8 Movies That Bombed So Hard They BANKRUPTED Their Studios
6. Looney Tunes: Back In Action (Warner Brothers Feature Animation)
Remember when Brendan Fraser was the big star of the moment back in the early 2000s? After The Mummy hit our screens, Hollywood were determined to push him as the next big leading man and put him front and centre on most of their posters.
So, what went wrong? Well, starring in movies like this certainly didn’t help.
By all accounts, the production was a complete mess behind the scenes. Warner Brothers initially wanted it to be a sequel to 1996’s Space Jam, but Michael Jordan refused to sign on again. Then they changed it to “Spy Jam” and tried to lure Jackie Chan into playing the title role. This also fell through and eventually long-time Looney Tunes fan Joe Dante was brought on to direct what would become Back In Action.
He received absolutely no creative freedom and it shows. The movie is an over-stuffed, poorly paced disaster and didn’t even make its $80 million budget at the box office, only managing to pull in $68.5 million.
Warner Brothers went from planning to release more Looney Tunes movies as soon as possible to shutting down its feature film animation division entirely. That’s all, folks.