Top 10+ of the biggest box office flops of all time

Not every new movie release can recreate the runaway PR train that 'Barbenheimer' sparked in 2023. The most unlikely rivalry between a plastic doll and the father of the atomic bomb broke numerous box office records, and while other filmmakers can only dream of hitting those heights, they may be more likely they could fall into the ranks of notorious box office bombs. So, what are the biggest flops of all time? Well, according to numbers from Screen Rant, these 10 certainly did a good job of losing millions at the box office… (Picture: Shutterstock)

10. King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword (2017)

Director Guy Ritchie scored some big hits early on in his career - most notably the Brit gangster flick Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - but he didn't fare quite so well with this 2017 effort, yet another retelling of the King Arthur legend. Not even the presence of big names including Charlie Hunnam and Jude Law could stop this one from collapsing to mixed reviews and disappointing ticket sales to the extent that plans to turn the medieval monarch's adventures into a six-film series were shelved. In total, it's estimated to have lost $183m (£147m) (Picture: Warner Bros./REX/Shutterstock)

9. Tomorrowland (2015)

This lavish 2015 sci-fi blockbuster had all the right credentials. Director Brad Bird (the brains behind Pixar smashes The Incredibles and Ratatouille), a cast which included the likes of George Clooney and Hugh Laurie, and some stunning visuals. However the resulting film - about a teen science genius and a disillusioned engineer journeying to the titular world - didn't exactly reap the financial rewards. It's not that it did particularly terribly, making around $209m (£146m) worldwide, it's just it cost so much to produce - around $190m (£146m) not including marketing costs - that it ended up losing money. Quite a lot of money in fact. An estimated $185 million (£148m) (Picture: Disney)

8. Pan (2015)

The story of Peter Pan has been retold many times on the big screen, but the 2015 big-budget take on the story failed to magic up much box office business. This Peter Pan adaptation was actually a prequel to the classic story, based on JM Barrie's 1911 novel Peter and Wendy, and starred Hugh Jackman as a fictionalised version of the pirate Blackbeard. It wasn't enough to draw the crowds though, and Pan quickly flew out of movie theatres with a loss of around $185 million (£148m) (Picture: Moviestore/REX Shutterstock)

7. Strange World (2022)

Disney had already had a rough year in 2022 when its other animated blockbuster Turning Red lost a fortune at the box office - but Strange World went and made an even bigger loss when it was released in November of that year. Despite breaking new ground as the first animated Disney film to feature a gay lead character, it wasn't enough to save this tale of a group of friends who have to embark on a journey to a mysterious land, to save a plant which is their main source of energy. Not only did the film lose an estimated $197m (£158m) at the box office, it also became the first animated Disney movie in over a decade not to receive an Oscar nomination. Ouch (Picture: Disney)

6. Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas (2003)

The fictional sailor from the One Thousand and One Nights folktales doesn't have much luck when it comes to screen portrayals of his adventures. Not only was a big-budget TV show based on the character cancelled after just one series in 2013, but this 2003 animated effort lost a ton of money on release. Even having a big name cast on board - including Brad Pitt as Sinbad, with supporting turns from Michelle Pfeiffer, Joseph Fiennes and Catherine Zeta-Jones - couldn't stop this one plummeting to the depths of the box office with a loss of $199m (£160m) (Picture: Dreamworks/ Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)

5. Cutthroat Island (1995)

It's quite an achievement when a film not only bombs at the box office, but does it so spectacularly that it succeeds in bankrupting the company that produced it. Such was the case with legendary 1995 clanger Cutthroat Island - which starred Geena Davis, fresh from Thelma and Louise fame, as pirate Morgan Adams. The film suffered from a troubled production which included multiple rewrites and recasting, and when it was eventually released it sank without trace, making just $10m (£8m). Not ideal given that represented around a tenth of its budget. In the end it chalked up losses of around $202m (£162m), adjusted for inflation. It was so considerable that production studio Carolco Pictures - previously behind such hits as Terminator 2, Basic Instinct and Stargate - ended up going bust. Not quite the pirate treasure everyone hoped for then (Picture: YouTube)

4. Mortal Engines (2018)

Based on the YA sci-fi novel by Philip Reeve, Mortal Engines had great credentials. It's written and produced by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, the team behind the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, while its source material was incredibly popular. However, it failed to cash in on the young adult craze, slumping to mixed reviews (with The Guardian referring to it as 'a steampunk Star Wars') and ending up with a loss of $204m (£164m). In other words this is one engine which never really got started (Picture: Rex Shutterstock)

3. The 13th Warrior (1999)

With Jurassic Park being one of the biggest films of the 1990s, adapting another Michael Crichton novel (in this case his 1976 work Eaters Of The Dead) for the big screen should've been a no-brainer, right? Wrong. The 13th Warrior - a loose adaptation of the legend of Beowulf combined with 10th Century traveller Ahmad ibn Fadlan's account of the Vikings - not only had to be re-edited several times but it also underwent a title change (it was previously called Eaters of The Dead, as per the novel). Its release date was pushed back a year and when the Antonio Banderas-headed film did finally reach cinemas it was to such a poor reception that one of its stars, the legendary Omar Sharif, temporarily retired from acting, saying at the time: 'It is terrifying to have to do the dialogue from bad scripts, to face a director who does not know what he is doing, in a film so bad that it is not even worth exploring.' Ultimately the film - which was up against smash hit The Sixth Sense at the box office - is estimated to have lost a whopping $227 million (£182.2m) (Picture: Rob Mcewan/ Touchstone/ Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)

2. The Lone Ranger (2013)

On paper this sounded like a dream project. Johnny Depp reuniting with Pirates Of The Caribbean director Gore Verbinski to bring the legendary Texas ranger to the big screen. With Armie Hammer playing the title character and Depp as Tonto, it should have been a winner - but the production was hit by problems. Notably that it went so over budget it was almost cancelled completely at one point. The plot, meanwhile, grew steadily weirder, taking in massacres of indigenous natives as well as a scene involving cannibalism. Hardly the stuff of a fun family blockbuster. In the end the movie, which had first been announced in 2008, was finally released in the summer of 2013 and went on to lose an eye-watering $240 million (£192.8m). It did have one notable 'success', however, at the Golden Raspberry awards, where it received five nominations including worst film (Picture: Disney)

1. John Carter (2012)

It's hard to imagine any film losing as colossal an amount of money as John Carter, but Disney managed it when they released this would-be blockbuster in 2012. Based on the Barsoom series of novels by Tarzan author Edgar Rice Burrough, the film had been in development for decades under the title A Princess Of Mars - where the action takes place - with the film adapting the first of those books. It had a cast including the likes of Samantha Morton, Willem Dafoe and Canadian actor Taylor Kitsch in the title role. The result was one of the most expensive films ever made - costing a massive $263millon (£211.3m), with even more money heaped on it in marketing. By the time that was all taken into account, the film didn't anywhere near enough money to cover all those costs, resulting in a loss of $255m (£205m) - a higher deficit than any other film in history. Unsurprisingly, John Carter 2 is not coming to a cinema near you any time soon (Picture: Disney) This article was originally published in April 2024