10 Films That Risk Being 2014's Biggest Box Office Failures

4. Transcendence

After years of being best known as Christopher Nolan's cinematographer, Academy Award winner Wally Pfister is set to make an ambitious directorial debut. As first time features go, an original sci-fi thriller headlined by Johnny Depp with a budget of $100m is a risky proposition, and with the recent trailers greatly dividing opinion there is a real chance that Transcendence will struggle to make an impact at the box office. Although regarded as one of the world's biggest movie stars, outside of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise there are question marks surrounding Johnny Depp's drawing power. Despite top billing and a heavy presence in the marketing efforts, recent big-budget titles including Public Enemies, The Tourist, Dark Shadows and The Lone Ranger didn't perform as well as expected. Pfister is an unknown quantity as a director, and amongst the talented supporting cast only Morgan Freeman is a genuine box office draw. The genre could also be a hindrance, as original sci-fi (Gravity aside) has generally struggled to gain any real commercial traction in recent years. If Transcendence is a great movie, then it stands a chance of commercial success but if reviews are less than stellar it will suffer in the face of more recognizable competition. The April 18 release date is only two weeks after Captain America: The Winter Soldier and with the positive buzz surrounding the latest Marvel Studios effort, it will likely dominate the box office next month. May 2 brings The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and those two PG-13 superhero movies will almost certainly be the preferred option for casual moviegoers over original content. Such is the way of summer movie season.