10 Box Office Flops That Threw Away Stupid Amounts Of Money

Fancy burning a heap of cash? These films can show you how.

By Alex Leadbeater /

Walt Disney Pictures

In a world where Hollywood studios seem to completely misunderstand what it is we want from our movies, there€™s something quite refreshing about a box office flop. If nothing else, they're a sign that films aren't bulletproof and we won€™t just hand over our cash for whatever a studio churns out.

Advertisement

Even when the industry grows each year without fail (thank you cinemas and your increasingly expensive tickets), flops are still rampant, often with greater severity as budgets reach higher and higher. In fact, a lot of films that initially seem to have done well didn't make a profit; to break even a film not only needs to offset its production budget, but also all its marketing, which normally ends up doubling the overall cost.

There is a natural downside to this. The films that flop are the ones that don€™t come with a pre-existing franchise; namely, non-sequels. Everyone moans we get nothing but sequels, but when something new could lose you $100 million you can€™t blame studios going for another G.I. Joe.

Advertisement

Today we take a look at the cream of the crop; the films that took losing a lot of money and turned it into an artform. Here are the ten films that lost their studios completely ridiculous amounts of money (spoiler, Disney don't come out of this well).

All numbers are correct at the time of writing and have been calculated using the standard method (to account for marketing and other expenses the budget is doubled) unless other, more accurate, information was available.

Advertisement