10 Failed Space Operas That Bombed With Mainstream Audiences
6. An Earth-Shattering Bomb - Titan A.E. (2000)
As Starchaser proved, animated space operas can be a tough sell at the box office. Don Bluth, the genius behind classic animated childrens films like The Land Before Time and All Dogs Go To Heaven, learned this lesson the hard way when he codirected the box office bomb Titan A.E. On paper, Titan A.E. had the makings of a classic, boasting an all-star cast including Matt Damon, Drew Barrymore, Nathan Lane, and Ron Perlman. Even fanboy favorite Joss Whedon contributed to the screenplay. Despite its strong cast, the stars failed to align for the operatic tale of humanitys struggle to survival in the far reaches of space. The misbegotten film face-planted at the box office. A victim of poor marketing that failed to inform potential viewers if Titan A.E.s intended audience was adults or children, the movie grossed a meager 35 million dollars against a budget of 75 million. Like Starchaser, Titan A.E. used cutting edge effects to entice moviegoers, combining traditional hand drawn animation with computer graphics. This did little to make the bummer of a story, which begins with earths destruction at the hands of aliens, appealing for mainstream audiences. Titan A.E. went down in history as one of the most high profile bombs of the 2000s.
