This Thanksgiving, you can eat turkey -- or you can watch a turkey. A cinematic turkey, that is. But just what is a big-screen gobbler? Think about a film that bombs with moviegoers AND with critics and you've got a pretty good start. We waded through the foulest fare ever served up by Hollywood, pulling in budgets and grosses from Box Office Mojo just to be sure. The result is a list that's both fun and astoundingly awful. Now sit back and, um, enjoy.
25. 'Sahara'Budget: $160 million
Domestic Gross: $68.7 million
It was supposed to make Matthew McConaughey an action star and launch a lucrative new 'Indiana Jones'-esque franchise. Instead, the 2005 adventure flick became one of the most famous flops in history. Thanks to a much-publicized lawsuit filed by 'Sahara' author Clive Cussler months before release, the film rode a wave of bad buzz into theaters and never recovered. Of course, budget line items such as $200K for "local bribes" don't help a healthy bottom line, either.
24. 'Alexander'Budget: $155 million
Domestic Gross: $34.3 million
Oliver Stone's 2004 historic adventure drama seemed like a no-brainer: an Oscar-winning director, a fleet of A-list stars (Colin Farrell! Angelina Jolie! Anthony Hopkins! Val Kilmer!) ... but alas, not even the anticipated raciness of Jolie as Farrell's really hot mom could entice the masses to see this almost-three-hour epic misfire. Call him Alexander the Inferior.
23. 'Inchon'Budget: $46 million
Domestic Gross: $5.2 million
"Legend" has it Unification Church founder Sun Myong Moon began crying one day and could not stop until he went to see a movie, which he took as a sign from God to finance a film. The resulting 1982 Korean War drama starring Laurence Olivier, which took five years and way too much money to make, had the opposite effect on its viewers.
22. 'Poseidon'Budget: $160 million
Domestic Gross: $60.7 million
Expectations were high for Wolfgang Petersen's 2006 return to the seas -- he directed the submarine classic 'Das Boot' and the tragic 'Perfect Storm.' But it was the film he did in '04 that can be most aptly compared to this one: 'Troy,' in that both are bloated, too silly for their own good ... and monumental letdowns. (Insert your own sinking ship joke here.)
21. 'Speed 2: Cruise Control'Budget: $160 million
Domestic Gross: $48.6 million
Did anyone think this was a good idea? Anyone? Transplanting the unlikely scenario of the first 'Speed' to the even more unbelievable setting of a cruise ship?!?! We can just hear the pitch now for this '97 stinker: "It's 'Speed,' but on a boat! No one thought the bus-thing would work, either, and that hit HUGE. This can't lose." And we answer, "Oh, but it can. It really, really can."
Reader Comments (31)
peter solari at 8:50PM on Jun 17th 2008
Forget the domestic gross, what is the international gross, that's what counts in the final tally? What did SAHARA and ALEXANDER make internationally. TROY made over 5 million!! Thank you, but do your homework, please!
Peter Solari
peter solari at 2:54PM on Jun 23rd 2008
Forget the domestic gross, what is the international gross, that's what counts in the final tally? What did SAHARA and ALEXANDER make internationally. TROY made over 5 million!! Thank you, but do your homework, please!
Peter Solari
Christine at 8:33PM on Nov 27th 2008
okay, so that was the DOMESTIC gross. what did these movies gross WORLDWIDE?
janislafreniere at 8:33PM on Nov 27th 2008
Love this movie, I dont care if anyone else did or does, I love it. It makes me laugh. The singing is hideous and its totally tongue in cheek. It's relevant now and I think it deserves a second look.
T at 3:06AM on Nov 28th 2008
Ishtar, believe it or not, is one of my favorite movies. The dry humor must be my style.
Jomo at 8:37PM on Nov 27th 2008
Obamaa born in Kenya. www.obamacrimes.com andwww. worldnetdaily.com
Debbie Hess at 8:50PM on Nov 27th 2008
Please add Four Christmases to your list of bad movies.
Michael at 9:22PM on Nov 27th 2008
You forgot Warren Beatty and Elizabeth Taylor's movie "The only game in town". I played a bit part int this movie (filmed in Paris). After having seen the final cut, I was ashamed to tell any of my friends and family that I had anything to do with it. The only saving grace is that when it's shown on tevevision, they cut my head off.
Michael
dan at 10:15PM on Nov 27th 2008
You're all only half way there. it's not just the domestic gross or even the int'l gross that counts. You have to include the video, DVD, pay-TV, network-TV and Internet rights. The film may be the biggest turkey ever at the box office, but it still may very big money for the studios -- especially after the studio accountants get ahold of it.
mike Hughes at 10:27PM on Nov 27th 2008
This is an excellent link. Bad movie productions and embarrassing flops are something we never really get to see or read about in the mainstream media. It is not something they (Hollywood) wants us to know about. We are constantly bombarded with clever advertising about how important upcoming movies are. Hollywood publicity agents along with the bought-and-paid-for media have a clever way of manipulating thought process which finds ways to control our direction of judgement in continuously suppressing the truth about what really sells.
Most movies suck. If you've noticed, throughout the years, the majority of Hollywood movie flops are of historical epics. Which proves one thing: Movie stars and movie directors should not teach history or attempt to change the course of history through cynical liberal undertones. History should be taught in the classroom., not at the movie theater.
Advertising corporations have a way of trying to convince the movie goer every recent film released is better than the last, thus saturating the audience with a wave of overrated films which are aimed at us in such a psychologically damaging manner that credibility and believability in paying attention to any upcoming movie is futile. Even star-cast big names in Hollywood can't bail out anticipated flops.
Mike Hughes.
easytoenvy3 at 11:16PM on Nov 27th 2008
i thought howard the duck was a great movie the crittics were wrong for bashing it ever notice the bashing came from male movie critics and not female movie critics i wonder why
reddawnhrt at 11:22PM on Nov 27th 2008
Until Cat Woman came on the scene, I thought Hudson Hawk was about the worst movie I had ever seen.My husband brought cat woman home,put it in the dvd and I couldn't believe the bad acting, poorlly written dialoque and just rotten movie altogether. But then he's a guy, and it was Halley Barre. As far as Troy was concerned,.. didn't see it, won't see it, will never, ever ,watch another Joli or Pitt movie ever again..But I disliked her before she started hitting on married men..
carla jackson at 2:46PM on Oct 9th 2009
This is your opinion. You should stop hating on Halle Berry. You know she looks better then you.
Andy at 12:42AM on Nov 28th 2008
First of all, if you want to know the overall gross of pretty much any movie, look at www.boxofficemojo.com They have that information. Second, you can bet that with a lot of these movies, the domestic gross is a high percentage of their overall gross. Hit movies tend to get around 65% of their overall take overseas, but flops tend to get most of their take domestically (or in some cases, ALL of it). For example, Hudson Hawk never WENT overseas, so all of its $17 million take came in the U.S. It takes a lot of money to release a movie overseas, and a studio would be foolish to invest that much money in a movie they know is a bomb.
Suzy at 11:45PM on Nov 27th 2008
The movies above mentioned, I either didn't get to see (I guess that may be a good thing) or were so bad, I forgot about them already (naturally). However, some of the movies that I notice are on Network TV or HBO, Starz, etc, and only have one star (*) which I think represents "poor to fair." One of those movies I really liked a lot and have actually went out and purchased it. The movie is called "Powder" and is about an Albino teen who, doesn't seem to fit in anywhere, as he is heckled and often times bulled and beat up at the high school he was forced to attend, after he was found. I found this story so good, even though it only had one star. It definitely wasn't the best movie ever made, and it didn't even make the worst on this list.
Andy at 12:42AM on Nov 28th 2008
As an update: Out of the 25 movies on this list, 11 made all of their money domestically (Ishtar, Heaven's Gate, Cleopatra, Cutthroat Island, The Postman, Bonfire Of The Vanities, Hudson Hawk, Shanghai Surprise, Leonard Part 6, One From The Heart, and Inchon). 7 more made much less overseas than domestically (Town & Country, Adventures Of Pluto Nash, Gigli, Battlefield Earth, A Sound Of Thunder, All The King's Men, and Sahara). That leaves only 7 of the movies that made more overseas (Waterworld, Catwoman, Howard The Duck, Basic Instinct 2, Speed 2, Poseidon, and Alexander). Of those, only Waterworld made a significant amount more than its production budget ($264 million gross vs. $175 million budget). The rest made either about what they cost or less than they cost. And the production budget doesn't include the money it takes to release the movies domestically and overseas--just the initial cost of making them. That's why even Waterworld was a flop--it was rumored that overall, it cost over $300 million total for everything included on that movie, and they didn't even make that back.
Andy at 12:42AM on Nov 28th 2008
The problem with movies these days is the same problem with TV shows--there's so many out there that it's almost impossible for every movie or show to be a hit, especially if they suck as bad as these movies did. Many shows and movies live or die before they even show up on the screens due to internet buzz and blogs, which a lot of times can keep audiences away, especially if they're all negative. Also, shows and movies aren't given as much time as they used to get to sink or swim--if the numbers aren't there, studios are likely to cut their losses immediately rather than stand behind a potential money drainer. Lastly, there are some movies that should never have been made at all--Leonard Part 6, Howard The Duck, Battlefield Earth are three prime examples. But people like you have a big say in what gets made and what succeeds. If you like a movie, go see it. If a studio sees that audiences will come see a certain kind of movie, they are more likely to make more of it (hence sequels to Spider-Man, X-Men, Bourne, Pirates Of The Caribbean, etc.), or more movies like it (more comic book movies, for example). Internet buzz can make or break a film, or change it. That's why a lot of director's will shop parts of a movie or trailers online or at big venues like ComicCon--it's not just to let you see their new movie. It's also so they can gauge your reactions to it, and see if something's not going over well. Most big summer movies get a partial reshoot or rewrite these days to respond to something test audiences didn't like about the original script. So if you like (or don't like) something--speak out! Believe me, studios and directors are listening.
Bryguy at 1:16AM on Nov 28th 2008
Like the others have written, you fail to include total box office, which includes the foreign market which nowadays is usually more than the domestic take. You must know this and only used the domestic box office so it fit your agenda for this article...nice Michael Moore tactic, by the way.
Just one illustration of your selective box office numbers...Waterworld has grossed about 265 million worldwide.
Really bad reporting on your part.
Brian
joe at 2:46AM on Nov 28th 2008
Everybody email CBS(http://www.cbs.com/info/user_services/fb_global_thanks.php) which is the station that carries the show "How I Met Your Mother". Tell them that you no longer watch the show and to cancel it because Neil Patrick Harris is a disgusting homosexual. It is one of the ways to let these companies know, who promote this disgraceful lifestyle, that Americans won't stand for homosexuality.
Jo Ann at 3:15AM on Nov 28th 2008
Waterworld was the sixth highest grossing movie worldwide when it was released. Also, Universal has made a fortune on the Waterworld attraction at the theme park. After Waterworld, a more expensive movie was made starrring Gena Davis as a pirate which was a real bomb.