4. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Prior to its release, nobody really expected Edgar Wright's adaptation of Bryan Lee OMalleys hugely beloved comic series to bomb, least of all Universal, who ponied up a rollicking $90m for its production budget (reduced to $60m after tax breaks). With a young, talented and popular cast, headed by Michael Cera, and including the likes of Brandon Routh, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Jason Schwarzman, with a skilled director at the helm and a fantastic set of trailers, how could it fail? It turns out, though, that we all underestimated the film's appeal to only a small subset of cinemagoers; despite gaming becoming a more socially acceptable activity in recent years, its video-game-influenced aesthetic is still lost on many, and some might not have gleaned from the trailer the film's thoroughly ironic tone. It reaped a paltry $47.6m at the box office, which proved a huge shock to fans and commentators alike, again reinforcing studios' feeling that a creatively risky venture - if you can even call it that at all - is probably not worth the gamble. Shame.