10 Major Blockbusters You Knew Were Doomed Before Release

7. R.I.P.D. (2013)

You'd think Ryan Reynolds would have learned his lesson about starring in comic book movies after Blade: Trinity, X-Men Origins and Green Lantern yet here he is, taking one of the lead roles in this tediously banal studio picture that lazily ripped off Men in Black and ended up becoming one of the biggest box office disasters in history. The only remotely watchable part of R.I.P.D is Jeff Bridges, who at least seems to be having fun in his role as a demented cowboy. The marketing was as bland and formulaic as the movie itself and didn't even attempt to look like anything other than an MiB knock-off, with Reynolds portraying one of the least interesting main characters in recent blockbuster history. Tellingly, the movie was not screened in advance for critics, which was a bad sign for a project that was rumoured to cost $130m. Clocking in at just 96 minutes, R.I.P.D still manages to be painfully unfunny, predictable and cliched while boasting some of the worst CGI seen in a studio tent-pole release. Many predicted the movie would tank months before it hit theaters, and boy were they right. Opening at an embarrassing seventh place at the domestic box office with $12.7m, R.I.P.D earned just over $78m worldwide and resulted in a huge financial loss for Universal Pictures.