Comments on: Ten Memorable Box-Office Bombs

By: scrnwrtr17

scrnwrtr17 — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

For anyone interested, one of the best insider books about the disaster that was 'Heaven's Gate' is former UA exec Steven Bach's excellent "Final Cut". I believe it was first published in 1986, and later reissued in '96 and then '99. It may no longer be in print, but if you can find it, it's well worth a gander.

By: jimmiescoffee

jimmiescoffee — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

defining a flop is an inexact science nowadays considering that 'battleship' has already made back its budget globally.

By: So You Know

So You Know — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

210 + domestic P&A, plus international P&A, plus splitting costs with theaters (studios dont get the net of what they gross)… lots to go… to break even.

By: bob

bob — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

"Pictures at a Revolution" is a great book.

By: cirkusfolk

cirkusfolk — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

One flop that has always boggled my mind is Town and Country. I'm not sure why a dramedy starring Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn and Garry Shandling cost 90 million to begin with (or who was stupid enough to finance it) but apparently it only made back 10 million worldwide. Ouch. Or what about The Adventures of Pluto Nash. Cost 100 mil. and made back a whopping 7 mil worldwide!!!

By: jimmiescoffee

jimmiescoffee — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

yeah, i was serious. very fucking serious. its already made about $50 million over its reported budget and likely will do another $150 ww. believe me, they'll be OOOK. so, how much does a translation cost these days? thanks for the info though.

By: Stevo the Magnificent

Stevo the Magnificent — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

Always had a soft spot for 'The Avengers' (1998), it had a wonderfully surreal, esoteric, and oh-so-very British sensibility to it, but the trouble that ultimately sunk it was; firstly, director Jeremiah Chechik never wanted Uma Thurman but rather Nicole Kidman (she was unavailable due to 'Eyes Wide Shut'), there was a personnel change at Warner Bros and the person who hated the project became head of production, a test screening before a mainly Hispanic audience – who thought it "too British" – led to the film being butchered by the studio from an original 115-minute cut to the eviscerated cut we have today, and then they pushed it back to August to basically let it die a death, and so it did, but it could have been a decent little movie if things had been different…

By: Huffy

Huffy — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

Anyone interested in the history of American film should check out Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate. It's a documentary available on Youtube and it really goes in-depth into the film's production. Fascinating stuff, both on the creative side (Cimino's method was absolutely insane) and the business side. It's also got Willem Dafoe narrating and goddamn does he do a good job.

By: Cde.

Cde. — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

Speed Racer is a great film. I'm always heartened when I hear someone else loved it.

By: OldFart

OldFart — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

I enjoyed the article, but does no one edit these things? The piece is a series of ridiculously long run-on sentences, and there are numerous typos, redundant word choices, and basic grammar mistakes. Sheesh!

By: Jimmy W

Jimmy W — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

Rihanna is going to kick ass and save the World! Need I say more? Hollywood is patronizing its audience and I'm not buying.

By: gwen killerby

gwen killerby — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

I have always liked Cut Throat Island a LOT, idk why it flopped, it's a Female Hero swashbuckler, with very good action scenes, nice story, good balance between overly complicated and boring.

By: tom

tom — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

Having seen John Carter (of mars)a few weeks aog,to a packed house in dublin,i cannot see how it was preceived as a flop..in America the "of Mars" part of the title was omitted..why? plus in was badly marketed..i belive it will do well on DVD..the film itself,well made,good special effects,good character actors essentially playing julius caeser,with a leading man who acted quite well..being familiar with burroughs works,and the john carter of mars books,i was hopeful that this would have been the start of a series…Disney,fire whoever handles Marketing,and replace them with someone who isnt afraid to aim for a demographic who has some intelligence..

By: Mariah

Mariah — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

Interseting article, but I thought the same thing the other poster did. Who edits these articles? I found multiple grammatical errors.

Here are just a few samples:
1) …"while we never too hard for a film to fail…" This makes no sense.
2) "An needlessly expensive comedy." The word "an" only goes before vowels.

By: testington

testington — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

As much as people hate to say it, I do think Taylor Kitsch is a major reason these films didn't make money. Audiences do not like it when the industry tries to declare that people are stars before they've eared it. Anybody with a few big films under their belt could have made these films succeed. It's like a few years ago when Sienna Miller had several starring roles that all flopped in a row, you can't just say somebody is a lead if they haven't proven it. In contrast look at the success of The Hunger Games, which stared Jennifer Lawrence who had already earned her critical cred with Winter's Bone and played a supporting role in a block-buster with X-men: First Class.

By: Brian Hutton

Brian Hutton — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

The truth is this….the studios need to wake up….they have spent the past 40 years or more treating audiences like idiots. And the audience have said we are not morons ..I dont care if its 3D..I dont care how good the CGI is….gives us a plot, an intelligent script and people who can act. There is market for smart indies and smart Blockbusters….look at the Avengers…smart director, smart script, character based story that works along with the CGI action.

By: Zippy

Zippy — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

"…while we never too hard for a film to fail, it's hard not to feel a little gratified when audience reject a film as thoroughly rotten as "Battleship."

Need an editor much? This kind of amateurish writing doesn't even belong in a high school newspaper. Don't you hacks ever proofread a thing you write?

By: Fairlington Blade

Fairlington Blade — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

An interesting list, but I'd add Waterworld to the list. The Kevin Costner vehicle memorably earned the nickname Fishtar. Evidently it made up most of the losses with world wide sales. Still, it's pretty bomb worthy.

By: Michael Passe

Michael Passe — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:00:00 +0000

I wonder how many big-screen TV adaptations were bombs, at least relatively so (Dennis the Menace? Get Smart?). Many of these might have made some bucks on their first weekend and then went away. Re-making old TV like "The Avengers" or "Speed Racer" doesn't really work, despite a few exceptions like "The Adams Family," because they are products of their time. Trying to re-invent them misses the point. How would audiences today be able to grasp the psychedelic, everything-English-is-cool zeitgeist of programs like "The Prisoner," or "The Avengers?" It also smacks of exploitation. Fans old enough to recall the shows may stay away for that reason, while younger viewers attracted by the camp value of laughably-innocent shows like "Leave it to Beaver" know full well the re-make won't have such charm. And to re-make already-dumb shows like "Get Smart" is just pointless. This seems like a losing gambit, but studios still try it. Why, when the results, despite a few successes, are far more hit than miss?