15 Biggest Box Office Flops of 2011
Per THR:
Many Hollywood studios will be all too happy to forget 2011, which witnessed a troubling dip in moviegoing for much of the year at the domestic box office. There were several high-profile flops that lost tens of millions, including “Mars Needs Moms” and “Cowboys & Aliens.” And, after several record-breaking years, the domestic box revenues are running 4 percent behind 2010 levels. Here’s a glance at the movies largely rejected by audiences.
The 15 movies THR selected as flops are:
Mars Needs Moms
Studio: Disney
Release Date: March 11, 2011
Budget: $150 million
Worldwide Gross: $39 million
Sucker Punch
Studio: Warner Bros.
Stars: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens
Release Date: March 25, 2011
Budget: $82 million
Worldwide gross: $89.8 million
Arthur
Studio: Warner Bros.
Stars: Russell Brand, Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner
Release Date: April 8, 2011
Budget: $40 million-plus
Worldwide Gross: $45.7 million
Green Lantern
Studio: Warner Bros.
Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively
Release Date: June 17, 2011
Budget: $200 million
Worldwide Gross: $219.9 million
Cowboys & Aliens
Studio: DreamWorks/Universal
Stars: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford
Release Date: July 29, 2011
Budget: $163 million
Worldwide Gross: $178.8
Glee: The 3D Concert Movie
Studio: Fox
Stars: Lea Michele, Chris Colfer, Darren Criss
Release Date: Aug. 12
Budget: $9 million
Worldwide Gross: $18.7 millon
Conan the Barbarian
Studio: Lionsgate
Stars: Jason Momoa, Rose McGowan
Release Date: Aug. 19
Budget: $90 million
Wordwide Gross: $48.8 million
I Don’t Know How She Does It
Studio: Weinstein
Stars: Sarah Jessica Parker, Greg Kinnear
Release Date: Sept. 16
Budget: $24 million
Worldwide Gross: $30.5 million
The Thing
Studio: Universal
Stars: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton
Release Date: Oct. 14, 2011
Budget: $38 million
Worldwide Gross: $27.4 million
The Big Year
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Stars: Steve Martin, Jack Black, Owen Wilson
Release Date: Oct. 14, 2011
Budget: $41 million
Worldwide Gross: $7.4 million
The Rum Diary
Studio: GK Films
Stars: Johnny Depp, Aaron Eckhart
Release Date: Oct. 28, 2011
Budget: $45 million
Worldwide Gross: $21.6 million
Anonymous
Studio: Sony (U.S., most foreign territories)
Stars: Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, David Thewlis
Release Date: Oct. 28, 2011
Budget: $30 million
Worldwide Gross: $14.8 million
Tower Heist
Studio: Universal
Stars: Eddie Murphy, Ben Stiller, Matthew Broderick
Release Date: Nov. 4, 2011
Budget: $75 million
Worldwide Gross: $126.3 million
Happy Feet Two
Studio: Warner bros.
Release Date: Nov. 18, 2011
Budget: $135 million
Worldwide Gross to Date: $115 million
New Year’s Eve
Studio: New Line/Warner Bros.
Stars: Ashton Kutcher, Zac Efron, Lea Michele, Halle Berry, Josh Duhamel
Release Date: Dec. 9, 2011
Budget: $56 million
Worldwide Gross to Date: $54.9 million
Okay, a few things. First some of these selections as ‘flops’ seem arbitrary while ignoring other movies. For example, why is Tower Heist on the list [$75M budget / $126M gross], but not Jack and Jill [$79M budget / $88M gross]? Second I suspect some of you are thinking, why would a movie like Tower Heist be considered a flop if its gross is significantly higher than its budget? That’s because you can’t figure it dollar-to-dollar. Rather for every dollar movie costs to be produced, it needs to earn back $3–4 in revenues. In that respect, each of the movies listed above would look to be in the red… although with Hollywood’s mysterious accounting practices, we can’t know that for sure. For example, if Green Lantern was actually a flop, why is Warner Bros. working on a sequel?
What the above list would seem to represent more is the perception in Hollywood of movies that failed or at least seriously underperformed, not necessarily the same thing as actual box office revenue.
My point in posting this list is not to pour virtual salt in studio wounds, but to see if there’s anything we can learn in the way of screenwriting by analyzing these movies.
* Does this list suggest any kinds of movies or story types we might want to avoid?
* Are there any story or concept reasons contributing to the movie’s desultory box office results?
* Are there things the filmmakers could have done from a character or story point of view to have improved any of the above movies?
Finally if you saw any of these movies, why do you think it / they didn’t do well?
Comment Archive