The “Fantastic Four” was the core of Marvel’s menu of superheroes. With the original four characters developed by legendary comic icons Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, the title dominated the vanguard popularity of the comic book series throughout the 60s and well into the 2000s. Every other Marvel superhero film has blasted the roof off the box office. So what happened?
Critics agree that it starts off pretty good. Unfortunately, they say, characters are underdeveloped, storytelling is weak, and dialogue gets downright corny at times. Twentieth Century Fox’s action-adventure, sci-fi fantasy film lost big. The production budget was $120-$125 million. Gross sales were $168 million, and it lost $83-$103 million.
Estimated loss: $80-$100 million
Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (2000)
This movie is definitely Travolta’s worst film of his entire acting career. The guy with the long braids that you can see on the right is none other than Travolta, who plays an alien in the convoluted sci-fi film, "Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000." The movie is based on the novel of the same name by L. Ron Hubbard — the creator and leader of the Church of Scientology.
"Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000" was an absolute mess of a film. Travolta starred in the film as a tribute to Hubbard, due to the actor being a long-time Scientologist. The film received lost $14.3 million and got a 3% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The critical consensus called it: "Ugly, campy, and poorly acted, Battlefield Earth is a stunningly misguided, aggressively bad sci-fi folly."
Estimated loss: $14.3 million
Atlas Shrugged III: Who Is John Galt (2014)
Ayn Rand was the author of one of the world’s most popular books, "Atlas Shrugged." The book allegedly sold as many copies as the bible and remains one of the most successful books of all time in the United States. A three-part film series was made based on "Atlas Shrugged," mostly by conservative actors who wanted to voice support and promote her ideology and fiction.
The first and second parts were relatively well-received but suffered from a constantly changing cast and varying levels of acting and editing. The third part, however, was an absolute disaster and was universally considered as one of the worst films of all time. It bombed at the box office, losing $4.1 million, and was nominated for the Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off, or Sequel award at the 35th Golden Raspberry Awards.
Estimated loss: $4.1 million
The Good Dinosaur (2015)
Yes. A Pixar Animation Studios film flopped. "The Good Dinosaur" has the unique distinction of being the studio’s lowest-grossing movie, and, their first box office bomb. The culprit, as far as we can tell: too much cute, not enough adult humor.
Distributed by Disney and produced by Warner Bros., critics liked Pixar’s sixteenth animated film. They called it a beautiful and charming, enchanting and sweet family film. Graphics and images are realistically and gorgeously rendered making the movie a visual masterpiece according to most critics. For some reason, the crowds simply didn’t show up to the box office. Adjusted for inflation, the movie lost about $88 million. Budget estimates are $175-200 million, a heavy investment eating into its gross of $332.2 million.
Estimated loss: $85 million
Dark Tide (2012)
Halle Berry has had mixed success over the years when it comes to her acting. Still, she usually manages to grab at least a moderate amount of commercial success in most of her projects. 2012's action thriller, "Dark Tide," was perhaps the first example of her charm getting pulled from under her feet.
The movie tells the story of a shark expert, played by Berry, who agrees to take a thrill-seeking millionaire and his teenage son on a dangerous shark dive due to her poor financial situation. Dark Tide made a sad $432,000 during its run at the box office against a $25 million budget, so there's a good chance that the star actress literally got paid more than the film even grossed. It was ironically summarized as a "shallow" film that's best skipped by audiences.