10 Movie Flops That Will Become Cult Classics

3. Jupiter Ascending

jupiter ascending
Warner Bros.

Jupiter Ascending has a bonkers plot, an underlying campiness and nearly as many coherent ideas as there are garbled ones. It went toes up at the US box office, grossing only $47 million despite a $176 million production budget.

Mila Kunis is Jupiter Jones, a toilet cleaner who for some reason has been targeted for assassination by alien agents. When she meets Stinger (Sean Bean), Jupiter realizes she can control bees, the only insect genetically programmed to recognize royalty. This can only mean one thing: Jupiter is genetically identical to the deceased matriarch of a family that owns a string of planets, and is therefore Earth’s rightful owner (are you getting this?).

During her adventures, Jupiter encounters such colourful characters as Titus Abrasax (great porn name), who requests her hand in marriage after informing her that all humans are cattle and Caine Wise (Channing Tatum), who’s supposed to be a man-dog hybrid but looks more like a gay hairdresser’s idea of an action hero.

Contributor

Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'