No one wants to see a movie fail. Making movies takes countless hours of hard work, creativity, and collaboration. Every project starts with high hopes, and even the most notorious flop involves at least one person who is passionate to tell a story. There are movies that undeservedly flop at the box office. However, there are also films that face so many obstacles—be it production troubles, poor creative decisions, or a mismatch with audience expectations—that their failure seems inevitable long before they hit the big screen.
Whether it’s unnecessary remakes or high concept projects that spiral out of control, some movies serve as cautionary tales for Hollywood. Movie enthusiasts and box office pundits have foreseen their poor performance. General audiences can also sense when something is off, and in the cases below, their instincts were proven right. Let’s take a look at some films that seemed destined for box office disaster and examine why they couldn’t overcome the odds.
10 ‘Ishtar’ (1987)
Directed by Elaine May
Directed by Elaine May, Ishtar stars Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman as two struggling musicians who get caught up in Cold War-era espionage in the Middle East. The film is an all-out production, shot on location in Morocco and features the leads at the height of their fame. But due to its failure, Ishtar is now synonymous with notorious box office flops.
The film’s behind-the-scenes chaos and bloated budget overshadowed its potential. The on-location shoot turned out to bring problems, due to the region’s political tension and the country’s inexperience in handling a Hollywood production. The director also clash with the main actors, making production and post-production difficult. The negative publicity lingered until its release, eventually hurting its chances of making a profit. Nevertheless, recently Ishtar has been reevaluated much more objectively, with names like Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese as its proponents.
Ishtar
- Director
- Elaine May
- Cast
- Dustin Hoffman , Warren Beatty , Isabelle Adjani , Charles Grodin , Jack Weston , Tess Harper , Carol Kane , Aharon Ipalé , Fijad Hageb , David Margulies , Rose Arrick , Julie Garfield , Cristine Rose , Robert V. Girolami , Abe Kroll , Hannah Kroll , Herb Gardner , Bill Moor , Edgar Smith , J.C. Cutler , Bill Bailey , Ian Gray , Maati Zaari , Larbi Bouhaddane , Fred Melamed
- Runtime
- 107 minutes
9 Battlefield Earth (2000)
Directed by Roger Christian
Based on L. Ron Hubbard’s novel, Battlefield Earth sees the human race enslaved by alien invaders led by Terl, played by John Travolta. Sick of their enslavement, a faction of humans begin to plan a rebellion to take over the planet. Directed by Roger Christian, the film has high hopes to be a sprawling sci-fi epic in the vein of Star Wars.
Battlefield Earth has a long road to production, mainly because of its relationship with the Church of Scientology, which made studios and investors hesitant. As a member of the church and a fan of the book, Travolta himself jump started the production, leveraging his fame in the late 1990s. However, the bad buzz surrounding the film had already spread to the mainstream audience. It does not help that the movie features bizarre performances, laughable dialogue, and an incomprehensible plot. To no one’s surprise, Battlefield Earth flopped and is consistently dubbed as the worst sci-fi movie ever made.
Battlefield Earth
- Director
- Roger Christian
- Runtime
8 ‘The Adventures of Pluto Nash’ (2002)
Directed by Ron Underwood
.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2)
Set in the year 2087, The Adventures of Pluto Nash stars Eddie Murphy as a nightclub owner on the moon who sees his club threatened by the lunar mafia. With Murphy still riding the success of Doctor Dolittle and The Nutty Professor, the hopes are high to see this futuristic comedy thrive.
However, the film was marred by production troubles that saw reshoot and lukewarm pre-release buzz. Director Ron Underwood and Murphy himself were not satisfied with the level of fun in the movie, diminishing audiences’ interest. When reviewed by critics, the movie was panned for its nonexistent humor and weak script, making it one of the worst reviewed comedies of the 2000s. The movie barely registered with audiences, quickly earning its reputation as one of the worst box office bombs in history.
The Adventures Of Pluto Nash
- Director
- Ron Underwood
- Runtime
- 95 Minutes
7 ‘Mars Needs Moms’ (2011)
Directed by Simon Wells
Disney’s Mars Needs Moms follows a young boy who journeys to Mars to save his mom after aliens kidnap her to instruct Martian robots to nurture children. The film, based on Berkeley Breathed’s book and produced by Robert Zemeckis, featured motion-capture animation and a voice cast led by Seth Green and Joan Cusack.
The first signs of the movie’s failure starts from the negative reception of the film’s look. Zemeckis, with a new and improved motion capture technology from the days of The Polar Express, failed to create character designs that would be received by families, making its core audience turn away to seek other movies. The movie had bad word of mouth on social media and bombed spectacularly at the box office, effectively ending the use of motion capture in Disney animated movies for some time.
- Director
- Simon Wells
- Runtime
- 98 Minutes
6 ‘John Carter’ (2012)
Directed by Andrew Stanton
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic sci-fi story is brought to life in Disney’s John Carter, with Taylor Kitsch starring as the titular character. Directed by frequent Pixar director Andrew Stanton in his live-action debut, the film follows John Carter’s adventures on Mars, where he becomes embroiled in a conflict between warring factions and finds himself falling in love with the Princess of Mars.
Ambitious and expensive, the movie does not have substantial marketing support to help it succeed. Poor trailers failed to convey the story’s grandeur, leaving audiences unfamiliar with the books confused about its premise. The promotional materials also shied away from presenting it as a sci-fi film and its connection to Mars—due to the failure of Mars Needs Moms, which led to the unfortunate decision to shorten the title from ‘John Carter of Mars’. As a result, not enough people bought tickets to the film to recoup its budget and plans for a trilogy were abandoned.
John Carter
- Director
- Andrew Stanton
- Runtime
- 139
5 ‘Fantastic Four’ (2015)
Directed by Josh Trank
Directed by Josh Trank, who broke out through Chronicle, the 2015 reboot of Fantastic Four attempted to reimagine Marvel’s First Family with a darker, grittier tone. Starring a promising cast of Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, and Jamie Bell, the movie follows the heroes’ origins and pits them with their nemesis Doctor Doom.
The film was notorious for its behind-the-scenes drama and studio interference, which led to a disjointed final cut, with most of the footage shown in the first trailer nowhere to be found. The core Marvel fans are alienated with its grim tone and the movie itself is panned for its lackluster story, poor pacing, and lack of chemistry among the cast—problems that seemingly arise because of interfering visions. Despite calls for ‘the Trank Cut’, the film is quickly forgotten, and the family is headed for another reboot in The Fantastic Four: The First Steps.
Fantastic Four
- Director
- Josh Trank
- Runtime
- 100 Minutes
4 ‘Ben-Hur’ (2016)
Directed by Timur Bekmambetov
The 2016 remake of Ben-Hur sought to update the epic story of Judah Ben-Hur’s journey of revenge and redemption through today’s filmmaking style and technology. The film is directed by Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) and stars Jack Huston, Toby Kebbell, and Morgan Freeman. The film has large shoes to fill as the original 1959 film with Charlton Heston is one of the only three movies to receive 11 Oscars to date.
To no one’s surprise, the remake flopped due to a sense of redundancy. Critics and audiences alike saw little reason for this new version when the original remains a celebrated masterpiece. The new film did not share the same epic feel that the original timelessly has. For example, the 1959 Ben-Hur‘s chariot race remains superior to the heavily-edited, CGI-laden chariot race of the remake. Ultimately, the film failed to justify its existence, drawing neither fans of the original nor new audiences into theaters.
Ben-Hur
3 ‘Cats’ (2019)
Directed by Tom Hooper
The movie adaptation of the Broadway hit Cats had everything going for it on paper—a star-studded cast featuring Jennifer Hudson, Idris Elba, Judi Dench, and Taylor Swift, combined with Tom Hooper’s (Les Misérables) in the director’s chair. The musical follows a group of cats called Jellicles competing for the chance to ascend to the “Heaviside Layer” and start a new life.
While the Broadway musical had staying power, the movie became a meme-worthy disaster right from its first look. The “digital fur technology” created visuals that many audience found unsettling, and the trailers prompted widespread ridicule long before the release. Poor critical reviews, coupled with the confusion over its bizarre plot and tone, alienated mainstream audiences. Cats became a learning for Hollywood as not all Broadway hit can translate well to the screen.
Cats
2 ‘The Flash’ (2023)
Directed by Andy Muschietti
The Flash is DC‘s attempt to catch up with Marvel‘s multiverse shenanigans. The film follows Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) as he tries to save her mother by time-travelling to the past, opening up the space-time continuum in the process. The film sees Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck‘s Batmans return and introduces Supergirl, played by Sasha Calle.
Unfortunately, the movie is a victim of DC’s lack of direction over the years. Audiences have generally lost interest in the universe due to its lack of focus, unlike the MCU. It was worsened by an announcement that the movies will be rebooted with James Gunn as the new head of the studio, practically rendering the movie pointless to invest in. It was compounded by public controversies surrounding Miller, which overshadowed the marketing campaign. This combination of factors resulted in what should have been a blockbuster becoming a major letdown.
- Runtime
- 2 hours 24 minutes
1 ‘Megalopolis’ (2024)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola’s long-awaited Megalopolis promised to be a sprawling, visionary project about a society set in a futuristic New Rome. The film follows Cesar Catalina (Adam Driver) who aims to rebuilding the city but clashes with the corrupt Mayor Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito). Coppola badly wanted to get this movie made that he funded the film himself, and cinephiles everywhere were intrigued.
In line with Coppola’s previous troubled productions, the project was plagued by on-set conflicts, ballooning costs, and reports of chaotic filming. Signs of actual trouble appeared when no major studio was interested in distributing the movie, citing niche concept and limited mainstream appeal. When the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, it became clear that this would be a cinephile-only affair, as the incoherent plot and confusing ideas are not made for general audiences. The movie itself became one of 2024’s box office failures.
- Director
- Francis Ford Coppola
- Cast
- Adam Driver , Forest Whitaker , Nathalie Emmanuel , Jon Voight , Laurence Fishburne , Aubrey Plaza , Shia LaBeouf , Jason Schwartzman , Grace VanderWaal , Kathryn Hunter , Talia Shire , Dustin Hoffman , D. B. Sweeney , Giancarlo Esposito
- Runtime
- 138 Minutes
