Hollywood's Biggest Turkeys This Year

[terryr]

Hollywood's Biggest Turkeys Of 2010 according to Forbes. Some surprises.

Dorothy Pomerantz, 11.22.10, 01:00 PM EST

LOS ANGELES -- This year will likely produce the biggest box office of all time on an unadjusted basis. Moviegoers have already shelled out $9 billion on tickets and two films, Alice in Wonderland and Toy Story 3, have each earned more than $1 billion.

But that doesn't mean 2010 didn't have its share of failures. Topping our list of the year's biggest turkeys is Jonah Hex. Based on a graphic novel, the film starred Josh Brolin as a disfigured bounty hunter and Megan Fox as a tough prostitute. Not even fanboys could get behind the film, which scored a scant 13 out of 100 on Rotten Tomatoes. The film earned back only 24% of its estimated production budget of $47 million at the box office.

While Josh Brolin continues to get work (he'll next appear in a remake of True Grit), the film's failure won't help Megan Fox's career. The actress has yet to star in a successful film outside of the Transformers series, and she was recently kicked off of that rich franchise.
In Pictures: The Biggest Turkeys Of 2010

To compile our list, we looked at worldwide theatrical grosses for the top 200 films to date of 2010 and their estimated budgets (numbers courtesy of Box Office Mojo) to determine what percentage of a film's budget was earned back at the box office.

It used to be that even a bomb had a good chance of making up some of its losses on home video. Not anymore. DVD sales are off 19% since 2006 with no signs of that market coming back as cheap rentals from Redbox and Netflix ( NFLX - news - people ) outweigh purchases of expensive Blu-ray DVDs.

Ranking second behind Jonah Hex is Extraordinary Measures. One of the first releases from the new feature film wing of CBS ( CBS - news - people ), the movie starred Harrison Ford as a crusty doctor trying to help Brendan Fraser's sick kids. Critics said the film had a TV movie-of-the-week feel, which apparently didn't draw people to the theaters. The film earned only $15 million on an estimated $31 million budget, meaning it earned back only 48% of its budget.

Sherlock was Robert Downey Jr. Jude law is loved by Hollywood but the general public hates him - can't act, boring and cheats on his wife ...

In third place: Repo Men, starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker. The futuristic thriller from troubled Universal Pictures was made for only an estimated $32 million, but it failed to perform at the box office, earning only $18 million, or 56% of its budget. Luckily for Law his previous film, Sherlock Holmes, was the highest grossing of his career.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World lands in fourth place. The Universal film had all the hype in the world going into its Aug. 13 opening. The movie had worked fanboys into a lather at the recent Comic-Con and critics generally liked the film.

Nonetheless, the comic book tale of a boy fighting his new girlfriend's seven evil exes flopped, earning only $46 million on an estimated $60 million budget.

Four of the films on our list actually managed to earn back 100% of their production budgets, but in Hollywood, that's still a sign of failure. Studios on average collect about 50% of the box office receipts. Then advertising can cost as much as an additional 50% of a movie's production budget. So in order to even begin to turn a profit, a movie needs to earn back a multiple of its production budget. For example Toy Story 3, the highest-grossing film of 2010 so far, earned five times its $200 million budget at the box office alone.

Furry Vengeance is one of those films that only earned back its production budget. The movie came from former eBay ( EBAY - news - people ) head Jeff Skoll's Participant Media, which is the company behind such high-brow documentaries as An Inconvenient Truth and Food, Inc. Furry Vengeance was meant to be a fun family movie (again starring Brendan Fraser) with an environmental message as the forest creatures attack an unscrupulous developer. But the message fell on deaf ears. Furry Vengeance cost an estimated $35 million to make and earned about that at the box office.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Maybe they should try making better films!?

 

[defstartrooper]

Where are the surprises ?

 

[0neiros]

I like Jude Law, The "He can't act" statement is a lot of crap. Scott Pilgrim flopped because casting Michael Cera in the lead was a big mistake. He is the penultimate ***** (another word for cat and a reference to a female body part) and it just isn't believable he'd win a fight with 1, let alone 7, badguys, EVEN if he had Dirty Harry as his Wingman. Sherlock did far better in DVD rentals, and I enjoyed it as a dvd. let's face it, there are a lot of movies that no one wants to shell out $7-12 bucks for at the theater, but for Rentals etc. they're fine.

 

[MooMooEgg]

More like Universal didn't know how to market Scott Pilgrim. Did you see the movie poster for the film? It was Scott hunched over playing the bass. It made you think it was a movie solely about music or something without any of the crazy comic booky/video gamey stuff. And I don't recall too many commercials to advertise the film either.

 

[Probe Droid]

Having watched Splice yesterday, I'd add that to the list. A train wreck.

 

[0neiros]

Yeah, Splice was truly disturbing. Brody and Polley were bigger monsters than Dren, they had no basic morals whatsoever, I just wished at the end of the film they had all died.

 

[Qui-Gonzalez]

I like Jude Law, The "He can't act" statement is a lot of crap. Scott Pilgrim flopped because casting Michael Cera in the lead was a big mistake. He is the penultimate ***** (another word for cat and a reference to a female body part) and it just isn't believable he'd win a fight with 1, let alone 7, badguys, EVEN if he had Dirty Harry as his Wingman. Sherlock did far better in DVD rentals, and I enjoyed it as a dvd. let's face it, there are a lot of movies that no one wants to shell out $7-12 bucks for at the theater, but for Rentals etc. they're fine.

I didn't think they were saying Sherlock flopped. I think they are saying Jude Law lucked into that role, yet when he was a lead (Repo Men) he was not enough to carry a movie.

As far as Scott Pilgrim, poster be damned. There were trailers for it in pert near every movie I saw and I was SOOO uninterested. I can't even be bothered to rent it. Yes, it is because of Michael Cera.

Who the hell keeps offering these guys roles?

 

[Hogosha]

Although visually appealing........."The Last Airbender" was horrible.

 

[Qui-Gonzalez]

Although visually appealing........."The Last Airbender" was horrible.

I just redboxed that one and I was left wondering why they did not use an Asian kid for the lead role. The story seems like a decent one. I'll have to see the cartoon.

 

[Contec]

? No karate kid?...that one did suck.

 

[Qui-Gonzalez]

I think they are looking at biggest financial bombs.

 

[The Manlet]

Maybe they should try making better films!?

What?! With actual story line plot, Character Development? You speak madness!

 

[nickytea]

What?! With actual story line plot, Character Development? You speak madness!

Let's be clear, each of these movies HAS a storyline, a plot, and character development. It just so happens that what they have is usually terrible. :lol

 

[SVTStingRay]

skyline was a abortion of a movie. i sneaked into watching that movie and was so pissed by the ending that i was tempted to ask for my money back.

 

[0neiros]

Heh, our local rag has a motherly 50ish woman who reviews the movies. Generally she's nice, advises if the movies are Family, kid, or teen friendly etc. She ripped skyline to pieces, totally spoilered the ending so people wouldn't waste their money on it. I laughed. I wouldn't even Torrent this thing, and won't bother with Scott Pilgrim in any way shape or form either.

 

[Jeyl]

I actually saw Scott Pilgrim at the theaters for free thanks to Universal Pictures handing out free passes to comic book stores. I had severe reservations about Michael Cera in the lead since there's something about him I do not like at all. I don't what it is exactly, he just is.

But still, I gave the film a try. It sucked. Though the film was visually appealing and the audio was fantastic, I just couldn't get passed the fact that this was a Michael Cera vehicle and he wasn't making this viewing experience any fun for me.

Hearing the news that Scott Pilgrim bombed was kind of refreshing. Only problem was how it may have Edger Wright's career. I'm just glad Michael Cera is no longer a bankable actor.

Oh, as for Jonah Hex? It's directed by a guy who came from Pixar. That's just sad.

 

[terryr]

I'm surprised Scott Pilgrim bombed. I never wanted to see it, but with all the hype and advertising around it, I thought it did well. Ceras' 'standard character' is played out. Ten movies, one expression.

I didn't even hear about the Harrison Ford thing.

Repo Men? Taking back people organs if they don't pay?! Gross and stupid.

 

[Wes R]

I wish transformers had been a financial bomb so they could stop ruining childhood memories. To be honest most of the movies released in 2010 were crap. The Scott Pilgrim comics and videogame are way better, it should have been an animated movie. Jonah Hex looked good until i saw Megan fox in it and that makes me not even want to rent it for a buck. Its only going to get worse as the really good screen writers and directors all retire or die of old age and the studios continue to meddle in the making of movies instead of just paying for them.
Plus the love of remakes isn't going to help any either. At least the remakes are always worse than the originals.

 

[mez7]

I just redboxed that one and I was left wondering why they did not use an Asian kid for the lead role. The story seems like a decent one. I'll have to see the cartoon.

the cartoon is awesome.....the movie is one of those things where they cram the whole stroy into an hour 45.....how is that even going to start to bring the story to life>?
they should have made it a trilogy (at least)....and had a better director.

skyline was a abortion of a movie. i sneaked into watching that movie and was so pissed by the ending that i was tempted to ask for my money back.

but skyline is still not a turkey, it made its money back on opening weekend......i have heard its quite terrible though....
same with karate kid...made more than its money back..not a turkey
bad movies yes, turkey in the sense of this article..... no