20 Recent Box Office Flops Everyone Saw Coming
The box office busts that everyone predicted.
The Hollywood box office can be a cruel mistress, and it's certainly gotten crueler since the pandemic heavily impacted audience attendance and habits.
What once seemed like a sure thing no longer is, and so even the most sensible and commercial of movies can end up failing to strike a chord with the masses. But then there are those films that just scream "flop!" before they've actually even been released.
Perhaps the movie's concept itself is peculiar enough to alienate the mainstream, or maybe the cast and crew attached didn't inspire much confidence at all. Elsewhere, bad marketing might be to blame, or a late review embargo that failed to drum up hype in the days before release.
Whatever the reason, it was plainly obvious that the following pictures were all going to flop at the box office. Though to be clear, this isn't necessarily an indication of their quality - there are some absolute bangers on this list which sadly just didn't make much money - but all the same, it was incredibly easy for even the most casual box office analyst to see it coming.
20. Tron: Ares
Despite the passion of its fanbase, the Tron franchise has always firmly been a cult IP with a limited broader appeal, which, in business terms, seems fundamentally incompatible with a sky-high budget.
The original 1982 film grossed a decent $50 million against a $17 million price tag, while 2010's Tron: Legacy grossed a middling $409.9 million on a $170 million budget.
It was easy to be skeptical, then, about the commercial prospects of the third film, Tron: Ares, which, in addition to costing up to $220 million, had the albatross around its neck that was Jared Leto's polarising casting in the lead role. Mediocre marketing that failed to emphasise the film's must-see event appeal didn't help, nor wildly mixed reviews that ensured it failed to attract many beyond die-hard Tron fans.
Tron: Ares ultimately fell far short of box office predictions in its opening weekend, and after three weekends is currently sitting at a brutal global total of barely $120 million, making it one of the biggest blockbuster flops of recent years. And yet, so, so many saw this one coming a mile off, and word indicates that Disney will now be putting the big-screen Tron franchise on ice for the foreseeable future.