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Bombs, Disasters and Flops: The Most Notable Examples Part 12 |
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Bombs, Disasters and Flops: The Most Notable Examples Part 12 |
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Note: The box-office figures for domestic grosses and non-USA grosses are fairly accurate, but must be taken as estimates only. |
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Greatest Box-Office Bombs, Disasters and Flops of All-Time
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| Film Title, Director, Studio, Budget Information, Description | |
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Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
This exceptional anime-like film, done completely in astronomically-expensive CGI over a four year period, bankrupted its production company, Honolulu-based Square Pictures. It was the first photo-realistic, computer-generated feature film with convincing, accurately-detailed, life-like flesh-and-blood characters, inspired by a best-selling series of video games by the film's director, Hironobu Sakaguchi. Set in the futuristic year 2065, this stunning-looking, hyper-realistic, revolutionary science-fiction film told about a ravaged Earth ruled by an alien race known as the Phantoms, who had forced the Earth's inhabitants to live in energy-shielded "barrier cities" to escape being virus-infected. The uninvolving story's main characters were two scientists: smart and slim virtual brunette heroine Aki Ross (voice of Ming-Na), looking like actress Bridget Fonda, and her wise old mentor Doctor Sid (voice of Donald Sutherland), who were working to save the world, combat the ghostlike enemy forces and defend Earth's survivors by "collecting" the Eight Spirits that would generate energy waves strong enough when combined (as a force called "Gaia") to neutralize and disarm the aliens. During an adventurous mission to save mankind through peaceful pseudo-ecological means, Aki reconnected with hunky, Ben Affleck-like stoic boyfriend Captain Gray Edwards (voice of Alec Baldwin) and his team of Deep Eyes soldiers with laser guns, although they found themselves at odds with evil and determined General Hein (voice of James Woods), who wanted to eliminate the predatory phantom aliens by blasting them with a highly dangerous, high-tech orbiting space weapon called the Zeus Cannon. In a dream-vision, Aki eventually realized that the eighth spirit (a Phantom) resided within her own self -- it was distributed by dying Captain Gray's body and transmitted directly at the Phantom spirit world to eliminate the threat, in the film's finale. While the film presented an engaging storyline, it wasn't overly compelling with its bland combination of contemplative, semi-spiritual Eastern (or New Age-y) philosophy, mechanically-animated humans, and ephemerally translucent monsters. Although it was a landmark film in terms of technical achievement, it was also one of the most expensive flops in film history, due to mismarketing to its videogame audience as a fast-paced action film. Plans for further installments of Final Fantasy with the 'synthetic actress' had to be scrapped. |
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Glitter (2001)
This campy, song-filled rise-to-pop stardom film (and formulaic rags-to-riches tearjerker story found in lots of better films, such as A Star Is Born) starred diva Mariah Carey in her feature film debut - she also served as the film's executive music producer. In this disastrous, star-vehicle vanity project with an inadequate screenplay (by amateur scriptwriter Cheryl West), Carey was given the uncomfortable opportunity to 'act' while modeling various fashions, from almost-transparent, low-cut evening gowns (to showcase her cleavage), to bustiers, legwarmers, a gray bikini, fishnet outfits and spiky high-heels, and spout lame, short monotone phrases of dialogue with emotionless, quizzical childlike delight. In some ways, the film was a positively-viewed, semi-autobiographical revisionist look at the star's own career, whose sex appeal and charisma (at one time) were exploited by male promoters/producers. It appeared to be trying to copycat the cross-over success that Jennifer Lopez found when she made the transition to the big screen with the bio-pic Selena (1997). The made-for-TV like, PG-13 melodrama, delayed in its release, failed to jump-start Carey's already-failing career arc, with its unintentionally funny dialogue, her passive and bland performance, plodding pacing, and 90s style songs (unmodified for the early 80s era) -- and would only appeal on its opening weekend to die-hard, pre-teen female fans. Many noted how the film, released at the time of the 9/11 tragedy, contained two eerie shots of the soon-to-be destroyed World Trade Center's Twin Towers, followed by the inappropriate image of Carey wearing a T-shirt with the word "Bombshell" on it. She portrayed aspiring torch-singer Billie Frank, who at age 8 (Isabel Gomes) with her orange kitten was abandoned by her struggling, black jazz-singing, alcoholic mother Lillian Frank (Valarie Pettiford) and absent white father and sent to a foster home in the late 60s. Then after a flashforward to the early 80s, she was discovered dancing/singing with fellow singer-dancers Louise (Da Brat) and Roxanne (Tia Texada) in a Manhattan club by music producer Timothy Walker (Terrence Howard), who wanted her to provide the voice for his tone-deaf, untalented, lip-synching girlfriend/singer Sylk (Padma Lakshmi), and also to have the trio serve as a backup group. Billie's career was then taken over by producer DJ Julian "Dice" Black (British actor Max Beesley) who took over her contract for $100,000. He aided her in getting a #1 single record, a contract with CMZ Records, an appearance on the US Musical Awards show and the Late Night Live TV show. She also became the romantic love interest of both "Dice" and pop star Rafael (Eric Bénet) in the film's sub-plot. This box-office flop was severely lambasted when released. It was nominated for six Razzie Awards, including Worst Director, Worst Picture, Worst Screen Couple (Mariah Carey's cleavage!), Worst Screenplay, and Worst Supporting Actor (Max Beesley), with one win for Worst Actress (Mariah Carey). In 2005, it was also nominated as the Worst 'Musical' in the Razzie's 25 year history, but lost to From Justin to Kelly (2003) - see below. |
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Town & Country (2001)
The original idea of this plodding and disjointed film was to create a simple romantic sex comedy about marital infidelity and the mid-life crisis, with appropriately-aged veteran stars serving as the film's two upper-crust couples: Warren Beatty and Garry Shandling as the husbands, and Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn as their wives. The film hopskotched from Park Avenue to the Hamptons, then to Mississippi and Sun Valley, Idaho. However, the ensemble film's budget ballooned to double its original estimate, and it took three years to produce (with shooting beginning in June 1998) due to multiple script rewrites and revisions, reshoots (reportedly demanded by 62 year-old egotistical star Warren Beatty, who had played a similar Lothario role as a young hairdresser in Shampoo (1975)), recastings and lengthy post-production problems, and continual postponements of the film's opening date 13 times. It became one of the biggest box-office losers in film history, with an inflated loss of approximately $80 million, including major savaging by critics and indifferent audience reaction. It was pulled from theatres after only four weeks. It was nominated for three Razzie awards, including Worst Director and Worst Supporting Actress (Goldie Hawn), and it won for Worst Supporting Actor (Charlton Heston). The cliched, tired and clumsily-executed film was scripted by Michael Laughlin and Beatty's Heaven Can Wait (1978) collaborator Buck Henry (Sample dialogue from Keaton to Beatty: "Your problem is your big, stupid cock" - she also called him a "pussy-crazed slob."). It ended up being a tasteless, mostly unfunny, ugly and vulgar tale about two middle-aged affluent couples who suffered the consequences of sexual self-exploration (multiple cases of adultery), infidelity, mistrust and miscommunication: successful NY architect Porter Stoddard (Beatty) with his self-absorbed, aloof fabric designer wife Ellie (Keaton) of 25 years, and their friends, secretly-gay antique-store owner Griffin (Shandling) and his wife Mona (Goldie Hawn). Both men took a foray into philandering, misbehaving indiscretions (Griffin was discovered having sex in a B&B with a red-headed transvestite) that led to enraged wives, and further complications when Porter engaged in a second guilt-ridden tryst with Mona, and a third affair with aggressively-crazy heiress Eugenie Claybourne (Andie MacDowell) who met him on an airplane and simply stated: "I love to f--k architects" - she was the daughter of self-mocking, crazed gun-toting Charlton Heston and alcoholic, profanity-spewing, wheelchair-bound Marian Seldes. The film also featured appearances by Jenna Elfman (as fishing shack/hardware store clerk Auburn and notable as Marilyn Monroe in a Halloween Party scene), and Nastassja Kinski (as neurotic cellist-musician Alex, involved in Porter's first affair and who played her instrument for him in the nude). |
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The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)
Mega-star Eddie Murphy starred in the hugely-successful Norbit (2007) five years later, wearing a fat-suit and playing multiple roles -- a film budgeted at $60 million and grossing over $95 million, but this film was an entirely different situation. It suffered possibly one of the largest financial losses (percentage-wise) ever recorded for a film -- approximately a 95% loss. This would mark a succession of strikes against Murphy in 2002, following his lukewarm appearance in Showtime (2002), and before his performance in I Spy (2002). Allegedly, this futuristic, science-fiction crime comedy's concept was introduced in a script over a decade and a half earlier in 1985, but after being made in the year 2000 was shelved for two years following a negative preview screening for the press, allowing for portions to be re-shot and rewritten. Approximately a dozen scriptwriters attempted to offer film rewrites, but only one writer was officially credited (Neil Cuthbert). This directionless effort, that wasted both time and talent, seemed promising at the start, with a competent director (Ron Underwood had already directed Mighty Joe Young (1998), Tremors (1989) and City Slickers (1991)), and a great cast for both supporting roles and short cameos, but when the studio feared more criticism from bad press, the ill-conceived film with an inadequate publicity campaign was released to theatres without advance play for film critics. The film's infantile and unfunny script was poorly executed and borrowed from lots of second-rate films. It was filmed episodically like a vintage action serial, was dwarfed by the inventive production values of the film's setting and special effects, and was often diluted by Murphy's familiar but sleepy and subdued characterization. The film was honored with five Razzie Award nominations: Worst Actor (Murphy), Worst Director, Worst Picture, Worst Screen Couple, and Worst Screenplay. It was also nominated in 2005 as the Worst 'Comedy' in 25 years of Razzie awards, losing to Gigli (2003) -- see below. Its story was about an ex-smuggler and ex-con nightclub owner in space (on the Moon) around the year 2087 named Pluto Nash (Eddie Murphy) who was pressured by demanding mobster goons (including Joe Pantoliano as thuggish hitman Mogan) to turn over his successful establishment named Club Pluto (in the hip urban district of "Little America" - a lunar Las Vegas) for $10 million to reclusive and mysterious gangster kingpin Rex Crater residing in a penthouse at the Lunar Grand Casino in the gambling city of Moon Beach - he wanted the club to be converted into a lucrative casino. When the mob blew up the nightclub and engaged in a laser-gun shootout, Nash became a fugitive with his new love interest: his own space-suited waitress and aspiring nightclub singer Dina Lake (Rosario Dawson) during her first visit to the Moon, and an outdated, bald android robot bodyguard named Bruno (Randy Quaid). They spent the remainder of the film trying to discover the source of their conflict at Crater's swanky resort casino. |
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Pinocchio (2002) (aka Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio)
This curious film from the award-winning, clownish writer/director Roberto Benigni was the recipient of six Razzie Awards nominations, including Worst Director, Worst Picture, Worst Remake or Sequel, Worst Screen Couple (Benigni and Nicoletta Braschi), and Worst Screenplay, including one win for Worst Actor (Benigni). It was notable as the first film in a non-English language to be nominated for Razzies. This was Benigni's first follow-up film (as co-writer, director, and actor) since winning multiple Oscars for Life is Beautiful (1997), and boasted some impressive film craftsmen working on it (cinematographer Dante Spinotti, production and costume design for the 19th century sets by Danilo Donati, and a film score in the classic Italian mode by Nicola Piovani), and English voice roles for Glenn Close (as the Blue Fairy, who was played by Nicoletta Braschi, Benigni's real-life wife), John Cleese (as the three-inch high Talking Cricket), James Belushi (as the Farmer), Queen Latifah (as a Dove), Cheech Marin (as the Fox), Regis Philbin (as the Ring Master), and miscast Road Trip (2000) and Rat Race (2001) star Breckin Meyer (as the voice of Pinocchio). But it ended up being the most expensive film in Italian movie-making history, in part because of the convincing clout of the former triumphant Oscar winner, a monstrous set for the town, and digital mice (pulling the Blue Fairy's coach) for special effects. It was originally intended to be made with director Federico Fellini, but he died in 1993. This awful, unmagical and unfunny live-action film, based on Carlo Collodi's 1883 fairy tale similar to its animated 1940 Disney predecessor, was distributed by Miramax and mismarketed as a family film. 49 year-old Benigni miscalculated by appearing as the wooden live man-child puppet (carved creation of lonely toymaker Gepetto (Carlo Giuffré)) wearing a white dunce cap and a red and white ruffled clown costume. In silly slapstick style as he constantly moved about, he rambunctiously skipped/cavorted around the Italian streets smashing into garbage cans in a marketplace and scaring wild geese on a farm, shouting: "Isn't it great to be alive?" (It could easily scare little tykes with its ever-present gloom of death, a hanging, rabbit pallbearers ready at a gravesite, a donkey transformation, and the Death of the Blue Fairy, after which Pinocchio pleaded: "How do you become dead? I wanna be dead too!”) It opened on Christmas Day (it was originally scheduled to be a high-profile holiday release for families) without much advance warning (or marketing) or press screenings (except for a sole looney appearance of the annoying Benigni with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show), and then excused itself for its quick arrival by arguing that there were post-production difficulties with the sound looping. The nightmarish film was entirely (and poorly) dubbed into English for its American audiences, although it was also available in the superior original Italian version with English subtitles. To recoup some of its losses, the film was re-released in early 2003 by Miramax and recategorized as an art-house film. |
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Created in 1996-2008 © by Tim Dirks. All rights reserved.
Introduction to Greatest Box-Office Bombs, Disasters and Flops: Films have the potential to skyrocket the profits of a studio, or to send it into ruins and bankruptcy. Sometimes an actor’s or director's career suffers, sometimes not. Films that cost more to make than they take in revenue (both domestic and worldwide) are considered box-office catastrophes or bombs. Movie audiences often love to relish the fact that some films, such as Gigli (2003) or Heaven's Gate (1980), turn out to be monumental flops, and are fascinated by the details of why certain directors/actors and their films fail.
