10 Infamous Movie Box Office Bombs That Cost Obscene Money
7. The Mummy
How much does it cost to kill an entire cinematic universe? Looking at Tom Cruise's The Mummy, about $195m. If you include Dracula Untold, which was originally set to serve as the launchpad for the Dark Universe before the prequel was quietly swept under the rug, then add another $100m onto that total.
Universal seemed all-too-confident that their decision to reinvent their stable of classic monsters as the stars of action-packed blockbusters headlined by A-list stars would be a success that they even roped in Russell Crowe, Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem and Angelina Jolie in for future projects before The Mummy was even released.
It may have been saved from total embarrassment by a strong showing in China that pushed the box office over the $400m mark, but it still ended up with the studio taking a huge financial hit that saw the Dark Universe abandoned at the very first attempt.
Sensibly, their next stab at rebooting the Universal Monsters resulted in the critical and commercial success of this year's The Invisible Man, which was made for roughly 4% of what The Mummy cost to produce.