Financial Flops of The Silver Screen

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Do the biggest box office failures lose a few million? Ten million? More? Much more. The worst miscalculations in movies have lost more than $50 million apiece. They have embarrassed their actors, directors and producers and in some cases become running jokes about poor cinema.

No One Wanted a Speed 2

‘Speed‘ did well at the box office, so why not make a sequel? Well, for starters, it’s a story that just isn’t likely to happen again. And on a boat? Even weirder. Speed 2 was so bad that even Keanu Reeves didn’t want to touch it. But hey- why not sink $160 million into it? That was apparently the reasoning, and it created one of the biggest flops in movie history. How much did it lose? Click on the graphic to find out. You could probably buy a country for what that movie alone lost its investors.

If You’re Going to Make a Comic Book Movie- Read the Comic!

Comic book fans don’t really care much about the story that’s actually in those comics, right? Boy, are you ever wrong. Comic book fans are serious about their storylines, something that “Catwoman” didn’t respect. That alienated the main fan base behind the movie, resulting in a spectacular flop. The movie cost $100 million, and it earned back only a fraction of that amount. How bad was it? See the graphic for details.

Going Postal Over Box Office Failure

Hey- who doesn’t want to see hours of close-ups of Kevin Costner delivering the mail? Apparently, a lot of people. So few people went to see ‘The Postman’ that it lost even more than ‘Catwoman.’ Click to see the full numbers. It wouldn’t be surprising if this snoozefest made people shy away from the real post office out of frustration.

Basically, Use Better Instinct

‘Basic Instinct’ was a huge success when it was released in 1992. Everyone was talking about Sharon Stone and her many risqué scenes. Fourteen years later? Not so much. ‘Basic Instinct 2′ was a ridiculous idea that almost no one was interested in. Art house films with no advertising have a chance of earning more at the box office that this sequel did. Earning just $6 million, the loss was enormous. See the graphic for the total price tag of the movie and to see just what a huge embarrassment it really was.

Why do movies flop? Often it’s a combination of a bad plot, bad timing and not enough interest in the subject matter. Sometimes it’s that these flops were built around an actor that the public was tired of seeing. No, Kevin Costner, America did not want to see you in ‘The Postman’ or ‘Water World.’ What else rounds out the list of spectacular movie flops? See the bad, the bad and the ugly by checking out the graphic.