10 Infamous Failed Blockbusters That Cost Obscene Money

1. The 13th Warrior

Cutthroat Island
Buena Vista Pictures

John McTiernan was still riding high on his well-earned reputation as one of the best action directors in the business in the late 1990s, but his next movie after Die Hard with a Vengeance marked the beginning of the rapid decline of both his career and reputation.

The 13th Warrior was originally given the go-ahead with a budget of $85m, but things got so out of hand that it ended up costing almost twice as much, with extensive reshoots and delays pushing costs up to $160m after writer of the source novel Michael Crichton essentially replaced McTiernan as director following some disastrous test screenings that led to huge amounts of the movie being reworked from basically the ground up.

All of the hassle turned out to be far from worth it, with The 13th Warrior barely scraping past $60m at the box office amid unenthusiastic reviews and general apathy from moviegoers, with the studio reportedly losing up to $130m on the historical actioner's dismal failure.

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