8. John Carter
Budget: $250 million
What We Got: Joint with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, John Carter is the 4th most expensive movie ever made, but looking at it, you wouldn't really know this, because the tepid production better resembles a poorly thought-out attempt to ape Avatar, which is exactly what we got. What's most astounding to me is how ugly a production the movie is; for all of the money lavished on it, the visual effects are decidedly underwhelming, even muddy at times, whereas something like District 9 - which cost merely $30 million - showed what you can do with strong artistic convictions and a clear-headed sensibility (as well as having Peter Jackson as a buddy). Despite having Edgar Rice Burroughs' firm source material to draw from, John Carter is a leaden, even boring sci-fi flick that basically p*ssed $250 million down the drain, plus another $100 million for marketing, given that its worldwide gross halted at a risible $282 million. With a budget like this, so much more should have been possible, but casting Taylor "Box Office Poison" Kitsch never helps...