Some were highly anticipated, some looked intriguing on the surface but failed to deliver,
and some struggled to even make the public aware of their existence, but they all have
one thing in common: they tanked badly at the box office.
Solo: A Star Wars Story opened in May to a shrug from audiences, and its underwhelming
box office left it the first film in the Star Wars franchise to be branded a bona fide flop.
The red flags seem obvious in retrospect: from original directors Phil Lord and Chris
Miller departing late in production to incoming director Ron Howard reshooting three-quarters
of the movie, it seemed as if everything that could go wrong did.
While Donald Glover provided a bright spot as a young Lando Calrissian, Solo felt unnecessary.
Star Wars fatigue may also have been a factor in the film's failure, and the decision to
open the film while Avengers: Infinity War was still in theaters may have played a part
as well - somewhat ironically, it wasn't just one thing that sunk Solo.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson starring in your picture is usually a pretty safe indication
of box-office success.
"Daddy's gotta go to work."
Unfortunately, 2018's Skyscraper left audiences supremely uninterested - perhaps due to the
fact that the film leaned a little too heavily into its throwback action movie roots.
Even critics who were entertained found it to be incredibly derivative.
With a $125 million budget and an expensive advertising campaign to match, Skyscraper
would have had to do gangbusters overseas to avoid losing money, and it didn't quite
manage it.
Whether crowds were turned off by the familiar story or experiencing a bit of a Rock fatigue,
Skyscraper turned out to be a whiff for the magnetic star.
The John Travolta biopic Gotti got a lot of press due to its star and subject, infamous
mob boss John Gotti, leading up to its screening at Cannes.
But its reception at the festival was less than rapturous, and upon its June release
in the U.S., few critics even bothered to review it.
Literally every single one that did heavily panned the film.
Every aspect of the film's production was blasted, from its lack of coherent themes
and ham-fisted direction to Travolta's "distractingly terrible" lead performance.
The movie failed to even make back half of its paltry $10 million budget, and those involved
in its production only need to watch the film to see why Gotti flopped so hard.
Alpha tells the story of a prehistoric youth who becomes separated from his hunting group
and partners up with a lone wolf in order to survive.
It's a thrilling, gorgeously-shot adventure, but while the film scored with critics, it
failed to connect with audiences.
With an advertising campaign which seemed to be aimed more squarely at dog lovers than
fans of epic adventure, Alpha simply didn't generate the kind of positive word of mouth
that it needed.
It also had the misfortune of squaring off against Crazy Rich Asians and The Meg, two
surprising hits that cleaned up at the box office.
Alpha failed to make back its budget domestically, but it seems destined for a robust second
life on home video.
After years of development, Brian Henson - the son of legendary Muppets creator Jim Henson
- finally got to bring his passion project, The Happytime Murders, to theaters.
Unfortunately, said passion project was the opposite of everything his father stood for.
The vulgar puppet-based comedy was far too raunchy for fans of Henson's work, and executed
too poorly to engage audiences who showed up expecting all the raunch.
The film constituted a gigantic whiff for talented star Melissa McCarthy and an inauspicious
non-Muppet feature debut for Henson.
The film barely made back half its budget domestically in the wake of withering critiques
and toxic word of mouth.
It's biggest crime, though?
"It's not funny!
It's not funny."
All year long, fans were pumped beyond belief for The Predator, a fresh new entry in the
series originated by the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger classic Predator.
It had a unique spin on the story template, a great cast including Keegan-Michael Key,
Thomas Jane and Olivia Munn, and the sure directorial hand of Shane Black - who, as
an actor, appeared in the original film.
All the pieces were in place, but a funny thing happened on the way to the multiplex:
they forgot to assemble those pieces into a watchable movie.
Black and company seem to have overestimated the public appetite for the sequel beyond
the original's fanbase, and the film itself simply failed to deliver for those that did
see it.
Aside from being an adaptation of a beloved novel, A Wrinkle in Time encouraged high expectations
with a stellar cast and obvious commitment to diversity.
It was the first big-budget tentpole film to be directed by a black woman, Ava DuVernay
, and the cast included Mindy Kaling, Reese Witherspoon, and Oprah Winfrey.
Unfortunately, audiences simply failed to materialize, and, perhaps due to lukewarm
critical response, the usual Young Adult crowd declined to turn out as well.
The film's convoluted marketing certainly didn't help matters, confusing audiences unfamiliar
with the source material's complicated plot.
Overall, A Wrinkle In Time took in just over $100 million domestically, and it didn't fare
much better overseas.
Action Point had an absolutely golden premise.
Based on a notoriously dangerous real-life New Jersey theme park, the film starred Johnny
Knoxville of Jackass fame as the irresponsible owner of Action Point.
Featuring plenty of actual stunts from its seasoned performers, the film promised lowbrow
belly laughs along the lines of the Jackass film series.
However, fans found the theme park narrative to be awkwardly grafted onto what seemed like
another Jackass movie.
Worse, even though Knoxville practically killed himself making the movie, the stunts were
seen as uninspired and the laughs were few and far between.
Action Point's poor execution was its doom.
Action Point struggled to make back even a quarter of its budget, leading to the very
real possibility that we've seen Johnny Knoxville grievously injure himself for our amusement
for the last time.
Despite not being a sequel, reboot or adaptation, The Hurricane Heist looked like guaranteed
dollar signs due to its high concept and directorial pedigree.
Director Rob Cohen gave us the original Fast and the Furious and Triple X, both high-octane,
stunt-heavy films which bloomed into surprisingly profitable franchises.
The plot follows a band of thieves who try to rob the U.S. Mint during a Category 5 storm,
and the film appeared to be a welcome throwback to the intense, Die Hard-esque thrillers of
yesteryear.
Unfortunately, The Hurricane Heist threw back just a bit too hard.
“Well, this hurricane can change people from alive to dead.
Se we gotta go.”
“Yeah, I've seen them before, brother."
Reviews skewered the movie for being ridiculously derivative, full of plot-holes, and poorly
shot.
Audiences stayed away in droves; the movie failed to break $1 million on its opening
day, and finished its theatrical run with a return of barely $6 million on a budget
six times that.
Winchester appeared to have both the premise and the pedigree to be a potential horror
classic.
Dame Helen Mirren starred as Sarah Winchester, a woman who spent decades building addition
after addition onto her famous mansion.
The real Sarah Winchester may have been plagued by poor mental health and too much time and
money, but Winchester posited that she was driven by something more supernatural.
Writer/directors the Spierig Brothers delivered a nifty sci-fi thriller in 2014's Predestination,
but their previous gig had been as guns for hire on Jigsaw, which was less well-received.
With Winchester they displayed a distinct lack of interest in elevating the material,
instead relying on cheap jump scares and questionable plotting.
Many critics wondered how they were able to coax the great Mirren into appearing in the
film.
Hotel Artemis is a futuristic sci-fi thriller boasting a cast that any first-time feature
director would trade a pinky for: Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown, Charlie Day, Dave Bautista
and Jeff Goldblum, to name a few.
The story revolved around a secret hospital for criminals in a dystopian future, but director
Drew Pierce's preference for style over substance resulted in what could have been a mind-blowing
premise falling curiously flat.
Worse, the film's marketing did nothing to pull audiences in.
Despite working from his own screenplay, Pearce managed to deliver a picture that felt half-baked
and aimless.
Even its kindest critics viewed it as little more than "pretty cool to look at," which
was nowhere near enough to engage audiences.
Despite its modest $15 million budget, Hotel Artemis didn't even crack half that at the
domestic box office - as any good hotel owner will tell you, you just can't turn a profit
with that kind of vacancy rate.
Annihilation, based on the acclaimed novel of the same name, is by most accounts a very
good film.
Natalie Portman heads up an amazing cast alongside Oscar Isaac and Tessa Thompson.
The film's heady premise and assured direction by director Alex Garland won over critics
- but audiences responded with surprising indifference.
"I don't know where it was or what it was."
“How is that possible?”
Movies aimed at adults have struggled in recent years, and Paramount may have exacerbated
this problem by striking a deal for Annihilation's international rights with Netflix before release.
The film dropped on Netflix around the time of its theatrical release in virtually every
market except North America and China, severely cutting into its overseas profitability.
The film failed to make back its $40 million budget, but considering all the rave reviews,
everyone who took a pass at the theater will almost certainly catch it eventually - on
Netflix.
NBC's This Is Us has become one of network television's breakout hits of the last few
years, so it stood to reason that the melodramatic, family-oriented formula could translate to
success on the big screen as well.
At least, that was Amazon Studios' thinking; they recruited series creator Dan Fogelman
to write and direct Life Itself, a similarly-themed feature with an all-star cast including Olivia
Wilde, Oscar Isaac, and Antonio Banderas.
However, Life Itself struggled to a $4.1 million dollar domestic gross, which can only partially
be chalked up to absolutely brutal reviews.
Critics who caught its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival ripped it to bits,
and audiences completely ignored the film.
For his part, Fogelman blamed its failure on critics who didn't understand the film
rather than take responsibility for his almost comically tragic, over-the-top misfire.
Medieval epics are notoriously hit and miss, and the latest big-screen iteration of Robin
Hood was far more miss than hit.
Critics savaged the film for its forced edginess, winking anachronisms and emphasis on spectacle,
none of which would have mattered if the film had hooked audiences.
But they were a little busy the weekend of its release - flocking to see Ralph Breaks
the Internet and Creed II, two eagerly anticipated sequels.
When the dust cleared, Robin Hood failed to scrape together even half of its budget domestically.
The film's aggressive marketing campaign probably didn't help matters, as it seems audiences
simply found no purpose in an overly edgy take on a tale that Hollywood has been telling
for over a century.
The $100 million film is one of the biggest money losers of the last couple years.
Ironically, it seems like Robin Hood missed the mark.