These stars helmed some major box office bombs. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the times actors were the lead in a movie that failed miserably at the box office.
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00:00You are right. I thought it was much more amusing this way also.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the times actors were the lead in a movie that failed miserably at the box office.
00:11We won't be considering ensemble casts or animated movies.
00:14I hope you 60 seconds! Get it on!
00:23With a worldwide career box office of over 4 billion, Arnold Schwarzenegger has undeniably proven his worth in Hollywood.
00:29Is that true?
00:30Yes, but I'm not what you think I am.
00:34In his latest and likely last outing as the T-800 though, Arnold ended his Terminator tenor on a dire note.
00:40After a series of bad sequels, Dark Fate was an attempt to get the Terminator franchise back on track by ignoring the last three films and making a direct sequel to Judgment Day.
00:49Come with me if you want to live.
00:51While reviews were pretty decent, the box office of $261.1 million equaled a $122.6 million loss.
01:00Priced at just under $200 million, the studio estimated how much audiences really wanted another Terminator after Arnie left the franchise on a satisfying note 28 years earlier.
01:10You and I were built for the same purpose.
01:12And Legion is the only future.
01:15I came from a future like that.
01:17It failed.
01:21Wonder Woman 1984
01:23Warner Bros. had been trying to make a live-action Wonder Woman movie since 1996, but it wasn't until 2017 that it finally happened, and it was a monster hit.
01:31This is not something you can cross. It's not possible.
01:34So what? So we do nothing?
01:35No, we are doing something. We are. We just can't save everyone in this war.
01:40I'm sorry, Steve.
01:42This is not what we came here to do.
01:44The first Wonder Woman grossed over $800 million and made Gal Gadot a star.
01:49Three years later, Gadot was still a star, but this time, of a big box office bomb.
01:54Wonder Woman 1984 cost about $200 million to make, but took home only $169 million worldwide.
02:02Can you imagine?
02:04If only.
02:06Throw in marketing costs, and Gadot's movie lost between $100 to $137 million.
02:11To be fair, this was during the pandemic with Warner Bros. simultaneously putting the movie on HBO Max.
02:16Despite being the top streaming movie of 2020, this obviously cut into the box office.
02:20Forget about me.
02:22What is it costing you?
02:30Yeah. Yeah. That's right.
02:34Number 8. Eddie Murphy. The Adventures of Pluto Nash.
02:38There is a world where Harrison Ford was sitting in this spot on our list.
02:41While there were rumors that Ford thought about starring in The Adventures of Pluto Nash,
02:45it was Eddie Murphy who eventually saw the part come his way and decided to take it on.
02:50Pluto. Pluto Nash?
02:52That's right!
02:53Yeah.
02:54When did you get out of the joint?
02:55About a week ago.
02:56A decision that we assume he very much regrets.
02:59Not only because it was a pretty terrible film,
03:01but because it remains one of the biggest box office flops of all time.
03:05You wanna lose some money?
03:06No, but you gonna lose some money.
03:08While the $96 million loss is bad enough, what's even more jarring is the fact that
03:13the $100 million movie only grossed $7 million at the box office.
03:17Show a little respect. This was left of my life's work here.
03:20Number 7. Dwayne Johnson. Jungle Cruise.
03:24While a $220 million box office against a $200 million budget might not sound terrible,
03:29those aren't the only numbers we need to consider.
03:32Oh, you mean this money?
03:33It's all here. I just need this so I can finally eat this week.
03:36More than $150 million went into marketing this Dwayne Johnson fantasy adventure.
03:41Maybe if they released the movie in 2019 as originally planned,
03:44Jungle Cruise would have been a success.
03:46But instead, they moved it to July of 2020,
03:49which was then rescheduled to July of 2021 due to the pandemic.
03:53Oh my God, is that your idea of a joke? That is not funny.
03:56When it finally came out, COVID was still a thing.
03:59So Disney released the film in theaters and on Disney Plus Premier Access simultaneously.
04:04Even taking the $66 million it made on Premier Access into account,
04:07the film didn't reach its break-even point.
04:10Remember, it's only a scam if you fall for it.
04:17While Charlie Hunnam gained stardom on television
04:19as the lead in FX's greatest show, Sons of Anarchy,
04:22that success hasn't really followed him to the big screen since the series ended in 2014.
04:26I need to tell you some things you're not going to want to hear.
04:32I need you to listen.
04:34Trust that what I want is the best thing for me and my family.
04:38One of the big swings studios took with Hunnam was the 2017 Guy Ritchie film,
04:42King Arthur Legend of the Sword.
04:43What's going on?
04:44What's going on where?
04:45You've got some heat on you, Arthur. Your name keeps coming up.
04:49With Hunnam as the titular King Arthur,
04:51the movie was set to be the first in a series of six films.
04:54When does the second one come out, you ask?
04:56Well, never.
04:57After the first film lost the studios more than $150 million,
05:01plans for those sequels were no more.
05:03So what happens now?
05:04You know what happens now.
05:08You're quickly becoming a legend.
05:13His portrayal of Wolverine is one of the finest superhero performances we've ever seen,
05:17and there's no denying that Hugh Jackman is a great showman.
05:19No, uh, whatever.
05:23Never mind.
05:24However, we also can't deny that Warner Bros. lost a whole bunch of money on 2015's Pan,
05:29the Peter Pan prequel starring Jackman as Blackbeard.
05:32The film brought a whole new meaning to the phrase critical panning.
05:35Ever had that one?
05:37A dreadful nightmare you know is not real, but your sleep is so heavy, so deep, so delicious,
05:47that you just can't wake up.
05:49Its failure didn't end there,
05:50as audiences showed little interest in finding out how Peter became the Pan.
05:54With a total production and marketing budget of about $275 million
05:59dollars and a box office of only $128 million dollars,
06:03you're looking at losses of around $150 million dollars.
06:06It won't happen again!
06:07Oh, it won't, I guarantee it.
06:10Jackman's career survived,
06:11but no amount of clapping can bring this failed franchise back to life.
06:18Moviegoers of the 2000s,
06:20having watched the Pirates of the Caribbean movies rake in the dough,
06:23might think of pirate movies as guaranteeing box office success.
06:26This is our chance to seek some real fortune.
06:30Those of us who lived through the 90s know that this is definitely not the case.
06:34This brings us to the great Geena Davis and the not-so-great Cutthroat Island,
06:38a film that, for a while, held the Guinness World Record as the biggest box office bomb of all time.
06:44All that cost money.
06:45I have money.
06:46Well, I promise I will take care of you later.
06:50The wannabe blockbuster made only $10 million dollars at the US box office
06:54and $18 million dollars worldwide.
06:56With a budget coming in as high as $115 million dollars by some estimates,
07:00that equates to about $100 million dollars in losses,
07:03which, adjusted for inflation, totals just over $200 million dollars today.
07:08Be careful what you do!
07:09You can lose a lot!
07:14You can understand why both the studio and Antonio Banderas
07:17would have thought they had a box office hit on their hands with The 13th Warrior.
07:21The hell are you saying?
07:23The 13th Warrior is you.
07:25Along with Banderas headlining the movie,
07:27the film was based on a book by Michael Crichton,
07:30the man who wrote the book Jurassic Park.
07:32It was being directed by John McTiernan,
07:34the man who was behind the camera on Die Hard.
07:36Everyone involved with this movie had plenty of box office success in the past.
07:40It works.
07:42Unfortunately, that success didn't translate to this 1999 movie.
07:46The 13th Warrior earned $61 million dollars,
07:48which, set against its high production and marketing budget,
07:51meant losses estimated to be as high as $129 million bucks.
07:56Yikes.
07:57A gentleman doesn't discuss such things.
08:03While Armie Hammer played the titular Lone Ranger,
08:05it was Johnny Depp as Tonto who was meant to bring in the crowds and the box office dollars.
08:09Time has finally come, Wendigo.
08:13The film did rack up $260 million dollars around the world.
08:16However, with a production budget estimated to be in the $225 to $250 million dollar range,
08:22and even more spent to promote it,
08:23the Lone Ranger ended up losing Disney upwards of $190 million dollars.
08:31Depp wasn't immune to box office failure prior to The Lone Ranger either, though.
08:35Back in 1999, he starred in The Astronaut's Wife,
08:38a film that failed to gross $20 million dollars,
08:41but cost the studio almost $80 million dollars to make.
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09:06Taylor Kitsch was a relatively unknown actor back in 2006.
09:10That all changed with his turn in Friday Night Lights.
09:17Yeah, you do.
09:20I'm a caretaker, Streeter, whether you like it or not.
09:23After the show ended, it looked like Kitsch was set for movie stardom
09:27when he was cast as the lead in the big-budget Disney sci-fi action-adventure film John Carter.
09:32To use a football analogy, Kitsch just couldn't take the film across the goal line.
09:36No, not like that.
09:39Go on, shock me.
09:42How?
09:43While a box office haul of $284 million sounds okay,
09:47in this case, it equates to about a $200 million loss.
09:51A couple of months after the release of John Carter,
09:53Kitsch got the chance to redeem himself with his lead turn in Battleship.
09:57I just don't get it, man.
10:00You got so much potential.
10:04I'm sorry you have to deal with it.
10:06But again, the end zone eluded him, as that one lost about $150 million dollars.
10:11Don't worry, Taylor, we're rooting for you, dude.
10:13What do you think of these stars and their box office bombs?
10:16Let us know in the comments.
10:18And is that all you expect?
10:23It's all I know.
10:24Did you enjoy this video?
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10:43you