The Biggest Box Office Bombs Of All Time

Summary

• Wonder Woman 1984 was a flop with a loss of $118-161 million due to poor reviews and COVID.
• Tomorrowland lost $120-$150 million despite an impressive cast and global gross of $209 million.
• Joker: Folie à Deux suffered a $150-200 million loss due to audience disapproval of its musical genre.

Avatar, Avengers: Endgame, Titanic, and Top Gun Maverick are just four of the highest-grossing movies ever made. While the critical reception of “box office smashes” may vary, if a movie makes $800 million, $900 million, or even a billion dollars, that’s nothing short of a tremendous accomplishment.

Regrettably, not all movies are so fortuitous. In fact, there is a torrent of films with substantial marketing and production budgets that flopped hard. Even good movies can sometimes miss the mark regarding box office numbers. Whether it be from abysmal reviews or a general lack of enthusiasm, these movies are evoked in infamy as box office duds.

Updated on March 29, 2025, by Mackenzee Hardyk: It’s always interesting to see what movies perform well in the box office and what doesn’t. For example, Joker: Folie à Deux, which has underperformed enough to be one of the biggest box office flops in 2024. So, we’ve decided to update this list and add a few more entries of some of the biggest box office flops of all time.

17

Wonder Woman 1984

Estimated $118-161 Million Loss

Initially, there was excitement around Wonder Woman 1984, as the first movie was considered a success and performed amazingly well at the box office. That excitement quickly died down upon the release of Wonder Woman 1984.

Wonder Woman 1984 did not have a traditional theatrical run due to COVID and many theatres being shut down. It grossed only $16 million through ticket sales, but, a lot of people consider the movie to be a flop in general, as it was not well received at all.

16

Tomorrowland

Estimated $120 – $150 Million Loss

While Disney is best known for its animated projects, the company has also made some successful live-action movies. Tomorrowland can’t be considered one of the successful ones. It’s a sci-fi movie with a very impressive cast that includes George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Kathryn Hahn, and more. That cast was also likely a bit of an expensive one, and it likely contributed to the movie’s high cost.

Yet, those expenses wouldn’t have been too bad if the movie made a lot of money. It grossed $209 million worldwide, but more was needed to offset the large production and marketing costs. Therefore, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie ended up losing an estimated $120 to $150 million. That isn’t accounting for inflation, either.

15

Joker: Folie à Deux

Estimated $150-200 Million Loss

Another sequel that has majorly flopped is Joker: Folie à Deux, which is also unfortunate. Joker, the first movie, set records in the box office, while the sequel has become one of the biggest box office flops in 2024.

The movie’s flop is likely attributed to the fact that it was not well received or appreciated by audiences. People were expecting the same grittiness and intensity the first movie had, while Joker: Folie à Deux strayed from the plot and is a musical, which is a genre shift not many people were expecting nor was it wanted.

14

Jungle Cruise

Estimated $169 Million Loss

Jungle Cruise is another Disney movie that had the unfortunate fate of flopping. The movie itself is based off of the Jungle Cruise ride in Disneyland and is exactly what it sounds like, a boat ride in the jungle. It also features a few big actors such as Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt.

The movie was released in 2021 and did not perform well in the box office. Whether it was because of the mixed reviews it received or that it was released on Disney+ while simultaneously being shown in theatres, this has not stopped a second movie from being developed.

13

Turning Red

Estimated $174 Million Loss

Turning Red, like a lot of the other animated films on this list, cost a pretty hefty amount to produce, but unlike the other animated films, it never had a traditional theatre run upon its release.

Turning Red went immediately to streaming services upon its release in 2022 and only showed in a few countries. Because of this, it lost a lot of revenue it could have made if it had a full theatrical run. It did have a brief rerelease into theatres during February of 2024 but did not gross enough to make up for the initial loss.

12

Pan

Estimated $170 – $180 Million Loss

Everyone knows the tale of Peter Pan. The fable of the titular flying boy’s adventures in Neverland has seen sundry different film adaptations. 2015’s Pan tried taking the legend of Peter Pan and giving it a blockbuster makeover.

Despite big-named star power and excessive budget, Pan earned poor reviews and grossed $128.4 million worldwide. While that’s not chump change, when measured to its estimated $300 million costs, suffice to say, Pan didn’t breathe new life into the Peter Pan character.

11

Mars Needs Moms

Estimated $180 – $190 Million Loss

When 2004’s The Polar Express came out, many people saw its computer animated style as cutting edge. With its success came other movies trying to utilize the visual technique. Mars Needs Moms is just one of those films, but is also the biggest fiasco of them all.

Much like The Polar Express, Mars Needs Mom’s animation was expensive, so it was even more paramount for the movie to find great monetary prosperity. Alas, the film lost an estimated $180 – $190 million, more than enough to see this animation aesthetic fade away.

10

King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword

Estimated $183 Million Loss

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is about, of course the adventures of King Arthur finding Excalibur and what follows. While the movie grossed $148 million in the box office, which is better than some of the other movies on this list, it still lost a lot of money.

Due to a lack of interest, mixed reviews, as well as the movie not following the story of King Arthur correctly, it was not well received. This film was supposed to become a series, though it was put to rest after the first movie did not perform as expected.

9

Battleship

Estimated $191 Million Loss

During the late 2000s and early 2010s, The Transformers movies were Hollywood’s premiere blockbuster franchise. It didn’t matter that the films were mostly terrible; each entry was a dependable box-office smash. So Hasbro sought to turn another of its toys into a great action feature film.

Battleship might’ve had the look of a sci-fi action summer flick, but looks are all it had. Between its dreadful writing, poor direction, and nonsensical plot, Battleship was both a massive critical and commercial failure, losing nearly $200 million for Hasbro and Universal Pictures.

8

Strange World

Estimated $197 Million Loss

It’s fair to say that Disney’s animated productions aren’t what they once were. Even if you ignore the soulless live-action remakes of its beloved classics, many of its original animated films just don’t hold a candle to its best pictures from prior decades.

2022’s Stange World seemed like a harken back to Disney’s glory days, but it was just another piece of Walt Disney Animation’s downward spiral. Despite positive reviews, the film grossed a meager $73.6 million worldwide, not even in the ballpark of its estimated cost.

7

Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas

Estimated $199 Million Loss

Turns out it’s not just Disney that’s prone to releasing animated films that fail to turn a profit. DreamWorks Animation not only put out a commercial defeat, but one that nearly bankrupted its entire studio. Step right up Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.

Even though Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas is far from being an awful movie, its poor box office numbers proved highly damaging to DreamWorks. Not only that, but the film was DreamWorks’ last feature to use hand-drawn and traditional animation.

6

Cutthroat Island

Estimated $202 Million Loss

Before the Pirates of the Caribbean films exploded onto the scene, the world of pirate movies was full of peaks and valleys, some good and some bad. Yet there was no swashbuckler adventure more infamously unpalatable as 1995’s Cutthroat Island.

Directed by Renny Harlin, Cutthroat Island utterly soured Hollywood’s opinion on pirate films for years and it’s clear to see why. Not only did Cutthroat Island lose over $200 million, but was panned the world over by everyone who saw it.

5

Mortal Engines

Estimated $204 Million Loss

The number of young adult novels turned into feature films during the 2000s is staggering. Most of these adaptations might not have been the cream of the corp, but could typically at least get a wealth of moviegoers into theaters. Mortal Engines is unquestionably the anomaly.

Despite extraordinary visuals, the 2018 adaptation of Phillip Reeve’s sci-fi novel was criticized for its writing, storytelling, and performances. At just $84 million, Mortal Engines didn’t even come close to matching its enormous production budget.

4

The 13th Warrior

Estimated $220 – $227 Million Loss

The Disney of the ’80s and ’90s mostly stuck to what it was known for: animated and adventure movies geared towards a young audience. When it wanted to do something more ‘mature’, it did so under the Touchstone Pictures name.

The 13th Warrior was an ambitious historical action flick that’s mostly remembered nowadays for its status as an astronomical box office disappointment. Despite being directed by action movie legend John McTiernan, The 13th Warrior limped out of theaters after surrendering over $200 million worldwide.

3

The Marvels

Estimated $237 Million Loss

At one time, simply being an MCU movie guaranteed box office success. That isn’t so much the case anymore, as proven by The Marvels’ poor performance. It did gross $206 million worldwide, which is more than the typical box office flop.

However, according to Deadline, the cost of making and marketing the movie was so high that the film ended up losing $237 million. This is despite the film actually being entertaining. It’s certainly not a bad movie. However, the fact that it was a sequel to Ms. Marvel, a Disney Plus series, perhaps hurt its overall appeal. Also, the MCU is not as interesting anymore, and Captain Marvel is not the most beloved Marvel hero. Those things likely didn’t help the film.

2

The Lone Ranger

Estimated $230 – $240 Million Loss

The success of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies quickly spurred an onslaught of films based on properties looking to start their own billion-dollar franchise. Without question, the golden goose of these misguided productions is The Lone Ranger.

Even with reuniting director Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp from the Pirates of the Caribbean series, this 2013 Western action origin story of the exemplary gunslinger failed to make a mark. In the end, Walt Disney Pictures lost nearly $240 million for their troubles.

1

John Carter

Estimated $250 – $255 Million Loss

Even for all its box office success, the Disney moniker is just as prominent on the list of box office bombs. Top among Disney’s mountain of economic feature missteps is the big screen version of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars, John Carter.

While John Carter is far from a poorly made movie and, in fact, does quite a few things well, it will forever remain one of the biggest box office bombs in history. At over $250 million in loss of revenue, John Carter rules both the red planet and the leaderboard of feature picture commercial catastrophes.