Mothers taken to mars, a terminator trying to keep his franchise alive, and a magic sci-fi board game — Can you guess which big sci-fi blockbusters lost the most money? Stay tuned to find out what you need to know!
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00:00Mother's Taken to Mars, a Terminator trying to keep his franchise alive, and a magic sci-fi
00:06board game.
00:07Can you guess which big sci-fi blockbusters lost the most money?
00:11All that and more ahead.
00:13You wouldn't normally associate comedies with massive budgets, but titles like Evan
00:18Almighty, which reportedly cost $250 million to make in 2007, show that entries in this
00:24genre can rack up budgets comparable to your average Marvel movie.
00:28The Adventures of Pluto Nash, a 2002 sci-fi comedy starring Eddie Murphy, wasn't quite
00:33that costly, but it still had a sizable $100 million budget.
00:39Up to this point in his career, Murphy hadn't appeared in a live-action movie that exceeded
00:43$317 million worldwide.
00:47That meant Pluto Nash needed to be an abnormally lucrative star vehicle to justify that enormous
00:52budget.
00:53Unfortunately, Pluto Nash came nowhere close to being profitable.
00:56Instead, it was a legendary box office flop that grossed only $7 million worldwide, including
01:02a paltry $4.4 million in North America.
01:06CBS News would later report that this title lost a gigantic $92.9 million.
01:13The dismal reviews for Pluto Nash seemed to justify that nonexistent conviction in its
01:17box office prospects.
01:19Still, even the most pessimistic individuals could have never imagined that Pluto Nash
01:24would rack up box office losses largely unheard of for a comedy.
01:29High expectations were riding on the computer-animated sci-fi action film Final Fantasy The Spirits
01:34Within.
01:35Specifically, the feature was seen as a potentially groundbreaking title for the domain of ultra-realistic
01:41computer-generated visuals in cinematic narratives.
01:44In an article from Animation World Network, VFX supervisor Remo Balcells provided detailed
01:50explanations for the various technological revolutions that the production provided.
01:55This included the way the film's animators rendered visuals for things like fire or explosions.
02:00While all of this was exciting for animation aficionados, a pricey tentpole can't become
02:05a box office hit by VFX breakthroughs alone.
02:08The eventual box office haul of Final Fantasy The Spirits Within would reflect this brutally.
02:14In its worldwide box office run, Final Fantasy The Spirits Within grossed just $85.1 million,
02:21a disastrous sum given its $137 million cost.
02:26That budget was part of the problem here, as The Spirits Within was too expensive for
02:30a non-sequel animated feature.
02:32However, the financial woes of The Spirits Within were even worse than anyone could have
02:37anticipated since it lost $94 million.
02:41Needless to say, Final Fantasy The Spirits Within did not meet those lofty pre-release expectations.
02:51Stealth was inarguably the biggest killer jet movie of the summer of 2005.
02:57It also was one of Jamie Foxx's first movies after winning an Oscar for the feature, Rey.
03:02However, Stealth ended up cratering at the box office, and even became one of the biggest
03:07box office duds of that year.
03:09Gaining just $76.4 million globally on a $138 million budget, Stealth was a catastrophe
03:17at the box office.
03:19The promise of a jet gaining sentience and going on a rampage just wasn't something
03:23people were lining up to see.
03:25Part of the problem with Stealth was its massive budget.
03:28That $138 million price tag meant this film had to perform abnormally high for a blockbuster
03:34not based on any pre-existing source material to be profitable.
03:38It also didn't help that while Foxx was an Oscar winner, the other two leads of the
03:42film, Jessica Biel and Josh Lucas, didn't have extensive experience anchoring big blockbusters.
03:49It's no wonder the film ended up losing a whopping $96 million for Sony Columbia Pictures.
03:55The 2015 Fantastic Four movie was supposed to relaunch this franchise in style.
04:00This was to be a grim and gritty take on the famous Marvel superhero team that could eventually
04:05spawn sequels, crossovers, and whatever else 20th Century Fox could imagine.
04:10That all changed once the box office results for this feature came in.
04:14The abysmal $167.8 million worldwide gross of this Fantastic Four was a cold splash of
04:21water in the face of all those expectations that this title could spawn a long-term franchise.
04:27While it's a terrible sum under any circumstances, this was an especially bad gross when compared
04:33to the worldwide totals of the preceding two Fantastic Four movies.
04:37The 2015 Fantastic Four came in 50% behind the global haul of the 2005 Fantastic Four
04:44installment.
04:45It wasn't what 20th Century Fox had in mind when it greenlit this reboot.
04:49To be frank, a lot was going on to make audiences wary of shelling out cash for this version
04:54of the Fantastic Four.
04:56But where it really sank this one was when director Josh Trank disowned the film just
05:01hours before its August 7th release.
05:04It was a rare event that grabbed headlines and immediately gave the film a toxic reputation.
05:09Estimated to have lost somewhere between $80 and $100 million for 20th Century Fox, the
05:15ambitions of this Fantastic Four film becoming a pop culture phenomenon were quickly snuffed
05:20out.
05:25After the Matrix films, the duo Lana and Lily Wachowski struggled to parlay their previous
05:30financial glory into other non-Matrix sci-fi blockbusters.
05:34However, this struggle was more obvious than ever on their 2015 feature, Jupiter Ascending,
05:40which had a reported production budget of $179 million.
05:45The sizable budget was needed to cover the expansive scope of this title, as well as
05:49secure major talent in the lead roles like Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum.
05:53Unfortunately, spending all that dough didn't really end up attracting scores of moviegoers.
05:59After grossing just $181.9 million worldwide, including a dismal $47.4 million in North
06:06America, Jupiter Ascending came in way behind expectations.
06:11It eventually lost $95.7 million, a sharp contrast to the days of the Wachowski sisters
06:17printing money with their original Matrix films.
06:20The only comfort for this directorial duo here is that the film has developed a cult
06:25following, albeit not nearly a big enough following to render the feature profitable.
06:29Up is hard, down is easy.
06:33Wow.
06:3420th Century Fox's attempt to launch an animation studio in response to the wild success
06:39of The Lion King and other 1990s titles ended in a spectacular disaster with Titan A.E.
06:45It was only the second project to emerge from Fox Animation Studios.
06:50Titan A.E. was a massive sci-fi adventure film full of explosions, aliens, and you guessed
06:55it, spaceships.
06:57Costing a pricey $75 million to make, the pressure was on the movie to make enough money
07:02to ensure that Fox Animation Studios could keep on trucking.
07:06Unfortunately, Titan A.E. only made $36.7 million at the worldwide box office, which
07:12included a meager $22.7 million in North America.
07:17Within mere days of the Titan A.E. opening, Fox Animation Studios was shut down.
07:23In total, it was so much of a flop that it cost Fox $100 million.
07:29For years, the Transformers movies were financially bulletproof.
07:32The live-action stories of robots that fight each other and turn into vehicles were reliable
07:37generators of massive box office hauls.
07:40As late as Transformers Age of Extinction in 2014, the series could still exceed $1
07:46million and top all other titles at that year's worldwide box office.
07:51Unfortunately, the good financial luck for this saga came to a close with Transformers
07:56The Last Knight.
07:57The 2017 installment saw Optimus Prime going bad and the mythology of King Arthur getting
08:02swirled up in all the robot mayhem, and these fresh ingredients just weren't enough to
08:06stave off financial misery for the franchise.
08:09While many movies would be pleased as punch with a $602.8 million worldwide gross, The
08:16Last Knight made less than all prior Transformers movies.
08:20This occurred even as the movie cost anywhere from $217 to $260 million to produce, a noticeable
08:27increase from the budgets of earlier Transformers entries.
08:30With such a gargantuan budget, it would have taken far more than just $602.8 million globally
08:37to make this one profitable.
08:39Per the head of CBS Viacom, The Last Knight ended up losing an excess of $100 million
08:45plus for Paramount Pictures.
08:48Over the years, many movies with Mars in the title, or in their plot, haven't fared so
08:52well at the box office.
08:54This obviously isn't a concrete rule given that movies like The Martian and the original
08:58Total Recall were major hits.
09:00However, the constant financial troubles that have plagued Mars-centric films certainly
09:05haven't done any favors to the reception of such titles.
09:08The tremendous box office failure of Mars Needs Moms did nothing to dissuade any potential
09:13jitters over the financial viability of movies set on Mars.
09:18Released in March 2011, Mars Needs Moms debuted in a month that's often been kind to animated
09:23family fare.
09:25Mars Needs Moms was a significant exception to this trend, grossing just $39.5 million
09:31globally.
09:32That was actually a disastrous sum considering its $150 million budget, competition from
09:38other animated family movies, such as Rango or fellow Disney title, Gnomeo and Juliet,
09:44helped keep audiences away from Mars Needs Moms.
09:48The divisive nature of the film's motion capture animation technique also didn't do it any
09:52favors.
09:54Seems like there was a lot more going on with this movie that made it lose around $100 million
09:58than just it being set on Mars.
10:02The hope with Terminator Dark Fate was to finally get the Terminator series back on
10:06track.
10:07The franchise had been dragged down by a trio of sequels that never quite resonated with
10:11the public or broke through as much as they could have financially.
10:15Dark Fate attempted to give diehard fans exactly what they wanted, with James Cameron back
10:20for the first time since T2 Judgment Day, this time as a producer.
10:25Linda Hamilton also reprised her role as Sarah Connor.
10:28This was starkly different from the last three Terminator movies that solely focused on familiar
10:33characters like John Connor.
10:35This bold attempt to revive the Terminator brand was even reflected in its massive $185
10:40million budget.
10:42Unfortunately, all efforts didn't lure in moviegoers to the box office.
10:47Dark Fate ended up making only $250.3 million worldwide, the vast majority of which came
10:53from its international run.
10:58After so many underwhelming Terminator movies, not even the return of Cameron and Hamilton
11:02could get moviegoers back on board with the series.
11:06The result of all this was not only the lowest global haul for a Terminator sequel, but also
11:11a massive $122.6 million loss.
11:15With that, this franchise was officially terminated.
11:20In Battleship, human beings managed to defeat the odds and stave off an alien invasion of
11:25the planet Earth.
11:26It's a classic underdog story, the kind that has defined so many beloved hit blockbusters.
11:31In real life though, there was no happy ending in store for the box office run of Battleship.
11:37This film adaptation of the beloved board game was a massive flop at the worldwide box
11:41office, grossing just over $313.4 million globally, including just $65.2 million from
11:50North America.
11:51That was a less than ideal haul for a summer blockbuster under any circumstance, but it
11:56was especially disappointing considering that Battleship cost a hefty $220 million
12:01to make.
12:02The underwhelming aspects of Battleship's box office failings were endless, as were
12:07the reasons it came up short financially.
12:09Having lost a projected $150 million, Battleship sank without a trace at the box office.
12:16It feels almost unfair to belabor the financial shortcomings of John Carter.
12:21The titular lead of this Andrew Stanton blockbuster was once synonymous with some of the most
12:26popular sci-fi novels on the planet.
12:28Now, thanks to this 2012 film's dismal box office run, John Carter is largely associated
12:34with one of the costliest misfires in the history of Hollywood.
12:38It's hard to imagine an outcome where John Carter managed to become profitable, though
12:42given its enormous $263.7 million budget, that was a price tag that actually made John
12:49Carter more expensive than 2012 films like The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises.
12:56Even if John Carter was likely doomed to be unprofitable, it was never expected to perform
13:01as badly as it did.
13:03The sheer magnitude of John Carter's box office shortcomings was made clear shortly
13:07into its theatrical run, once the Los Angeles Times reported the film would lose Disney
13:11$200 million.
13:14That was the kind of enormous loss that would stand out in all genres of cinema, let alone
13:19just among sci-fi films.