Top 10 Worst Performing Films of All Time

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In Hollywood, a movie needs to make more money than it cost to be considered a success. At the end of the day, money is king in the entertainment industry. If it is not a positive number, then it is no good. These movies failed for several reasons. They might have spent too much money on special effects. Or, the studio might have kept financial records. Even if the movie was actually not that bad, due to one of many possible problems, it was impossible for them to make their money back at the box offices. Check out below for some of the worst movie ever.

#10: Sahara (2005)

The main plot of Sahara, a typical action adventure film, is that Dirk Pitt (played by Matthew McConaughey) is an adventurer trying to find a lost Civil War treasure buried in the Sahara. During his voyages, he has an encounter with a local bad guy. Needless to say, he ends up saving the day. Matthew McConaughey did this film in order to get into the  action film genre. He wanted to rebrand himself as the go to action star. However, it did not end up that way for him.

His performance was fine. However, he couldn’t help make up for how much it cost to film the movie. The movie lost an estimated $121 million. This was due to bad finances on the side of the studio. They wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes with the local Moroccan government. In addition, the movie’s director spent millions of dollars to film a scene  with a plane crash that never got into the final film.^[1]Time – The Top 10 Biggest Money-Losing Movies of All Time

#9: The Lone Ranger (2013)

Disney was banking on The Lone Ranger on being a success. They wanted to used the success of the originally TV show of the same name that was on TV between 1949 and 1957. Disney was also banking on the profitability of the one of the lead actors, Johnny Depp. He had just come from the extremely popular franchise Pirates of the Caribbean and they wanted to use this success. However, the original content was clearly made for another generation.

One of the biggest failures of the movie was that it didn’t make any money. In fact, it lost around $96 and $121 million due to the extremely expensive marketing budget for the film.^[2]Time – Johnny Depp as Tonto: Is The Lone Ranger Racist? Secondly, it took cultural appropriation to another level. While this may have been OK in the 40s and 50s during the showing of the original TV series, it does not work today. The general public called out the studio for casting Johnny Depp in the role of a Native American. To make the situation worse, Depp cast Native Americans in a negative stereotypical light due to his portal in the film.

#8: John Carter (2012)

John Carter was Disney’s attempt to build a franchise. Unfortunately, it did not work out. They lost an estimated $125 million due to production and marketing costs that went way overboard.^[3]The Hollywood Reporter – Analyst: Disney’s ‘John Carter’ Write-Down ‘May Not Be as Bad as Feared’ Critics remarks about the film best reflect this sad reality. For example, one critic said “While John Carter looks terrific and delivers its share of pulpy thrills, it also suffers from uneven pacing and occasionally incomprehensible plotting and characterization.” In other words, they spent too much on flash and forgot about content.

#7: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was technical animated masterpiece. The technology used in the film was astounding for the time. It was one of the first to help make characters and scenes look real. However, this technology costly to the studio and earned itself a place on the list of the worst movie ever with an estimated loss of $126 million.^[4]Vice – A Look Back at the Folly of ‘Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within’ It did not help that film critics described the movie as dull and boring in addition. Furthermore, the movie did not follow  the original story line of the games that fans loved. Even with famous actors such as Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, and Ving Rhames doing the voices, the film was doomed from the beginning.

#6: The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)

The Fall of the Roman Empire is an example of a movie that isn’t bad but still ends up failing. In fact, this movie is one of the greatest “sword and sandal” films ever created. It accurately depicts the reasons behind the fall of the Roman Empire. However, this does not always equate to success in the box offices. With inflation in mind, the film puts itself on the list of worst movie ever due to total costs coming in at an estimated $126 million. They wanted a movie that was so accurate, that they forgot they were making a film to try and make money. This movie destroyed Samual Bronston’s career as a movie producer.

#5: The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)

Eddie Murphy was the number one actor in the 80s and 90s. He headlined many successful movies such as Coming to America and Beverly Hills Cop. He was clearly a box office gold mine. However, The Adventures of Pluto Nash marked the end of his money winning ways. The film earned itself on the list of worst movie ever due to loosing an estimated $126 million.^[5]MTV – ERIC’S BAD MOVIES: THE ADVENTURES OF PLUTO NASH (2002) Unfortunately for Eddie Murphy, this film was probably his worst and marked the beginning of the end of his bright career.

#4: Mars Needs Moms (2011)

Disney really failed with Mars Needs Moms. First, it was the most expensive movie, animated or otherwise, ever made. However, the movie had many other problems other then just financial ones. It used motion capture technology. While this may work in movies, it doesn’t translate well to cartoons.^[6]The Hollywood Reporter – Why Disney’s ‘Mars Needs Moms’ Bombed It ends up making the characters look creepy and scary. Not the main goal of a kid friendly movie. Furthermore, by using the word “moms” in the movie title, it automatically most boys from wanting to see the movie. Due to these factors, Mars Needs Moms ended up as one of the worst movie ever with an an estimated financial loss of $137 million.

#3: Cutthroat Island (1995)

Cutthroat Island single handedly killed the pirate theme genre in movie making. It wouldn’t be fixed until Pirates of the Caribbean came around much later. This movie was so bad that most of the actors in the film destroyed their movie making careers due to it. Some movie critics even described the movie as sounding like the the actors were reading off of cards.^[7]Den of Geek – Looking back at Cutthroat Island The movie earned itself a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the biggest movie flop in history losing an estimated $137 million.

#2: 47 Ronin (2013)

The movie 47 Ronin was doomed to fail before it even began. First, while having the same name as the Japanese film it was supposed to be based on, the the American version completely went away from the Japanese source material.

The writers were off to a bad start by disenfranchising the fans of the original movie. Second, the movie used mostly unknown Japanese actors. This made the American audience loose interest in the movie as well. Third, the studio played to heavy of a role in making the movie. They even took back the reins from the director. This caused the movie’s cost to skyrocket right away by attempting to reshoot major parts of the film.^[8]The Wrap – Universal Pulls ’47 Ronin’ From Director as Budget Swells to $225M (Exclusive) Unfortunately, Keanu Reeves was not enough to save this sinking ship of a movie. This movie earned its spot as one of the worst movie ever due to it loosing an estimated $151 dollars.

#1: The 13^th Warrior (1999)

Disney failed again with The 13^th Warrior. This adventure film, starring Antonio Banderas, had all of the the parts  to be a great movie. However, this movie instead ended up as one of the worst performing films of all time. Like most movies on this list, it started with spending too much money. Additionally, the movie was delayed many times. Principal shooting was in 1997, but the movie did not debut in theaters until 1999.^[9]filmsite – Greatest Box-Office Bombs, Disasters and Film Flops: The Most Notable Examples 1999 This was mainly due to bad screening results with test audiences, bad editing, a week plot line, and bad to non existent marketing for the movie. All of these factors helped this film get a place on the list of the worst movie ever with an estimated loss of $98 to $183 million.