8. Sahara (2005) Budget: $130m/Total Gross: $119.3m
Based on the best-selling book by Clive Cussler, Sahara was intended to create a new action-adventure franchise in the mold of a 21st century Indiana Jones. Instead, the movie was a shambles that resulted in a huge financial loss for Paramount and ultimately ended with the author filing a lawsuit against one of the producers. Having four credited screenwriters surely contributed to the nonsensical plot that involved lost Confederate gold, an African warlord, a solar plant and contaminated water (sometimes in that order, sometimes not). This jumbled mess of ideas was poorly executed by director Breck 'son of Michael' Eisner, resulting in generic action scenes and no real sense of urgency or propulsion to the narrative. The only real saving grace is the chemistry between leads Matthew McConaughey and Steve Zahn, but you need more than witty banter to save a movie of this scale. Oh, and the soundtrack was pretty good. Following the release, Cussler sued the filmmakers for failing to consult him over the script, and was then counter-sued for attempting to sabotage the production before release which resulted in the author paying $5m in damages and $13.9m in legal fees. The litigation continued until March 2010, when the ruling against Cussler was overturned.
Despite taking top spot at the box office when it was released, Sahara's opening weekend was a poor $18m, and expensive distribution costs and low international revenues would see movie lose almost $100m. For a production that went through ten writers on its way to the big screen and wasted $2m shooting a plane crash that didn't even make it into the final cut, it could have been a lot worse.