10 Box Office Flops That Threw Away Stupid Amounts Of Money
1. Mars Needs Moms - $130.5 million
Budget: $150 million Box Office: $39 million
John Carter and The Lone Ranger just too mainstream for you? Want a more hipster-flop? Well Mars Needs Moms was losing Disney copious amounts of money before it was cool.
Produced by Robert Zemeckis and made using his beloved motion capture, it was an odd film that couldn't commit to either side of its sci-fi-comedy genre (you again?) and got so many things wrong its amazing it made the little amount it did.
The animation goes for realistic but cant get out of the uncanny valley Final Fantasy brushed with ten years before. The story is in concept knockabout (Martians need to steal Moms for their momness) but is treated with a straight face, following the path of any other blockbuster. And, a couple of years after Avatar, its big push of 3D came just as we were becoming disenfranchised with the tech. It all adds up to a film that lacks any major appeal.
The flop was high profile, with effects slowly seeping into cinemas. John Carter lost its Of Mars (because the film obviously only flopped because of that association) and motion capture now needs to be pushed by the likes of Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson to make it close to the multiplexes.
Did it deserve to flop? Its quality is exactly why it flopped. Thanks to Twitter reducing the time word of mouth takes to spread, everyone knew it was an iffy movie and pundits knew it had failed long before the executives did.
Which upcoming films could displace some of these entries? Which film didnt deserve to lose so much money? Head down to the comments and have your say.