10 'Next Big Thing' Movies That Completely Flopped

9. Beowulf

As detailed in this excellent video essay, Robert Zemeckis had a very weird stint in the 2000s. After spending the previous couple of decades defining cinema with movies like Forrest Gump and Back to the Future, the director traded all that in to prove that CGI motion-capture was the future of the medium, making flicks like The Polar Express and A Christmas Carol to prove it.

To convince everyone that the tech wasn't only useful for making extravagant cartoons for kids though, Zemeckis took on an adaptation of literary classic Beowulf, and again filmed it entirely using motion capture. Though it wasn't an R-rated movie, it was still a very mature tale, boasting plenty of violence and starring respected actors like Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie and Brendan Gleeson.

Despite netting close to $200 million at the box office, the adaptation didn't make enough of a profit, and critics weren't sold that the technology was up to snuff. Shockingly, the rest of the industry didn't push forward with similar, entirely CG movies after this.