Nobody likes a bad movie, but nobody hates a flop any more than the stars themselves. Whip out
some rotten tomatoes, because these major movie stars got defensive over their box office bombs.
It's no surprise that Hollywood's always been enamored with the tale of Robin Hood.
A do-gooder who battles a tyrannical villain to help the less fortunate, Robin Hood is a medieval
superhero — but reimagining folk tales as gritty action movies seems like a bit of a tired idea.
"Really inspiring. Thanks."
So in 2018, when Robin Hood hit theaters starring Taron Egerton as the bow-wielding
rogue, it bombed at the box office. But in the aftermath of the movie's failure,
Egerton was quick to throw blame and defend his part in the film.
In an interview with Variety, Egerton claimed,
"It was absolutely not the movie that I signed up to make. It was pitched to me in a different way."
What that way could have been we're not sure, but perhaps they left the dark,
gritty reboot part out when selling him on the film. Whatever the case may be,
the star believed the film's problems boiled down to excessive studio meddling.
"What are you doing?" "My duty, Loxley.
We have new orders from above. Like it or not, soldier, we're all powerless here."
Egerton explained what he thought happened, saying,
"I think it was made by committee and I think it lost its vision. I
wasn't very happy on set. I didn't have a very happy time making it."
Arguably one of the most infamous comic book flops, 2004's Catwoman started out in the 1990s
as a spin-off featuring Michelle Pfeiffer's character from Batman Returns. But after years
in development hell, actress Halle Berry took over the role. A critical and box office bomb,
the film took home a number of "worst" awards at the Razzies the following year.
"White Russian. No ice. Hold the vodka, hold the Kahlua."
Regardless, star Halle Berry has never been ashamed of this one, even showing up in person
to collect her "Worst Actress" Razzie. In fact, she's always defended the film,
and had plenty to say about it in response to its harshest critics, telling the Daily Mail,
"It was definitely different from any other [movie] I had seen. I thought that
we needed a better villain, but I was outnumbered in that area."
Like Egerton on Robin Hood, Berry also talked about the
struggles of assessing a project even after it's produced, saying,
"You just never know how people are going to respond. [For example] I thought that
Monster's Ball was going to end my career. And look what happened. You just never know."
You never know is right: Berry took home an Academy Award for her work in Monster's Ball.
If Catwoman was the biggest comic book movie bust of the 2000s, Morbius is its 2020s successor.
Centered on the titular vampire anti-hero played by Jared Leto, Morbius was savaged by critics,
becoming the butt of jokes that helped fuel long-running Internet memes.
But despite the negative reaction and lack of box office bucks,
Matt Smith, who played the movie's villain, didn't let it get him down.
"I will not go back. You cannot make me go back. I won't let you make me go back."
The former Doctor Who star told Rolling Stone,
"It was thrown under the bus. But you just have to roll with it. What else are you gonna do?"
Unwilling to be dragged down by the film's failure,
Smith insisted that everything be put in the proper perspective. He elaborated,
"It's a film, at the end of the day, we're not saving lives. For whatever reason,
it didn't quite work out and – It is what it is."
Can we really call Black Adam a bomb? It certainly wasn't the hit studio execs were expecting,
not even pulling in $400 million on a reported $200 million dollar budget. Black Panther:
Wakanda Forever amassed more domestically in just three days than Black Adam did in
its entire run — and the DC film fell to fourth place in less than 30 days.
But Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson got defensive at the mere suggestion that his movie
compared unfavorably to Wakanda Forever, its major rival at the box office. He tweeted —
"There's no competition with the established global brand of Black Panther compared to Black
Adam & JSA who a year ago no one even heard of. [...] We're new babies and have to grow."
"There is no 'we' here. There are only heroes, and there are villains."
Meanwhile, when Variety outright called the film a bust, Johnson pushed back on Twitter, saying,
"Our film will PROFIT [...] we are building our new franchise step by step."
Not long after, Johnson reportedly leaked a misleading financial statement to refute
claims of the film losing money — an unusual tactic for a major star to say the least.
Cats was a celebrated Tony Award-winning Broadway musical. That it wasn't adapted to film until 2019
is actually somewhat surprising. It would have made a delightful Disney animated movie. Instead,
audiences got a live-action retelling starring the likes of Judi Dench, Ian McKellan, Taylor Swift,
and Idris Elba, all digitally dolled-up as bizarre anthropomorphic human-cat hybrids.
Critics and audiences were baffled and horrified in equal measure, and the film
was a major disaster all the way around. But the cast never wavered — Jennifer Hudson,
who played Grizabella in the film, was particularly defensive in the
face of harsh critical response. In a 2021 interview with Total Film, Hudson said,
"You know what? I think it was a bit overwhelming. It's unfortunate that
it was misunderstood. I think later down the line, people will see it differently."
But whether the film improves with age or remains a misfire, Hudson has no regrets, claiming,
"It is something I am still very proud of and grateful to have been
a part of. Yeah, I got to be Grizabella the Glamour Cat!"
In the late 2000s, sci-fi and fantasy franchises were delivering blockbuster box office returns,
and Disney wanted to kickstart one of their own.
"Carter. John Carter."
In 2012, the studio released the ill-fated flop John Carter. It was slammed by critics
for its confusing story, incoherent plot, and nonsensical characters,
becoming one of the biggest box office disasters of the 2000s.
If anyone had reason to be angry, it would be Taylor Kitsch, who played the titular Carter.
But despite all the derision the movie received and the money the film lost,
Kitsch maintained that it wasn't a flop at all, saying,
"I don't see it as a failure,
that's the thing. I'm incredibly proud of it and I would do it all over again."
Pointing out that the film still sold plenty of tickets, Kitsch added,
"If someone told me that my first lead film
will make well over 300 million dollars, that's a good thing."
But the actor was most defensive about his own role in the film,
insisting any shortcomings had nothing to do with him. He alleged,
"I know personally I literally did everything possible I could have in John
Carter. [...] That's why I prep so hard, and why I push myself so hard, so I can have no regrets."
Another notorious money pit, Gigli, was a romantic crime thriller from 2003 starring Ben Affleck
and Jennifer Lopez, about a pair of crooks who screw up a kidnapping plot. Affleck and Lopez
began dating during production, which prompted the studio to rewrite the script. The movie ended up
being a total disaster, earning back a fraction of its budget and getting roasted by critics.
"In every relationship, there's
a bull and a cow. I'm the bull. You're the cow. You got that?"
Affleck blamed the studio for playing up the publicity around their real-life romance,
telling Entertainment Weekly,
"Because I had begun having this relationship with Jennifer Lopez, which was selling a lot
of magazines and appeared to generate a lot of enthusiasm, they just predictably latched onto,
'They want a romantic comedy. They want the two of them together. More of that!'"
But Lopez went further, openly admitting that the film sucked. In an appearance on
Late Night with Seth Meyers, Lopez got a bit defensive when pressed.
"There's worse movies than 'Gigli' out there, OK?"
But Lopez, like Affleck, admitted that their relationship, which was getting
all the attention during filming, was at least part of the film's problem.
"I know! I know! We got a lot of crap at that time. It was because
we were together. It was a whole other thing going on as well."
Adapted from the iconic TV series, The Lone Ranger was thought to be the next
big franchise for Disney and Johnny Depp, who'd had blockbuster success with Pirates
of the Caribbean. Lone Ranger was anything but a blockbuster, however, losing an estimated $200
million. But that didn't seem to bother the film's stars, Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer, who brushed
off any suggestion that the movie had failed. In an interview with Yahoo! Movies, Depp said,
"I think the reviews were written seven-to-eight months before we
released the film. I think the reviews were written when they heard Gore [Verbinski] and
Jerry [Bruckheimer] and me were going to do The Lone Ranger. They had expectations that
it must be a blockbuster. I didn't have any expectations of that. I never do."
"I'm a spirit warrior. I can't miss."
Hammer, meanwhile, was more feisty in his defense of the film, asserting that,
"If you go back and read the negative reviews, most of them aren't about the content of the
movie, but more what's behind it. It's got to the point with American critics where if
you're not as smart as Plato, you're stupid. That seems like a sad way to live your life."
Hammer believes the press piled on in a critical feeding frenzy, adding,
"I think it was the popular thing when the movie hit rocky terrain
they jumped on the bandwagon to try and bash it."
Although the thriller Serenity boasted a stellar cast, it launched in 2019 to
little fanfare. In addition to stars Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway,
it also featured Diane Lane, Jason Clarke, Djimon Hounsou,
and Jeremy Strong. The film tells the story of a divorced boat captain who reluctantly comes to
the aid of his ex-wife when she wants to have her abusive husband taken out of the picture.
"I want you to take him out on your boat and drop him in the ocean for the sharks."
Unfortunately, the movie failed to connect with
critics or audiences and didn't even make back its modest budget.
But Hathaway wasn't deterred by the film's poor critical or commercial
reception and took to social media to defend her work. She posted:
"We keep it real around here. Some critics get Serenity and, like me, find it interesting,
moving, ambitious and different, and for some it just doesn't work. That's cool."
"Sometimes we do bad things for good reasons."
Hathaway appeared to accept that not everyone has to like a project,
but her defense was more than just a fair-minded retort. In fact,
the actress seemed to take personal offense to the bad reviews, writing,
"There is no failure, only learned events, not everyone has to like everything, and the critical
response doesn't change my feelings about the movie. However, other people's time and money are
not to be taken for granted, so I just want to be clear: I endorse the movie, many critics don’t."
Produced by Judd Apatow, Bros is a romantic comedy written by and starring comedian Billy
Eichner. It focuses on two men who are decidedly not looking for commitment, but nevertheless
fall in love. Despite praise for its LGBTQ cast including Luke Macfarlane, Ts Madison,
and Eichner himself, the film bombed at the box office. But unlike most flops on this list,
Bros received critical acclaim for its clever comedy, earnest story, and heart. As a result,
Eichner was more than just disappointed by the film's take at the ticket counter,
as he lashed out at both critics and at audiences while defending its failure.
In some since-deleted Twitter comments, Eichner put the blame on
homophobic audiences who refused to show up for the well-reviewed film, tweeting:
"Straight people, especially in certain parts of the country,
just didn't show up for Bros. Everyone who ISN'T a homophobic weirdo should go see Bros tonight."
"Lesbian history month was in March. Nobody said a goddamn thing."
But despite his emotional outburst, Eichner did make a few valid points, writing,
"Rolling Stone already has BROS on the list of the best comedies
of the 21st century. What's also true is that at one point a theater chain called
Universal said they were pulling the trailer because of the gay content."
Although the studio convinced the theater to continue running the trailer,
evidence suggests that we still have a long way to go before LGBTQ
content is completely accepted and celebrated by the American moviegoer.