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

7. Cutthroat Island

Why It Was "Too Big"

It's easy to dismiss the idea of Geena Davis' pirate epic as frivolous nonsense now, but back in 1995, Cutthroat Island was being shopped about as the real deal: the film that would turn her into a real action movie lead. Carolco Pictures were so confident in it that they told potential international distributors that it was a sure-fire hit.

They then spent something like $100m (or thereabouts) on making it, hitching their wagon to its success with some serious financial issues bubbling in the background already. In other words, they tried to manipulate the size of the production to their own benefit.

Why It Failed Anyway

Because it was never the sure-fire hit Carolco claimed it was, Davis wasn't the potential action star director (and her husband, suspiciously) Renny Harlin claimed she could be and because it just wasn't very good. Stunningly, it made just $10m in the US and apparently lost the studio $147 million (adjusted for inflation) making it one of the worst financial failures ever.

The Damage

Carolco Studios was killed by the dismal financial performance and Geena Davis' career hit the skids in a terrifyingly abrupt way. It also set the pirate movie genre back terribly until Pirates Of The Caribbean injected it with life some years later (and not without lots of people drawing unfavourable comparisons to Cutthroat Island while it was being made).