There’s a movie not being a hit… and then there’s a bomb. Let’s take a look at five of the biggest box office bombs in cinema history.
Evan Almighty (2007)
After the success of the Jim Carrey 2003 comedy, Bruce Almighty, producers felt it needed a sequel. Since Jim abides by a law to never appear in sequels to movies that he starred in (upcoming Dumb & Dumber To not withstanding), it was Steve Carell who stepped in to take the reigns in Evan Almighty. Now Carrell actually did appear in the previous film as Evan Baxter, a competing news anchor to Carrey’s character so it’s not as if he was just thrust into the story or assumed Carrey’s role. Carrell’s star was rising due to his starring role on the popular American adaptation of The Office series and the comedy, the 40-Year-Old Virgin, so it made sense for him to choose to star in this sequel and possibly gain a new audience. Morgan Freeman also returned to play the role of God, who gave Carrey his life altering powers in the previous installment. Evan Almighty didn’t retain any of the charm from the previous installment and wasn’t as well received as the original. It was generally a bore to critics and moviegoers.
It took a more accessible approach with a PG rating and instead of expanding on the plot from the first one, it instead decided, for some reason, to tell a modern story of Noah’s Ark. The $175M it took to film actually turned zero profit with only a $173M gross. Ouch. The huge ark that built for the film in addition to the abundance of CGI effects also racked up its budget. Evan Almighty’s bombing did no favors for Carell as a leading man in cinema but it doesn’t seem to have affected his career much. He’s gone on to star in the critically acclaimed (and underrated) romantic comedy, Crazy Stupid Love and voice the main villain in the wickedly popular Despicable Me series so as a fan, I’m glad Evan Almighty didn’t break him.
The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)
During the 1980’s Eddie Murphy was arguably the most powerful comedian on the planet. After the success of his stand-up specials, Delirious and Raw, hit films including Trading Places, Coming to America, and Beverly Hills Cop and even recording a hit single with Party All The Time, the comedian was on top of the world. By the turn of the 2000’s though, Murphy’s popularity had stopped dead in its tracks. After scoring a hit in 2001 voicing the Donkey in Shrek, he picked up a new project, the Adventures of Pluto Nash.
Hoping to bring his level of fame back to what it was 15 years prior, Murphy’s latest venture did the exact opposite, putting his career in Hollywood in even more jeopardy. In this futuristic, sci-fi vehicle, Eddie Murphy plays a nightclub owner who tries to escape the clutches of the mob. In one of the most colossal losses to a feature ever, Pluto Nash reportedly cost $100M to make but only grossed a sad $7M worldwide. The film is considered to be one of the worst of the 2000’s and it’s looses may it one of the biggest box office tragedies in history. This was a huge punch to the face to the already faded career of Murphy and pretty much ensured he would never be a Hollywood leading man ever again. Though Murphy was able to rebound successfully with a greatly reviewed role in 2006’s Dreamgirls and an infamous Oscar snub for Best Supporting Actor, his career in film has been stagnant ever since. There is hope though since a fourth Beverly Hills Cop film is planned for the very near future!
The Lone Ranger (2013)
Here’s a movie that was doomed from the very beginning. Production shutting down and costs to make it skyrocketing each time. Not a lot of people remember but Johnny Depp’s career hit bit of a lull in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. Some of the stuff he was acting in wasn’t bad per se, (The Ninth Gate in particular) they just weren’t as successful after he blew up in the early-mid 90’s. It was Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003 that resurrected his career and helped make him the big star he is today. Johnny owes a lot of his career resurgence to the director of the first three Pirates films, Gore Verbinski. Over the years, Depp has starred in several of Verbinski’s other films including his animated 2011 feature, Rango. Depp’s latest venture with Verbinski though didn’t fare as well, in fact, it didn’t fare well period.
Based on the popular radio and later television series from the 1930s-50’s, The Lone Ranger was Disney’s attempt to try to bring back the franchise with a stylish re-imagining. Armie Hammer, who is probably best known for playing the dual role of the Winklevoss twins in 2010’s The Social Network, plays the titular hero while Depp plays his sidekick, Tonto. Depp seemed to be in full Jack Sparrow mode judging from the trailers and Hammer was mostly pushed aside for the more recognizable stars in Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter. A movie that looked like it didn’t have a budget different from any other normal summer blockbuster was actually an extravagant cost.
The movie cost an estimated $250M to create and only grossed a combined $260 domestically and internationally.
Johnny Depp was so bent out of shape over the movie’s failure that he publicly criticized film critics for concentrating on the problems surrounding the film’s production, not the film itself. Maybe he’s right but there’s no reason why this film should cost over $250M to make. Did you see the trailer for Transcendence? Depp better not hope for another career roadblock!
Green Lantern (2011)
Ever since comic book movies were becoming more of a trend after the release of X-Men in 2000, teenage me dreamed of one day watching a film based on one of my favorite comic book characters, the Green Lantern. Well, after a decade of waiting, it was finally announced that the Green Lantern was coming to the big screen… starring Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively. The movie was doomed from the start after the announcement of the two main stars. Now, there were plenty of times when people (including me) thought “really? this guy?” when an actor was announced for a prestigious comic book film. Very few people were sold on Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight and Chris Evans as Captain America when they were first announced but the more people read and saw, the more hopeful they became. From the very first teaser of the Green Lantern, you can tell that this wasn’t the case. I don’t hate Ryan Reynolds (he’s come a long way since Billy on the Canadian teen soap, Fifteen) but I just couldn’t see him as Hal Jordan and millions of DC fans agreed.
The film itself was mostly uninspired with CGI effects that weren’t very polished. Not to mention the film’s director, Martin Campbell has previously brought us Quantum of Solace, easily one of the worst James Bond films in history (to be fair, he also gave us Goldeneye but honestly, the film’s remembrance is due to the immense popularity of the Nintendo 64 video game rather than the movie itself.) Still, us fans held out hope that we would be proven wrong but after a decent showing in it’s first week, reaching number one, it fell hard by the next week. The film’s budget was $200M and only a measly $220M was made. Only a $20M profit was turned and that’s probably not even including the marketing that was spent on the film.
The film’s failure aborted any plans for a sequel and we likely won’t see the Green Lantern on screen again until the upcoming Justice League film that will probably be released two years after the earth crashes into the sun. Sorry comic book nerds, I was disappointed too.
Cutthroat Island (1995)
Now despite all of the movies here bombing hard, none of them have flat out bankrupted a studio. This sadly was the case for Cutthroat Island. Directed by Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master), this swashbuckling adventure starred Matthew Modine (better known as Joker from Full Metal Jacket) and Harlin’s then wife, Geena Davis.
The film was slammed with overwhelmingly negative reviews and grossed only $10M worldwide on a nearly $100M budget. Yes, you read that right. The whole thing was a titanic failure and Carolco Pictures, who distributed it, went under shortly after. The same studio who produced such action classics as Terminator 2: Judgement Day and First Blood called it a day after the huge loses Cutthroat Island brought them. It’s really astounding how Renny Harlin was able to find work after this. In the years following, he directed the Samuel L. Jackson cult favorite, Deep Blue Sea and WWE Pictures’ action fest, 12 Rounds starring wrestling megastar, John Cena. Hmm, directing movies starring pro wrestlers or awful pirate fare that puts companies in the hole? Well, I suppose you can’t go any lower than that!
There you have it. The next time you’re thinking of making a film, write a damn good script and keep the budget low!
