George Clooney's star power can't save Tomorrowland from becoming one of the biggest flops in cinema history. Critics were on the fence but audiences have avoided the blockbuster that is projected to make a loss of US$140 ($180 million). The Brad Bird (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, The Incredibles) directed movie has a combined production and marketing cost of at least $US330 million.
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The sci-fi film features Clooney as a genius inventor paired with Britt Robertson as a troubled teen. The adventurers seek to escape to a parallel world where science and innovation rule and anything is possible.
Hollywood flicks aiming to create an immersive experience begging to be seen at a cinema over a small screen run the risk of spectacular failure. The movie may be a blow to Clooney, but he isn't the first A-lister in a big-budget production to go bust. As Tomorrowland becomes yesterday's news we look back at other recent forgettable flops.
The numbers are even worse when you factor in additional marketing expenses and the cost of cinema distribution approximately half the box office take.
Jupiter Ascending (2015)
More science fiction fare, it stars Mila Kunis as a secret princess and Channing Tatum as her protector and was filmed two years ago by directors Andy and Lana Wachowski. The visionary siblings are responsible for The Matrix trilogy but in recent years have failed to emulate their early success. Warner Bros would have spent tens of millions of dollars on marketing costs.
Budget $US179 million
Box Office $US182 million
Serena (2014)
Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence are dependable leads separately, and compelling together. Especially in American Hustle and as love interests in Silver Linings Playbook, where their onscreen chemistry saw Lawrence win an academy award for best leading actress. That wasn't the case in this period piece where they play timber mill pioneers. Director Susanne Bier is exceptional in Danish cinema with After the Wedding, Brothers and the recent Second Chance, but something was lost in translation and editing, with production taking two years and a subsequent limited theatrical release.
Budget: $US25 million-$US30 million
Box Office: $US4 million (to be verified)
Seventh Son (2014)
Following the Game of Thrones fantasy popularity in film proves to be a hard task, and A-list actors like Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore can't get you all the way there. Russian director Sergey Bodrov had previously been nominated for an oscar with Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan. However he joined the ranks of critically panned German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Tourist, despite having won an Oscar for The lives of Others.
Budget: $US95 million
Box Office: $US111 million
Lone Ranger (2013)
The Disney western missed it's mark in the fifth team up of Johnny Depp starring in a Gore Verbinski film. The two delivered sizeable returns for the studio in The Pirates of the Caribbean series ranking in the highest grossing films of all time. Despite the positive regard for Depp playing to his strengths left of field and partnering up with leading man Armie Hammer critics found the script wanting and the explosions excessive costing the studio $US190 million, Verbinski hasn't directed since.
Budget: $US215 million
Box Office: $US260 million
47 Ronin (2013)
Considered the biggest flop of all time, Carl Rinsch hadn't directed a feature before and hasn't since. Screenwriter Hossein Amini (Drive, director of The two faces of January) said the samurai genre are usually contemplative and culminate in a big fight scene, like Hara-Kiri: The death of a samurai the first such film done in 3D. But Hollywood had it's say adding a CGI dragon and monsters, Keanu Reeves as the star, the Japanese actors spoke english rather than be subtitled resulting in an estimated loss of $150million.
Budget: $US175 million
Box Office: $US151 million
R.I.P.D (2013)
The idea of a detective agency of deceased officers fighting paranormal monsters sounds absurd when compared to other movies that have flopped with seemingly more merit. But Jeff Bridges is usually critically revered and costar Ryan Reynolds is continually pushed as leading man material in action and comedy movies. This pitfall hasn't stopped director Robert Schwentke's career who has gone on to head the follow up films to the blockbuster Divergent series.
Budget: $US130 million
Box Office: $US78 million
Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)
The popularity of making blockbusters of fairytales peaked with the retelling of the Jack and the Beanstalk fable with high funding and diminished returns. However the collaboration between director Bryan Singer and lead Nicholas Hoult has since worked phenomenally in the latest X-Men movies.
Budget: $195 million
Box Office: $198 million
John Carter (2012)
Andrew Stanton seemed infallible following his work with Disney Pixar directing Finding Nemo, and WALL·E, coupled with using star in the making Taylor Kitsch. What went wrong is still perplexing, it's possible that Stanton being a fan of the John Carter of Mars books by Edgar Rice Burroughs (best known for writing Tarzan) meant he lost perspective and the sum of the parts amounted to less than the whole. Disney claimed an operating loss of $200 million, with Stanton back to directing CGI movies with the upcoming Finding Dory.
Budget: $US250 million
Box Office: $US284 million
Green Lantern (2011)
Marvel movies are the most profitable blockbusters but rival comic book source material DC still struggles (with the exception of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy). Ryan Reynolds as a test fighter pilot who becomes a member of an intergalactic peacekeeping force using a power ring and heavy handed CGI didn't connect with viewers or invigorate the genre like director Martin Cambell did with James Bond in Casino Royale.
Budget: $US200 million
Box Office: $US220 million
Speed Racer (2008)
The first film for Andy & Lana Wachowski to start the downward trend with Cloud Atlas and Jupiter Ascending. Attempting to fuse the manga source material with audiences enthusiasm for racing movies, and using the lead Emile Hirsch who had been the lead in Sean Penn's critically acclaimed Into the Wild. The Wachowski's have followed M. Night Shyamalan in repeatedly missed the mark, although there is some hope for the future with their new netflix series Sense8.
Budget: $US120 million
Box Office: $US92 million
Figures from boxofficemojo.com
