9. The Avengers Owning The Box Office - Battleship
The Failure: Based on the classic Milton Bradley board game, Battleship grossed a mere $303 million against a $209 million budget, meaning that after marketing costs and other deductions, the film made no money whatsoever. It also was mostly panned by critics, earning a rather dubious 34% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Excuse: Director Peter Berg said, "The movie kicked butt internationally, but we kind of ran into a wall when Avengers refused to go away. The Avengers outperformed everything. It was impossible for Battleship to get any oxygen."
The Truth: It just...wasn't very good. Audiences weren't prepared to watch a generic Transformers clone, and the idea of adapting something as ridiculous as a board game seemingly didn't hit with audiences. Oh, and it starred Taylor "Box Office Poison" Kitsch. In addition to this, Berg's claim about The Avengers doesn't really hold much water either, because a week after Battleship came out, Men in Black 3 was released, still in the midst of The Avengers' box office rule, and scooped an impressive $624 million at the box office.