8 Movies That Bombed So Hard They BANKRUPTED Their Studios
4. Battlefield Earth (Franchise Pictures)
Say the words “box office bomb” to somebody and there’s a strong chance that this will be one of the films they think of first.
John Travolta, a devout Scientologist, had been trying for years to get an adaption of L. Ron Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth greenlit. In 1998, he finally found a financial backer in the newly founded Franchise Pictures and things just went downhill from there.
Upon its release in 2000, Battlefield Earth was savaged by every critic alive, amateur and professional. Everything from the acting to the direction to the special effects was torn to shreds and the whole fiasco ended up making only $29.7 million against a $73 million budget.
John Travolta, newly restored to the spotlight thanks to Pulp Fiction six years prior, found his reputation once again in tatters. The people running Franchise Pictures were later found guilty of inflating the budgets of the likes of Battlefield Earth and other features to scam investors and filed for bankruptcy in 2007, leaving behind nothing more than a legacy of dodgy dealings and awful movies.