12 Movies That Were Dead On Arrival

It’s no mean feat to make a disaster out of a film co-starring Al Pacino and a game Christopher Walken, but such was the public antipathy for Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in the hazy days of 2003. The pair met on set, and embarked on a relationship, which must come as a shock to anyone judging them by their chemistry here.

A sub-sub Tarantino crime drama made about five years after that particular bubble burst, Gigli sees Affleck fail to convince as a low level LA mobster hired to kidnap a lawyer’s mentally challenged brother in order to give the crime organisation some leverage in a case. Herein lies a major problem: for much of the screen time, you’re asked to watch Justin Bartha play what you’d kindly call a clumsily written disabled character. Similarly, the romantic subplot posits Affleck as just the man to drag J-Lo’s enforcer character out of her lesbian phase.

At the time, its return of just over $7,000,000 on a budget 10 times that was one of the most objectively disastrous flops in history. Far greater sums have been squandered and lost since, but if you’re talking about star power failing to ignite, Gigli remains in a league of its own.