10 Movies Too Big To Fail (That Did It Anyway)

8. Fantastic Four (2015)

Why It Was "Too Big"

After the first two Fantastic Four films made SOME money without ever being any good, it was assumed that Marvel's first family just needed to follow more closely to other comic book movie formulas. So Fox hired upstart talent Josh Trank and gave him a cast of great young actors in Miles Teller, Michael B Jordan, Kate Mara and Jamie Bell.

He spoke well of the project, claiming it would be a cross between Steven Spielberg, David Cronenberg and Tim Burton, which was intriguing. But really, all he had to do was get the characters right and he could tune into one of the oldest fandoms in comics. And surely a comic book ensemble with a hefty $200m combined budget couldn't fail?

Why It Failed Anyway

Thanks to a combination of bad marketing decisions, very, very public production issues, Fantastic Four didn't get off to a great start. And then it turned out that it was awful, which killed the potential for helpful word of mouth.

The Damage

Fantastic Four was supposed to kick off a franchise for Fox, but when it made only $168 million against that $200m budget, it was done for and Fox's other big hope (aside for the mutants) died a quick and painful death. Would they have ever considered selling to Disney if it had been successful and they sniffed a potential franchise the size of X-Men?