Just because a movie bombs at the box office doesn't mean it's not fun to
watch. Great films can be overlooked or misunderstood. Whatever the case,
these action films were box office flops but are definitely worth watching today.
Producer-director Robert Rodriguez isn't in the habit of making spectacular flops.
But Planet Terror stands out as a failure, at least at the box office.
The action focuses on Cherry Darling, a go-go dancer played by Rose McGowan,
as victims of a biochemical attack suddenly start behaving like zombies.
The movie was released as a double feature with Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof,
under the collective name Grindhouse. The unusual release may well have contributed to Grindhouse
not finding its audience in theaters, as there was nothing wrong with the quality of either film.
"So what are you doing now?"
"I'm gonna be a stand-up comedian."
"You're not funny."
Complete with outlandish trailers for fictitious films — four of which have since been made into
features themselves — Grindhouse was a critical success and, in subsequent standalone releases,
Planet Terror got good reviews. There's little doubt of the movie's legacy and impact, and it's
a good example of a well-done exploitation film with the right amount of comedy, gore, and action.
Ridley Scott is the director behind hit films like "Gladiator, The Martian, and Alien. So it might
come as a surprise that his 2021 historical epic The Last Duel was anything but a hit. What makes
it all the more surprising is that the movie has a stellar cast headed up by Matt Damon,
Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, and Ben Affleck. Set in medieval France, The Last Duel is told in three
separate chapters that tell the same story from the perspective of three different characters.
Against a budget of more than $100 million, Scott's film managed to claw back just over
$30 million, a huge disappointment for everyone involved. Why it bombed so hard is a mystery,
although the unconventional narrative structure and controversial story — which focuses on the
vicious sexual assault of a noblewoman — might have put some people off. None of that should be
an excuse for missing out on a fantastic film, though, and The Last Duel is worth
watching simply for its takedown of the notion of chivalry as well as the bloody climactic fight.
Based on the real-life Deepwater Horizon explosion, which saw the
deaths of several workers and released over 100 million gallons of oil into the ocean,
this 2016 film from Peter Berg tells the story of those trapped on the drilling rig
when disaster strikes. Mark Wahlberg plays chief electronics technician Mike Williams,
who works with the surviving crew as they attempt to escape the burning rig.
Deepwater Horizon made over $120 million at the box office, but that wasn't enough to earn back
the massive $100 million budget. Some experts noted that the movie flopped largely because
it was so expensive to make, with analyst Jeff Bock telling The Hollywood Reporter,
"This should have been a $60 million film. The budget was out of control."
"You sent the testing team home before they could do their job,
maybe give you all some news y'all didn't wanna hear."
With solid reviews and a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 82%, almost everyone who's seen
Deepwater Horizon has something good to say about it. If you like disaster films and want
a non-stop action movie that's less than two hours long, you could do a lot worse.
If you just want some over-the-top action without having to think too much,
then a Michael Bay release is always a good choice. When you look at box office receipts,
Bay, known for high-octane films ranging from The Rock to the Transformers series,
is among the most successful directors in history. That doesn't mean every one of his
projects is a commercial hit, though, and Ambulance most definitely wasn't.
"Look, have I ever gotten you in anything that I couldn't get you out of?"
The 2022 action thriller stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as a man so desperate to pay his wife's medical
bills that he agrees to help his adopted brother, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, rob
a bank. As they make their getaway, the brothers hijack an ambulance containing an injured police
officer and an EMT, embarking on a high-speed chase through the streets of Los Angeles.
An unmitigated disaster in terms of its commercial performance, Ambulance may have suffered because
of competition from other movies released around the same time, including Sonic the
Hedgehog 2 and Everything Everywhere All at Once." But if you're a fan of car chases and
want Michael Bay at his no-holds-barred best, then Ambulance is certainly worth checking out.
The popular 2000 AD magazine character Judge Dredd has been adapted for the screen
twice. Fans first got to see Mega-City One's famous law enforcement officer
in a 1995 big screen adventure with Sylvester Stallone in the title role.
"You could never control yourself. What makes you think you could control these things?"
Unfortunately, this adaptation ignored huge swaths of the source
material and left a bitter taste in the mouths of long-time fans.
That's where 2012's Dredd comes in. A far more faithful imagining of the Judge Dredd character,
the movie thrusts Karl Urban into the action as the comic book hero as he teams up with Olivia
Thirlby's psychic sidekick character, Cassandra, in a head-on collision with crime lord Ma-Ma,
played by Lena Headey. For fans of the source material, Dredd feels like much more of a
love letter to the series — Urban even keeps his helmet on throughout, like his comic counterpart.
Despite being relatively inexpensive to make, at least by superhero movie standards,
Dredd still couldn't break even, earning just over $40 million. That's in spite
of the warm reception it received from critics and audience members,
who were impressed by the stylish special effects and intense action scenes. The R rating likely
contributed to Dredd's commercial failure by severely limiting its potential audience,
but that hasn't stopped the film's quality from shining and firmly cementing it as a cult classic.
It might seem unkind to call Free Fire a box office bomb considering it had a budget of
just $7 million. Yet Ben Wheatley's 2016 comedy action film still couldn't break even. There
are some mitigating circumstances, though. Free Fire was distributed by StudioCanal and
financed by the British Film Institute and Film4 Productions. That meant there was little to no
marketing outside of a collection of quirky posters put out before the film's release.
Centering on an illegal arms sale that goes terribly wrong,
Free Fire features the talents of everyone from Brie Larson and Cillian Murphy to Sharlto
Copley and Armie Hammer. A throwback to the golden age of action films with 90-minute
runtimes and a lighting-fast pace, Free Fire drew praise from critics for the
way it managed to keep things tense while providing plenty of laughs along the way.
Considering the huge success of the Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series,
it would seem almost impossible that a film based on the books could fail at the box office. What
made the whole thing even more remarkable was the sheer talent of the people involved in the movie,
including director Edgar Wright and the likes of Michael Cera,
Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Brie Larson, and Chris Evans in leading roles.
The film, which follows the titular character as he fights the seven evil exes of his new
girlfriend Ramona Flowers, hit cinemas in 2010 and promptly flopped. It grossed just under
$50 million and failed to even make back its budget. Yet the film found plenty of fans among
critics and gradually established itself as a cult classic through home video and on-demand releases.
"I sort of feel like I'm on drugs when I'm with you. Not that I do drugs. Unless you do drugs,
in which case I do drugs all the time."
The original theatrical run of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World also
received dozens of award nominations, a testament to its quality. The success
of the franchise continued recently with the animated spin-off Scott Pilgrim Takes Off on
Netflix, in which the original cast returned to voice their characters.
In The Northman, Alexander Skarsgård led a cast that included Nicole Kidman, Willem Dafoe,
and Anya Taylor-Joy in this historical action film that first hit theater screens in 2022.
Directed by Robert Eggers of The Witch fame, The Northman is the story of a young Viking
prince whose life is turned upside down on the eve of his transition into adulthood.
"Your fate is sealed and you cannot escape it."
His uncle kills his father and kidnaps his mother,
sending Skarsgård's Amleth into exile until he returns to exact his revenge years later.
The $69 million that The Northman took in at the box office wasn't enough to break even,
but a disappointing commercial performance shouldn't take away from what was a critical
success. Viewers have been fairly kind, while our own review of The Northman noted the spectacular
action sequences and impressive cinematic style — even if the film lacked some substance.
Last Action Hero is a satirical action film that follows young fan Danny Madigan
as he's magically transported into the fictional world of his hero Jack Slater,
played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The pair quickly bond and must travel back to the
real world together to stop the evil Benedict from causing havoc.
Since its release, the film has found a sizable audience on streaming services,
with some suggesting that its release opposite Jurassic Park played a part in the movie bombing.
There's no denying that the 1993 movie failed to make much of an impact when it was released.
But while it didn't find an audience during its theatrical run, reappraisals of the movie have
been far more positive in recent years. It's now widely considered to be among Schwarzenegger's
best films, skillfully combining action with comedy a la Kindergarten Cop and Twins.
Schwarzenegger took the poor performance of Last
Action Hero to heart, suggesting he had high hopes for the film.
"It hurts you. It hurts your feelings.
It's embarrassing. You get embarrassed when you watch the box office."
It's no secret that the now defunct DC Extended Universe struggled to establish itself in the
same way as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Many DCEU releases performed poorly at the box office
and faced criticism from fans and reviewers alike. That doesn't mean there weren't a few
exceptions to this rule, such as the 2016 film Suicide Squad, which managed to bring in around
$750 million. The success of this film — even though critics and viewers blasted it — all
but guaranteed a sequel, although fans might not have expected what they eventually got.
James Gunn's The Suicide Squad is essentially a standalone sequel that has almost no
connection to the first film outside of the fact that it shares a few characters,
such as Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn. The basic premise is the same as well,
with the U.S. government recruiting a group of supervillains to carry out a dangerous mission.
"Hand."
"Yes, that is your hand, Nanaue. Very good."
"We're all gonna die."
But in an almost complete reversal of the first film, The Suicide Squad was a box office failure
as well as being an undeniable critical hit. New members of the cast like David Dastmalchian,
John Cena, and Idris Elba were far more compelling in this adaptation alongside veterans Robbie and
Joel Kinnaman, while the overall narrative was more focused. However, the confusion over
exactly what The Suicide Squad was, combined with the fact that it came out during the
COVID-19 pandemic and was also available on HBO Max, all likely dented its commercial appeal.
Few franchises have had as convoluted a history as Highlander. The series began
back in 1986 and eventually spawned numerous television series and movies,
with many of them directly contradicting each other or ignoring plot points from
prior releases. That can make approaching the fictional universe for the first time daunting
and may give the impression that this is a franchise you should avoid — especially given
how badly the original flopped, grossing just over half its $19 million budget.
While you may be able to skip the subsequent entries in the wider Highlander series,
the first film deserves to be watched at least once. Set at multiple times throughout history,
the story follows the immortal Connor MacLeod and his mentor Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez
as they battle The Kurgan in an eternal battle that has lasted through the ages.
During the late 1980s, the movie started to make an impression in home media sales and
slowly garnered cult status in the following years. This was due to the dramatic soundtrack
provided by British rock band Queen, the performance of Christopher Lambert as MacLeod,
and a visual style that remains unmatched by similar action-adventure releases.