Horror isn't exactly known for being high budget. Some of the most famous horror films are those that have been made with little to no money: think "Halloween," "Friday the 13th," or even the more recent "Paranormal Activity" franchise installments. That isn't to say studios aren't willing to throw money at the genre — they have, to mixed results. While there's nothing like a good scare to get moviegoers excited, these horror movies prove that you can't buy success. From an under-appreciated gothic romance to one of the worst video game adaptations ever made, here are the big budget horror movies that absolutely flopped.
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00:00What's an alien movie without xenomorphs?
00:03How many doomed reboots has Universal attempted?
00:06And how does Uwe Boll keep getting jobs?
00:08There's nothing like a good scare to get moviegoers excited, but these horror movies prove that
00:13you can't buy success with a big budget.
00:16Guillermo del Toro's 2015 gothic romance Crimson Peak is a lush, haunting love story with sumptuous
00:22special effects and a killer cast.
00:24Those things aren't cheap, of course, and the film was made using a decent-sized $55
00:29million budget.
00:30Crimson Peak was marketed as the next great horror film, from one of the genre's finest
00:34minds, but that marketing likely hurt the film instead of helping it.
00:38Fans expected screams, but they instead got a slow-burning story of dread, with a few
00:43ghosts tossed in for flavor.
00:45The film only brought in $31 million in the United States.
00:49It went on to make back its budget worldwide, but was a pretty major disappointment overall.
00:53It's a shame, too, because Crimson Peak is a phenomenal film.
00:57The cast is filled with bonafide stars, and the premise is fascinating, but most audiences
01:02just weren't interested in a Victorian-era horror story that stays true to its gothic
01:06roots.
01:07Indeed, Crimson Peak feels as if an entire semester of Victorian literature had been
01:11crammed into its two-hour runtime, giving viewers a taste of all the genre has to offer.
01:16From Robert Louis Stevenson to Mary Shelley, the central romance is appropriately restrained
01:20for much of the movie's runtime, too, something 21st century audiences might not have the
01:25patience for.
01:26If Crimson Peak had been marketed as a twisted gothic romance instead of a standard horror
01:30film, it might have still had poor box office returns, but at least people would have known
01:34what they were in for.
01:35As it stands, though, Crimson Peak is del Toro at his best, and this ghostly tragedy
01:40deserves to be treasured.
01:42If A Cure for Wellness was another knife in the heart for mid-budget studio movies, then
01:46at least it made its lavish $40 million budget count.
01:49Gore Verbinski's hypnotic tale opens in the way that many early horror stories did, with
01:54a pale young bureaucrat sent to a grand old building in a remote location, where dark
01:58secrets lurk inside its walls.
02:00There, he becomes entranced by a girl who is as pale and unhealthy-looking as he is,
02:06Hannah, the youngest long-term patient at a sanatorium.
02:09A Cure for Wellness is very much the sister film of Crimson Peak, which was released a
02:13couple of years previously.
02:15Both are big, indulgent, melodramatic gothic horror tales with a delightfully nasty edge.
02:20Both are woefully underrated, too, and both bombed at the box office.
02:25A Cure for Wellness ultimately grossed a mere $26.6 million, well below what it cost to
02:30make, never mind the cost of marketing and distribution.
02:33Part of this box office disaster might be attributed to competition in the horror genre
02:37from Jordan Peele's Get Out, which released a week after A Cure for Wellness and eventually
02:42made nearly ten times as much money.
02:44And while it's also true that anticipation for Get Out may have eclipsed interest in
02:48A Cure for Wellness, the similar downfall of Crimson Peak suggests that general audiences
02:53just really weren't in the mood for old-fashioned, spooky stories at the time.
02:57If you missed out on it, though, A Cure for Wellness is well worth a visit.
03:01It may come as no surprise to you that the shining sequel, Dr. Sleep, didn't do so hot
03:06at the box office.
03:08But the 2019 film has nevertheless garnered a reputation as a widely-liked movie with
03:13a strong following.
03:14This installment follows Ewan McGregor as a grown-up Danny Torrance as he recovers from
03:19alcoholism and returns to his gift of shine.
03:22It was made in a $45 million budget, but the film only grossed $72 million total for its
03:27entire theatrical run.
03:29Considering how much money was spent on the project, those returns come up short in comparison
03:33to what producers were undoubtedly hoping to make.
03:36It's clear the team behind the movie was banking on the iconography of The Shining to carry
03:40the film to the bank.
03:42Sadly, it seems that audiences were initially put off by the fact that key characters, such
03:46as Jack Nicholson's Jack and Shelley Duvall's Wendy, were recast for flashbacks and other
03:51pivotal scenes.
03:53Because of this, the film failed to shine at the box office.
03:56That doesn't mean it's not worth your time, though.
03:58Despite failing with general audiences, you'd be hard-pressed to find a cinephile who doesn't
04:02go to bat for this picture, between the top-notch acting, the expansive world-building, and
04:07the tantalizingly Kubrickian callbacks.
04:10Great party, isn't it?"
04:12Some would even argue that Dr. Sleep stands as one of the best sequels in the horror genre.
04:18When it comes to totally unjustified box office flops, no recent example feels more fitting
04:23than The Empty Man.
04:24A heady, heart-pounding slice of supernatural horror, the film packs ample style and substance
04:29throughout its 137-minute runtime.
04:32But it was just met with too many obstacles to truly thrive.
04:35Based on the graphic novel of the same name, The Empty Man is the feature directorial debut
04:40of David Pryor, who previously directed supplemental documentary shorts for DVD releases of everything
04:45from Panic Room to Zodiac.
04:47Though the film adaptation was greenlit in 2016, with Pryor attached to direct, it would
04:52take well over four years before the film hit theaters due to a litany of issues.
04:57Set to complete principal photography in the early winter months of 2017, the final week
05:02of shooting was pushed back due to inclement weather and Executive Vice President Mark
05:06Roybal's departure from 20th Century Fox.
05:09Shooting finally resumed and concluded in the fall of 2017, but the imminent Disney-Fox
05:14merger only pushed The Empty Man back further.
05:18Unceremoniously released in theaters on October 23, 2020, after one final pandemic-related
05:24delay, The Empty Man grossed less than $5 million worldwide.
05:28Not a lot to show for roughly 56 months of work and a $16 million budget.
05:33Despite all of this, The Empty Man has cemented itself as a horror cult classic, heralded
05:38by genre enthusiasts as an inventive, intelligent, and incredibly scary gem that couldn't be
05:43smacked down, no matter how bad things became.
05:47Given how it's now widely regarded as one of the greatest horror movies of all time,
05:51you might be surprised to learn that John Carpenter's The Thing was not a box office
05:55success upon its initial release.
05:57Made with a budget of $15 million and largely filmed on location in Alaska and British Columbia,
06:03The Thing landed quietly at the box office.
06:06It debuted at No. 8 in its opening weekend and grossed just $19.6 million at the North
06:11American box office by the end of its run.
06:14How could such a now-acclaimed horror movie have performed so poorly?
06:18Well, both critics and audiences at the time kind of hated it.
06:21In an interview with Creative Screenwriting, Carpenter recalled,
06:24The critics thought the movie was boring and didn't allow for any hope.
06:28That was the part they really hammered on.
06:30But the director knew in advance that the movie was in trouble when Universal Pictures
06:34did test screenings for The Thing, and the reaction was less than positive.
06:38As Carpenter explained,
06:39"...there was one young gal who asked, well, what happened in the very end?
06:43Which one was the thing and which one was the good guy?
06:46And I said, well, you have to use your imagination.
06:49And she said, oh God, I hate that.
06:51We were dead.
06:52Dead in the water.
06:53Dead.
06:54Horrible."
06:55Fortunately, things don't always stay dead in the horror genre.
06:58Like many 80s horror movies, The Thing found its audience in the blossoming market of home
07:03media, where avid genre fans enthusiastically shared recommendations for video nasties.
07:08There, the gruesome special effects and ambiguous ending that had alienated general audiences
07:13instead became a selling point, and The Thing finally thrived.
07:17"...why don't we just wait here for a little while and see what happens."
07:26Paul W.S. Anderson's name may be popularly associated with the Resident Evil franchise,
07:31but it's Event Horizon that gets the director the most full-throated praise among modern
07:35horror fans.
07:36That certainly wasn't true when the movie premiered in 1997, however, as the $60 million
07:41film took in only $26.6 million at the domestic box office.
07:46A cosmic horror tale of a starship that disappears in its maiden voyage and comes back full of
07:51hellish mystery, this mind-bending film was lambasted by critics at the time, but has
07:56since received wider, positive reappraisal.
07:59When Event Horizon was in production, Paramount's co-produced movie Titanic was running over
08:03schedule and over budget, and the studio needed to put a film in its summer slot.
08:08To make the deadline instead of the DGA-guaranteed ten weeks of editing, Anderson agreed to six
08:13weeks, which, in practice, became four.
08:15The resulting 130-minute cut shocked both test audiences and the studio with its rampant
08:21violence and bloated runtime.
08:23Paramount then overcorrected, forcing a 90-minute cut that removed a number of major scenes.
08:28The bungled theatrical cut was matched by the studio's choice to market it as a slightly
08:32darker Star Trek, leading audiences to expect much different things from the mind-bending,
08:37bloody theatrical release.
08:39"...the reality is much, much worse."
08:44The film's post-theatrical reappraisal began almost immediately, however, with a successful
08:48DVD home release, and the movie's reputation has only improved as the years have passed.
08:54After a series of successes with Total Recall and Basic Instinct, filmmaker Paul Verhoeven
08:59was hit by a set of critical and box office duds.
09:021995's Lurid Showgirls underperformed at the box office, while 1997's widely misunderstood
09:08Starship Troopers only did a little better.
09:11After this row of surprising failures, Verhoeven took a foray into horror with 2000's Hollow
09:16Man, a movie starring Kevin Bacon as a scientist who volunteers to be the test subject of an
09:21invisibility serum.
09:23The film ended with a profitable but tepid $191 million, outing on a $90 million budget.
09:29It certainly hit nowhere near his string of box office home runs, and also received a
09:34notoriously poor critical reception.
09:36To this day, Hollow Man remains the first of his movies that Verhoeven says he should
09:40not have made.
09:41So what went wrong?
09:43At their best, Paul Verhoeven's films are best thought of as high-concept id films,
09:47loaded with sex and violence, with a fun and intelligent edge.
09:51By contrast, Hollow Man is a relatively bland and straightforward film, markedly different
09:56from the creative and engaging sci-fi outings for which the director had become known.
10:00He stated in later interviews that the film was studio-dominated, and admittedly lacked
10:04his personal touch.
10:06Gone are the intelligent extravagances of his more characteristic films, thanks largely
10:10to studio interference.
10:12The end result is a film lacking Verhoeven's style that feels comparably forgettable by
10:17contrast.
10:19The 2017 Tom Cruise vehicle The Mummy bombed so severely that it effectively killed a franchise
10:25before it could get off the ground.
10:26Though the title will lead most movie fans to think of the 1999 film, starring Brendan
10:30Fraser and Rachel Weisz, the monster itself was part of the first iteration of Universal's
10:35horror slate, initially appearing in the 1932 movie of the same name.
10:39For heaven's sakes, what is it?
10:40He went for a little walk.
10:41You should have seen his face."
10:48However, with the overwhelming success of franchises like the Marvel Cinematic Universe,
10:53Universal thought they'd whip up their own interconnected universe, dubbed the Dark Universe.
10:58Unfortunately, they chose a bloated, action-heavy, and horror-lite Mummy movie to kick things
11:03off.
11:04Though the film ended up grossing $329 million internationally, the overall box office turnout
11:09stopped this would-be monster mash well before the party started.
11:13The Mummy teases characters clearly connected to other horror tales, and there were several
11:17other high-profile names preemptively associated with the Dark Universe, such as Javier Bardem,
11:23who was set to play Frankenstein's monster.
11:25Now, though, with the success of Lee Winnell's Universal monster remake The Invisible Man,
11:30Universal has chosen to team up with Blumhouse to create low-budget, artistically-driven
11:34reimaginings instead.
11:36Hopefully, it goes a little better.
11:38There was palpable excitement in 2012 as Prometheus, the movie that saw director Ridley Scott returning
11:44to the Alien franchise after more than 30 years, hit theaters.
11:48But the results left audiences divided, as the actual Xenomorphs, the trademark aliens
11:53of the franchise, don't really appear in the movie.
11:56Despite that, Prometheus did pretty solid business, grossing $403 million at the global
12:01box office.
12:02So, Fox opted to pursue a sequel, with Scott once again in the director's chair.
12:06The script for what would eventually be called Alien Covenant went through several iterations.
12:11Earlier in the film's development, Scott had referred to it as Alien Paradise Lost, but
12:15the film's title soon changed along with the story.
12:18In the end, we got a movie that did indeed deliver Xenomorphs, with a marketing campaign
12:23that leaned heavily on their appearance.
12:25This was being sold as a proper alien movie through and through.
12:29Be that as it may, the final film failed to capture the attention of the masses when it
12:33hit theaters in the summer of 2017, taking in just $240 million worldwide against a budget
12:39of $97 million.
12:41While there are certainly more disastrous outcomes financially, this fell well short
12:45of expectations, and left the theatrical viability of the franchise in question.
12:50To this day, fans have yet to see a sequel, despite Covenant ending on a cliffhanger.
12:55Sadly, audiences may have felt a little burned by Prometheus, and the lack of must-see reviews
13:00from critics just didn't help the case for Covenant, despite the best efforts of Scott
13:04and Fox.
13:062004's Van Helsing was given a whopping $170 million budget, and thanks to a solid performance
13:12internationally, managed to bring home over $300 million at the box office.
13:17While these numbers would typically indicate a sign of success, the dollar amount wasn't
13:20high enough to fulfill Universal's plans to reboot their Universal Monsters universe,
13:25especially after being met with relentlessly horrible reviews.
13:29Hugh Jackman stars as famed monster slayer Gabriel Van Helsing, who is sent off to Transylvania
13:34to defeat Count Dracula.
13:35Unfortunately, Kate Beckinsale's Anna Valerius informs him that Dracula has formed an alliance
13:40with Dr. Frankenstein's monster, and the duo must team up to defeat them before they
13:45can enact a centuries-old curse on the Valerius family.
13:48Blending the worlds of two of Universal's most prized monsters, and featuring many more
13:52to boot, felt like a license to print money.
13:55But the hype was destroyed when audiences showed up to the theater and were met with
13:59an overuse of CGI and Richard Roxburgh's laughably bad accent as Count Dracula.
14:05"...Oh, Gabriel.
14:10Welcome to my summer palace."
14:13While Van Helsing's heart was clearly in the right place, the movie is a chaotic mess of
14:18too many ideas thrown together, and not even the charm of Hugh Jackman could save it.
14:22Boasting a 24% on Rotten Tomatoes, Van Helsing was so poorly received that it scared off
14:28Universal from pursuing their MonsterVerse, realizing how lucky they were to have turned
14:32a profit on such a stinker.
14:35Virus sounds like a 1999 horror movie madlib.
14:38An invading alien attacks a Russian space station and beams itself aboard a Russian
14:42research vessel in the South Pacific, then uses electricity to turn all of the people
14:47aboard into cyborg slaves.
14:49A tugboat crew composed of Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Sutherland, and William Baldwin discovers
14:54the vessel and sneaks aboard to scavenge any sellable parts.
14:57What happens next is pure mayhem.
15:00Of course, Curtis is a horror household name, and the story is just weird enough to work,
15:05so why did Virus only make around $30 million worldwide on a $75 million budget?
15:10Well, sometimes a bad movie is just a bad movie.
15:14Virus is a mostly incomprehensible mess that even received one of Roger Ebert's most negative
15:19reviews of all time.
15:20The cinematography and lighting are haphazard, making entire scenes difficult to see.
15:25Even Curtis has been outspoken about just how bad Virus is, telling IGN in 2003,
15:31Virus is so bad that it's shocking.
15:33That would be the all-time piece of s**t.
15:36It's just dreadful.
15:37While some fans over the years have defended Virus as a cult classic, the kind that's so
15:41bad it's good, it turns out most folks are in Curtis and Ebert's camp and think this
15:46one's just a stinker.
15:48Remakes are nothing new in Hollywood, but they can be especially dangerous when tackling
15:52a piece of legitimate cinema history.
15:54Such was the case with Universal's 2010 remake of The Wolfman, which starred Benicio Del
15:59Toro and Anthony Hopkins in one of the most expensive horror movies ever produced, with
16:04a reported production budget of $150 million.
16:07The result was also one of the most notable box office disasters of the last 15 years,
16:12if not ever.
16:13Mark Romanek had been scheduled to direct the movie up until the very last minute, but
16:17he became embroiled in debates with the studio, in part over the amount of time needed to
16:21make the film.
16:22Joe Johnston was subsequently brought in to handle things, and the Rocketeer filmmaker
16:27found himself in an equally messy situation.
16:30Constant script changes kept necessitating reshoots and changes during the editing process.
16:34Cuts were made in an attempt to save money that, in the end, ended up costing the studio
16:38more money due to necessary reshoots and retooling.
16:42Against a wave of negative reviews, the movie earned a grand total of just $139 million
16:47globally, failing even to recoup its budget.
16:50Despite having Oscar-winning visual effects and an A-list cast, the mess behind the scenes
16:55ultimately led to financial ruin.
16:57Much like the Wolfman himself, this one seemed to be straight-up cursed.
17:01Uwe Boll has sustained an impressive run of box office bombs without suffering any repercussions.
17:07His obsession with video game adaptations has become something of a signature, such
17:12as the critically detested shoot-'em-up House of the Dead.
17:15But that's not even his mightiest box office failure.
17:18Christian Slater's and Tara Reid's star power wasn't enough to save 2005's Alone in the
17:23Dark from a worldwide whimper of $10 million on a $20 million budget.
17:28"...It's because they don't know the truth."
17:33Things only got worse with Boll's adaptation of the fantasy vampire franchise Bloodrayne.
17:38This monumental flop cost more money to make than Alone in the Dark, but made just $3 million
17:43at the global box office.
17:45Alone in the Dark is a more straightforward case of atrocious reviews dooming a release
17:49that Lionsgate inherited after purchasing Artisan Entertainment.
17:53Bloodrayne's failure is a little more complicated, given how Boll went into business with supporting
17:58cast member Billy Zane, who had just opened the distribution company Romar Entertainment.
18:03They promised Boll Bloodrayne would screen in 2,000 theaters, but reports indicate that
18:07Romar Entertainment only managed around 985 screens, and that a few hundred of those establishments
18:13didn't even play the film due to miscommunications with Romar.
18:17Bloodrayne is officially the only botched release for Romar Entertainment, too, because
18:21the company closed its doors shortly after.