10 Box Office Bombs You Could Spot From A Mile Away

3. Battleship

47 Ronin Keanu Reeves
Universal Pictures

A $220 million sci-fi action blockbuster from Hasbro led by Taylor Kitsch and Rihanna based on a guessing game that was popular during the First World War? Who comes up with these ideas and gets paid? And where do I sign?

Peter Berg is a great director when motivated, but here everything from the visuals to the characters and the script just comes off as Diet Michael Bay, with Battleship being akin to watching a terrible cover band. Sure they can play the hits, but it just isn't the same.

Given the Hasbro connection and the presence of producer Brian Goldner and composer Steve Jablonsky, Battleship was clearly intended to be Universal's answer to Transformers. However, audiences can typically see right through that kind of thing and while Battleship did earn $303 million at the box office (most of that coming from Asian markets), it still resulted in a big financial write-down for the studio.

Contributor

I don't do social media, so like or follow me in person but please maintain a safe distance or the authorities will be notified. Don't snap me though, I'll probably break. I was once labelled a misogynist on this very site in a twenty paragraph-long rant for daring to speak ill of the Twilight franchise. I stand by what I said, it's crap.