20 Recent Box Office Bombs EVERYONE Saw Coming

20. Mercy

Let's kick this list off with perhaps the most blatant "Eff you, it's January" release in quite a few years - the Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson-starring sci-fi thriller Mercy.

The first trailer for this high-concept romp screamed "epic flop" in every fibre of its being, at once looking wildly expensive and deeply cheap as it left Pratt confined to a chair for most of its runtime, and straining for relevance with its AI-centric plot, all while looking like a blatant Minority Report knock-off.

On top of this, director Timur Bekmambetov hasn't made a commercially successful Hollywood film since 2008's Wanted, and with this one rocking a ridiculous $60 million budget, the maths just didn't work out in its favour.

Amid highly negative reviews from most critics and severe storms in North America causing hundreds of cinemas to close on its opening weekend, Mercy has only scraped past the $50 million mark globally, ensuring it'll be one of 2026's most high-profile duds.