Movies are a risky business. Even with huge blockbusters based on popular IPs and with a star-studded cast, success is never guaranteed, as proven by the many movies released during the 2020s that have flopped. Whether because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath or due to a lack of audience interest, the fact is that these films were financial failures all-around.
Some of these deserved much better, like Damien Chazelle‘s Babylon; while others received a lot of backlash from audiences in many areas, like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Whatever the case, these are movies that prove that any film can bomb at the box office, no matter how marketable it may seem. Data was taken from Box Office Mojo and The Numbers.
25 ‘Renfield’ (2023)
Worldwide Box Office: $26,493,921 USD
There have been plenty of recent movie flops, but there’s no room for doubt that Renfield will unfortunately be remembered as one of the biggest for many years to come. Despite the star power of Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult, and being hailed as one of the most entertaining recent horror comedies, it failed to attract the interest of general audiences.
Renfield made just a little over $26.4 million worldwide, losing nearly $60 million without considering publicity expenses. 2023 was a pretty outstanding year for many movies financially, but this was unfortunately one of them. Whether it was just poorly marketed or its goofy tone put audiences off, it was an all-around disappointment for Universal.
24 ‘Dolittle’ (2020)
Worldwide Box Office: $251,410,631
Everyone was excited to see what Robert Downey Jr. would be up to after exiting the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Avengers: Endgame. The answer, sadly, was a remake of Dolittle that failed to impress either audiences or critics. There have been plenty of great films about talking animals over the years, and though that probably includes the original Doctor Dolittle, it certainly doesn’t include this version.
Even though Dolittle made $251.4 million, the movie was estimated to have lost Universal $66.7 million. Unfortunately, time hasn’t been much kinder to it, with audiences quickly forgetting this lackluster adaptation of a relatively well-liked IP, wondering whether another modernization was even necessary in the first place.
23 ‘Babylon’ (2022)
Worldwide Box Office: $63,562,440
Since his amazing sophomore feature, Whiplash, the young filmmaker Damien Chazelle has proved to be one of the freshest and most exciting voices in modern Hollywood. His most recent film, Babylon, a chaotic study of old American cinema, only further cemented him as an outstanding filmmaker. Though it was a fairly contentious film at the time of its release, it hasn’t taken long for audiences to realize that it was an underrated masterpiece all along.
Not everyone has the stomach for such a relentless and energy-draining three-hour viewing experience, but for those up for the challenge, Babylon is a must-see. Sadly, not many viewers thought so, since Babylon only made $63.6 million worldwide, causing it to lose Paramount a tragic $87.4 million.
22 ‘Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins’ (2021)
Worldwide Box Office: $34,677,221 USD
Snake Eyes was the first G.I. Joe movie in eight years, so there was definitely a lot on its plate. Centered around one of the coolest and most beloved characters of the franchise, it was expected by fans to somehow revive G.I. Joe. Sadly, critics thought it missed the mark, and though fans thought that it was a step up from past installments, they were mostly split on it.
All in all, it was generally agreed that Snake Eyes was entertaining enough for fans of the franchise, but not enough to call it a genuinely great film. Unfortunately, its strong aspects weren’t enough to save its box office numbers. Snake Eyes made a meager $34.7 million, resulting in an all-around box office bomb that lost its studio well over $89 million, without even considering marketing costs.
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21 ‘The Last Duel’ (2021)
Worldwide Box Office: $30,552,111
Being Matt Damon and Ben Affleck‘s first screenplay together since Good Will Hunting, and an action drama by the same Ridley Scott that has made so many outstanding ones, The Last Duel had high standards to meet. Unfortunately, audiences didn’t show up at the theater to find out whether it succeeded, instead opting to watch the movie at home.
The Last Duel made only $30.5 million worldwide, which was far from enough to save it from losing $99.3 million. It’s a shame, since most audiences and critics who did watch it thought that it was an outstanding period thriller, thanks to a fresh and creative framing device, powerful performances, and a strong creative voice.
20 ‘Black Adam’ (2022)
Worldwide Box Office: $393,452,111
The DCEU has seen its fair share of financial ups and downs. Sadly, there have mostly been downs. Black Adam was one of those failures (among the worst, in fact), despite being Dwayne Johnson‘s long-awaited adaptation of DC’s iconic anti-hero. Once it came out, the film was immediately controversial with fans, critics, and general audiences alike.
Whether the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe did change or not is up for debate, but what isn’t is that Black Adam just made $393.4 million worldwide. It sounds fine, but it’s estimated that the DC film lost around $100 million, making it an undeniable failure – in terms of numbers, at least, though there’s also the fact that some would call it one of the worst superhero movies of all time.
19 ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ (2023)
Worldwide Box Office: $383,963,057
When one thinks of the adventure movie genre, it’s most likely that one immediately thinks of Indiana Jones. Harrison Ford‘s charming and daunting archaeologist adventurer has come to embody these kinds of movies, but when it came to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, many fans felt that it was far from being one of the best modern adventure films.
The movie didn’t fare too badly with critic or audience receptions, but it did badly enough that it made only $384 million dollars internationally, less than all other installments in the franchise. Being one of the most expensive films ever made, it’s estimated that Dial of Destiny lost Disney $100 million overall, an outright failure considering that it’s the final movie in one of the biggest franchises in movie history.
18 ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ (2021)
Worldwide Box Office: $157,386,805
The Wachowski sisters‘ original The Matrix is easily and by far one of the best action movies ever made, having in many ways revolutionized the genre and prepared it for the turn of the century. Its sequels, on the other hand, weren’t nearly as well received. The most recent entry in the series in particular, The Matrix Resurrections, where Neo chooses to follow the white rabbit once more into a world of two realities, was a major failure.
It’s estimated that, having made only $157.4 million USD at the box office, the film lost around $100 million overall. Frankly, though it’s not without some fans, it isn’t hard to see why. Fans who did see the movie in the hopes that it would prove to be a return to form were severely disappointed, earning the film a reputation as a sad cash grab that fails to justify its existence.
17 ‘West Side Story’ (2021)
Worldwide Box Office: $76,016,171
Pre-2000s and post-2000s Steven Spielberg almost feel like two different directors. But thankfully, the filmmaker showed that he hadn’t lost his touch with his incredible return to form: a remake of the ’60s classic musical West Side Story, grittier and arguably much more authentic than the Best Picture Oscar-winning original.
The film was Spielberg’s first-ever venture into the musical genre, and he did such a phenomenal job that it felt like he had been doing this kind of movie all his life. His West Side Story received very positive feedback from critics and audiences alike, yet it proved to be a major flop, only making $76 million and losing an estimated $104.4 million.
16 ‘Lightyear’ (2022)
Worldwide Box Office: $226,425,420
Lightyear is a movie-within-a-movie, supposed to be the film that the Buzz Lightyear toy from Toy Story was based on. Since before it came out, it was a huge talking point on the Internet — often for all the wrong reasons. Once it did come out, though, while there was certainly still controversy surrounding it, it felt like most people who were talking about it hadn’t even seen it.
Animated sci-fi can often be quite successful, but such wasn’t the case with Lightyear. There was definitely a lot to enjoy here, like the vibrant and colorful animation, the references and tributes to classic sci-fi cinema, and some fun characters. However, many people felt that it was a lower-tier Pixar spin-off, which was reflected in its international earnings of $226.4 million and the estimated loss of $106 million.
15 ‘Amsterdam’ (2022)
Worldwide Box Office: $31,245,810
A movie flop more controversial than most, Amsterdam is the latest work of filmmaker David O. Russell. It tells the story of three friends who, after witnessing a murder, become suspects themselves and uncover an outrageous plot in the process. While O. Russell’s films typically have at least a fun story to offer, most viewers felt that Amsterdam fell flat on its face in almost every aspect.
Despite its impressively stacked cast, Amsterdam only made $31.2 million, and lost $108.4 million as a result. Thus, it became the biggest box office bomb of O. Russell’s career, on top of not doing well either in terms of critics’ or audiences’ opinions. Whether time will be any kinder to it remains to be seen.
14 ‘Borderlands’ (2024)
Worldwide Box Office: $32,687,932
The Borderlands series of video games is among the most popular and beloved franchises of RPG first-person shooters ever. As such, given Hollywood’s horrible track record with video game adaptations, fans were understandably concerned when a Borderlands film was announced. Their concerns were proved deserved. The movie, telling the story of a ragtag team of misfits trying to save a girl who holds the key to unimaginable power, was as much of a flop as flops come.
Despite a star-studded cast and a huge budget of over $100 million dollars, Borderlands failed on every imaginable level. Fans thought that it looked awful, sounded awful, made no sense, and wasn’t even a fraction as entertaining as any of the games. Accordingly, the film couldn’t manage to make back even half of its budget, representing around $110 million dollars in losses for its studios.
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13 ‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ (2021)
Worldwide Box Office: $163,692,228
If someone had told people from the 1930s that a basketball superstar would one day share the big screen with the Looney Tunes, they would never have believed it. That’s precisely what happened in 1996’s Space Jam, though, which joined Michael Jordan with the iconic cartoon characters. It wasn’t a particularly great film, but a sequel was long overdue. Sadly, fans didn’t feel that the LeBron James-starring A New Legacy was worthy of the Space Jam name.
Mainly due to the enduring effects of the COVID-19 pandemic — and also, to be fair, due to the film not being any good —, Space Jam: A New Legacy underperformed at the box office. It was reported to have lost Warner Bros. around $111 million dollars; which is ironic, since the movie tried so hard to market itself as a celebration of the studio’s legacy and intellectual properties.
12 ‘Chaos Walking’ (2021)
Worldwide Box Office: $26,508,132
Based on Patrick Ness‘ bestselling sci-fi dystopian novel, Chaos Walking follows two unlikely companions’ adventure through the badlands of a mysterious planet, where everyone can see and hear everyone else’s thoughts. Fans of Ness’s work were incredibly excited to see a big screen adaptation, but the result didn’t really live up to expectations.
People would be forgiven for having entirely forgotten that this movie existed, despite the presence of stars of the stature of Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley. After all, barely anyone saw the film, as proved by the fact that Chaos Walking made a mere $26.5 million internationally, not even a third of its budget, which represented $111.7 million in losses.
11 ‘Haunted Mansion’ (2023)
Worldwide Box Office: $117,449,790
Starting with the relatively obscure 1997 Tower of Terror, Disney began to realize that they could make movies based on beloved rides and attractions from their parks around the globe. Such films, however, have repeatedly proved that they’re not assured box office hits. Case in point: Haunted Mansion, about a single mom who hires a tour guide, a psychic, a priest, and a historian to help exorcise her new mansion after discovering it’s inhabited by ghosts.
The film, one of Jamie Lee Curtis‘s most middle-of-the-road horror flicks, is honestly far from terrible. However, it fails to make up for its lack of thrills or laughs, which prevented audiences around the world from being interested enough to watch it in theaters. As a result, Haunted Mansion lost around $117 million USD. These numbers wouldn’t be too shabby for just any small family film, but for a Disney movie based on a well-known IP, it’s rather embarrassing.
10 ‘The Suicide Squad’ (2021)
Worldwide Box Office: $168,717,425
After the Guardians of the Galaxy films put James Gunn on the superhero cinema map, it was his first foray into DC with The Suicide Squad that eventually earned him the position of the new DCEU’s co-chair and co-CEO (along with Peter Safran). Many people’s favorite DCEU movie is still The Suicide Squad, about a team of supervillains joining a super-secret team to reluctantly go on a mission to save the world.
Another victim of the pandemic’s fallout effect and of Warner Bros.’ lackluster theatrical-distribution-versus-streaming practices, The Suicide Squad ended up losing about $119.5 million dollars. It’s a shame that such a creative action-adventure epic full of spectacle and personality failed so terribly at the box office, and it should be an indication for Warner of how not to handle DC films’ distribution going forward.
9 ‘Onward’ (2020)
Worldwide Box Office: $141,940,042
At some point during the 2010s, the animation giant Pixar started heading in new directions with its movies. Some fans enjoyed this change of pace and found that it offered some freshness, while others weren’t quite so fond of it and thought that it was staining the studio’s image. This change of direction is visible in Onward, one of Pixar’s most emotional outings, and one of the best animated fantasy movies of the 2020s.
It has a fun and sweet brotherly dynamic between the two leads voiced by Tom Holland and Chris Pratt, but Onward‘s box office numbers were a disappointment, largely because it came out right before the outbreak of the pandemic. It only made $141.9 million, and it’s thought that it lost $130.2 million dollars, making it one of the biggest box office bombs in Pixar’s catalog.
8 ‘Wish’ (2023)
Worldwide Box Office: $254,997,360
Disney has had a stacked catalogue of box office bombs in recent years, and one of their worst is easily Disney Animation’s Wish. It’s a fairy tale musical about a young girl named Asha, who wishes on a star but gets a more direct answer than she bargained for when a trouble-making star comes down from the sky to join her.
Disney marketed Wish as the ultimate love letter to their legacy, as their momentous 100th anniversary celebration. It’s clear that audiences didn’t share in the hype. It’s calculated that the film lost around $131 million when taking all costs into consideration, a tragic number considering the intentions of the project. At least there are plenty of things that the House of Mouse can learn from this failure.
7 ‘Moonfall’ (2022)
Worldwide Box Office: $67,319,703
Mainly known for his grand disaster epics of questionable quality, Roland Emmerich has made a reputation for himself that’s not exactly characterized by high critical acclaim. Of the many flops that he has made in recent years, however, Moonfall is typically regarded as one of the worst. In it, a mysterious force knocks the moon from its orbit and sends it on a collision course toward Earth.
There were some who enjoyed the film’s silly story and wacky sci-fi scenarios, which they thought made it an entertaining so-bad-it’s-good kind of movie. However, this unfortunately didn’t translate to success at the international box office. The movie lost its studio around $139 million dollars, which might be an indication that audiences may have already had enough of Emmerich’s brand of chaotic disaster movies.
6 ‘Mulan’ (2020)
Worldwide Box Office: $69,965,374
Disney’s practice of re-making their own animated classics has garnered mostly criticism over the years, yet rarely has public reception of these movies been as overwhelmingly negative as it was with 2020’s Mulan. Some would go so far as to call it one of the worst movies of the 2020s thus far, displaying none of the heart and magic that makes the 1998 original such a classic.
Though critics mostly praised the film for its impressive visuals and updated version of the story, fans weren’t nearly as impressed. The poor reception mixed with the massive impact of the pandemic caused Mulan to make just a little under $70 million dollars, a tiny fraction of its budget that caused it to lose $140.7 million.
