The history of genre movie is littered with massive , lavish failures — motion-picture show that take hundreds of millions of dollars and tossed the money down a sinkhole . But some of the movies that everybody “ knows ” were box place disasters in reality did really well , when you look at the number .
Here are some successful scientific discipline fable , illusion and revulsion photographic film that everybody ’s sure were bankruptcy .
So first of all , a word about Hollywood accounting — as you might already know , pretty much no movie ever officially make a profit . ( For more on that , and other quirkiness of the system , click here . ) But a rule of thumb seems to be that if a film ’s global box office staff is double its product budget , then it probably made money . That ’s the statute title we ’re using here .
How much money does a movie need to make to be profitable ?
Also , patently , it ’s a bit subjective as to which movies people believe were flops . But these are films which did n’t get sequels , and which we see oftentimes being mention as embarrassing failures .
With that class out , here ’s our list of pic that did gangbusters at the box bureau but which oft get name as failures . Data viaBox Office Mojoand various other sources .
Robot Monster ( 1953 )
Estimated production budget : $ 16,000
Total planetary box power : $ 1 million .
quote : It’scommonly reportedthat this film ’s director attempt felo-de-se after the filmfailed at the box role .
The Black Hole ( 1979 )
Estimated production budget : $ 26 million
Total domestic corner federal agency : $ 35 million ( worldwide box office unknown ) .
quote : It’seasyto findarticleslisting this movieas a flop .
Tron ( 1981 )
Estimated production budget : $ 17 million
Total domestic boxful office : $ 33 million . ( Global box office obscure . )
Quotes : “ Tron : Legacy is a sequel to a movie that come out well-nigh 30 old age ago . And that movie , 1982 ’s Tron , was a washout . ” — Newsday . ( There are lashings of other article that say something like . )
Hook ( 1991 )
judge product budget : $ 70 million
Total worldwide corner agency : $ 301 million .
inverted comma : “ Hook [ is ] the rare Spielberg floating-point operation . ” — Time Magazine
Planet of the Apes ( 2001 )
Estimated production budget : $ 100 million
full worldwide box office : $ 362 million .
quotation mark : “ Mark Wahlberg bring out why Planet of the Apes flop ” ( newspaper headline fromMovies.com )
Vanilla Sky ( 2001 )
Estimated production budget : $ 68 million
Total world-wide boxful power : $ 203 million .
Quotes : “ The 10 since Almost Famous has n’t been kind to [ Cameron ] Crowe , with only flops ( Vanilla Sky , Elizabethtown ) and a duo of rockumentaries to show for it . ” — The Tampa Bay Times
Scooby - Doo 2 : Monsters Unleashed ( 2004 )
approximate product budget : $ 25 million
full worldwide box role : $ 181 million .
Details : Apparently it was consider a great enough catastrophe that it banished the alive - action at law Scooby movies to the lineal - to - videodisk geographical zone . People did notethat its domestic box situation was down from the first picture ’s .
King Kong ( 2005 )
Estimated production budget : $ 207 million
Total worldwide box office : $ 550 million .
quote : Lots of peopledescribedthis film as a box office dud , to the point whereother people had to defend it .
Superman Returns ( 2006 )
Estimated production budget : $ 270 million
Total worldwide corner office : $ 391 million .
Details : So as we ’ve observed before , this movie made roughly as much money as Batman Begins . But because Bryan Singer ’s film was saddled with the budgets of all the failed Superman movies of the 1990s and 2000s , include Tim Burton ’s and McG ’s , it was a failure on paper .
Eragon ( 2006 )
Total worldwide box office : $ 250 million .
Details : This is one of the first examples of a new phenomenon — movies that underachieve domestically but make more than enough money abroad to correct . See also Last Airbender below .
Ghost Rider ( 2007 )
Estimated output budget : $ 110 million
Total world-wide boxful office : $ 228 million .
Quotes : “ Although Ghost Rider was notoriously live as being one of Nicolas Cage ’s bad floating-point operation , Columbia Pictures has decided to give the Marvel comic another prospect . ” – The Celebrity Cafe .
Jumper ( 2008 )
forecast yield budget : $ 85 million
entire worldwide box office : $ 222 million .
References : It ’s pretty easy to retrieve article where this is referred to as a major flop , or part of a mid - career lurch for theatre director Doug Liman .
The Day The Earth Stood Still ( 2008 )
Estimated production budget : $ 80 million
Total worldwide boxful office : $ 233 million .
Quotes : “ Fox forced out this turd of a remake , which not only tanked at the box post , but will probably harm the original ’s report in the retention of future generations of moving picture fans . ” — Screenjunkies
The Last Airbender ( 2010 )
reckon output budget : $ 150 million
Total ecumenical box berth : $ 320 million .
Details : Another motion picture that give out in the U.S. and is consider as a box federal agency letdown — but did gangbuster patronage overseas , pushing it back into profitable territory . To a lesser extent , this also bump with X - Men : First Class .
Spy Kids : All The Time in the World ( 2011 )
Estimated production budget : $ 27 million
Total worldwide box office staff : $ 74 million .
quote : Frequentlydismissedas an underperforming continuation , although masses sometimes do notice that the low budget made it profitable .
In Time ( 2011 )
calculate product budget : $ 40 million
Total world-wide box office : $ 140 million ( Although to be fair , the picture did n’t do great domestically . )
Quotes : “ If we ignore In Time ( and based on boxwood agency receipts , most of you did ) , Timberlake has acting chops . ” — Entertainment Weekly
extra coverage by MaryKate Jasper and Gordon Jackson .
In TimeJumperMoviesPlanet of the ApesSteven SpielbergSuperman
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