This was kind of a weird year at the box office. The highest-grossing film of the year involved Burt Macklin saving the universe alongside a talking tree and an angry raccoon while a sequel to a gritty box office smash ended up tanking and tanking hard. Well, IGN has compiled a list of the biggest flops of the year, and with a little math, I’ve put them together in order of which ones lost the most money. So without further ado, let’s see the thirteen biggest cash pits …
#13 Left Behind
Total Budget: $27 Million
Worldwide Gross: $19,682,924
Total Loss: -$7,317,076#12 Vampire Academy
Total Budget: $26 Million
Worldwide Gross: $15,631,979
Total Loss: -$10,368,021#11 Men, Women & Children
Total Budget: $16 Million
Worldwide Gross: $1,705,908
Total Loss: -$14,294,092#10 Draft Day
Total Budget: $50 Million
Worldwide Gross: $29,765,237
Total Loss: -$20,234,763#9 I, Frankenstein
Total Budget: $90 Million
Worldwide Gross: $71,519,465
Total Loss: -$18,480,535#8 The Identical
Total Budget: $32 Million
Worldwide Gross: $2,840,991
Total Loss: -$21,159,009#7 The Legend of Hercules
Total Budget: $80 Million
Worldwide Gross: $57,671,538
Total Loss: -$22,328,462#6 Get On Up
Total Budget: $55 Million
Worldwide Gross: $32,403,100
Total Loss: -$22,596,900#5 Transcendence
Total Budget: $135 Million
Worldwide Gross: $103,039,258
Total Loss: -$31,960,742#4 Sabotage
Total Budget: $55 Million
Worldwide Gross: $18,014,052
Total Loss: -$36,985,948#3 Sin City: A Dame To Kill For
Total Budget: $90 Million
Worldwide Gross: $39,499,349
Total Loss: -$50,500,651#2 Winter’s Tale
Total Budget: $80 Million
Worldwide Gross: $27,442,231
Total Loss: -$52,557,769#1 Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return
Total Budget: $85 Million
Worldwide Gross: $18,675,347
Total Loss: -$66,324,653
(A quick note about all this: All facts and figures were taken from IGN. I just calculated the loss on each movie and put them in order of biggest total loss. Pompeii was originally on IGN’s loss, but I took it off just because it actually slightly exceeded its budget. Not by much, but still, Pyrrhic victory on their part.)
So there you have it: The biggest box office flop was an $85 Million animated Wizard of Oz sequel you’ve never heard of, which probably explains why it flopped so hard. I guess it goes to show that you can only milk an intellectual property for so long before hitting the point of diminishing returns.