Featured
In this revised, multi-page featured article by Filmsite, a summary chart provides estimates of the greatest film failures and flops (disasters, bombs, etc.) that potentially lost the highest amounts of revenue, based upon their estimated losses. Some films that appeared at first to do well (in foreign and/or domestic markets), were doomed to fail and not make a profit because their marketing and production budget costs were so substantial and exorbitant. Films that have lost over $85 million in revenue (adjusted for inflation) are usually considered to be among the all-time losers. There are many reasons for a film to "bomb" at the box-office - the major causes are lack of studio promotion, heavy competition from other movies released at the same time, exorbitant production costs difficult to recoup and other production problems, negative word of mouth (especially in the era of the Internet and social media) or critical reviews, and other external factors such as bad timing, a health pandemic, or economic problems in society at large. This selection of box-office financial bombs is often significantly different from another category of films, known as "turkeys" -- or in other words, films which have been rated as the worst ever made. These clunkers have often received official Golden Raspberry Awards (or "Razzies") which were first awarded in 1981 (for films made in 1980), although some "turkeys" are included in this list (such as Showgirls
(1995) and Basic Instinct 2 (2006)). |
  
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About Filmsite.org
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About Film Historian Tim Dirks
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Roger Ebert Endorsement
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Filmsite.org
is an award-winning website for classic film buffs, students,
moviegoers and anyone else interested in the great movies of the
last century. Detailed plot synopses, review commentary and
Tim Dirks created the popular
filmsite.org website, aka Greatest Films,
in mid-1996, and the site has now celebrated its landmark 25th
anniversary in 2021. He has been writing about and reviewing
films on the site ever since. Tim originated
Filmsite and has remained its sole contributor,
manager, and editor - he adds significant content to the site
spanning all the years of cinematic history, often writes
blogs and other film-related articles, and has engaged in a
number of on-camera interviews about film.
Film critic and columnist Roger Ebert, author of
The Great Movies (2002), The Great Movies II (2005), and The Great Movies III (2010) made many