10 Biggest Video Game Movie Flops

5. Super Mario Bros

Super Mario Bros
Buena Vista Pictures

Budget: $48 million

US Box Office: $20,915,465

For American audiences, it all began when Hollywood threw a bundle of cash at a Japanese video game series with the expectation of creating a movie franchise about two plumbers in an alternate universe. Instead, they made a cult curio.

Directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel (the creators of Max Headroom), Super Mario Bros now looks more like the missing link between Howard The Duck and Batman & Robin than the movie that kick started Hollywood’s obsession with video game franchises. It’s loud, dumb and expensive….but what were you expecting a movie based on this game to be like?

What The Critics Said: “Super Mario Bros devotes half its run time to lumbering exposition, yet still makes no f**king sense.” (The Onion A.V. Club)

Contributor

Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'