In Hollywood, a movie needs to make more money than it cost to be considered a success. 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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
The 13th Warrior (1999)
Disney failed again with The 13th 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. 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.
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. 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.
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. Unfortunately for Eddie Murphy, this film was probably his worst and marked the beginning of the end of his bright career.
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. 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.
