This year saw some amazing film releases that not only racked up ticket sales and wowed audiences but also charmed critics.  From big budget spectacles like ‘Beauty & The Beast’, ‘Wonder Woman’ and ‘It’ to smaller surprises like ‘Get Out’, ‘Girls Trip’ and ‘Wonder’, fans showered these films with love and dollars.  But for some other films… well, thank God for the foreign market.  Strong enough performances on a global scale essentially saved ‘Justice League’, ‘Blade Runner 2049’ and even ‘The Mummy’.  While with their marketing budgets added in they were not the profitable hits their studios needed them to be, they at least made back their production costs (at least as far as we can tell).  While these movies may end up on a lot of critics’ Worst of Lists, they were successful enough to NOT land on this one.

Not all films were so fortunate.  Below is a listing of the biggest genre flops of the year:

10. Ghost In The Shell

 

  • Production Budget: $110M
  • Domestic Gross: $40.6M
  • International Gross: $129.2M

Accusations of whitewashing torpedoed this adaptation of a popular Japanese manga and anime series.  The movie actually did okay overseas though but was nowhere near the hit it needed to be to justify sequels.  It wasn’t just the whitewashing that sank ‘Ghost In The Shell’, though.  The movie was all flash and no substance.  Paramount seemed to know it was a stinker and barely screened it for the press in advance of its release.

 

9. The Dark Tower

 

  • Production Budget: $60M
  • Domestic Gross: $50.7M
  • International Gross: $61.1M

This adaptation of Stephen King‘s sprawling novel series was largely dismissed for being too short to do justice to the lengthy book.  It was too rushed and not enough was explained to make it a coherent narrative on its own.  It was also watered down to a PG-13 rating, cutting a lot of the violence of the source.  This planned franchise was scrapped, with plans now underway to turn it into a TV series instead.

 

8. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

 

  • Production Budget: $177M
  • Domestic Gross: $40.5M
  • International Gross: $184.7M

This lavish Luc Besson passion project, based on his favorite French comic book, was all visuals over a turkey of a script.  It’s likely that the property’s obscurity in the U.S. sank it as it did better overseas.  But the most expensive independently financed movie of all time was said to need to make $300M in order to land in the black, which it failed to do.

 

7. Power Rangers

 

  • Production Budget: $100M
  • Domestic Gross: $85.4M
  • International Gross: $57M

This reboot of the early 90s TV series was expected to launch Lionsgate’s newest super franchise.  A mid-credits stinger even teased the introduction of the Green Ranger, Tommy Oliver, the most popular character from the series.  But those hopes were dashed, when after its opening weekend, which drew the die-hards, this film rapidly lost its steam and faded from theaters.  Unlike a lot of movies on this list, the foreign market did not help this one.  It did worse overseas than in the U.S.

 

6. mother!

 

  • Production Budget: $30M
  • Domestic Gross: $17.8M
  • International Gross: $26.7M

Even with a micro-budget, this religious-themed torture porn not only didn’t draw many viewers, those that saw it detested it.  Toxic buzz quickly banished this thriller from theaters.  It did slightly better overseas, but this is still the biggest flop of Jennifer Lawrence’s career.

 

5. Colossal

 

  • Production Budget: $15M
  • Domestic Gross: $3M
  • International Gross: $1.5M

Never heard of it?  You’re not alone.  Another movie made with a micro-budget and filmed in just six weeks, this dark sci-fi comedy stars Anne Hatheway and Jason Sudeikis and was more of an art-house flick.  Despite its tiny budget, it still lost money.

 

4. A Cure For Wellness

 

  • Production Budget: $40M
  • Domestic Gross: $8.1M
  • International Gross: $18.5M

The second Dane DeHaan film on this list, following ‘Valerian’, this suspense thriller directed by Gore Verbinski was heavily marketed by 20th Century Fox, with Super Bowl ads and a viral campaign.  This film tanked, debuting at #10 in the U.S. before vanishing altogether.

 

3. The Space Between Us

 

  • Production Budget: $30M
  • Domestic Gross: $7.9M
  • International Gross: $6.9M

This young adult romance had its release date changed a whopping FIVE times, which couldn’t be a good sign.  The fact that this was an original story and not based on an existing YA novel probably didn’t help.  Young girls failed to turn out for heartthrob Asa Butterfield and probably didn’t know who Gary Oldman was.

 

2. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

 

  • Production Budget: $175M
  • Domestic Gross: $39.2M
  • International Gross: $109.5M

This Guy Ritchie dud lost $26.3M.  This makes his second big budget flop in a row, following ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’.  It was star Charlie Hunnam‘s second major flop as well, after ‘Pacific Rim’.  (Third if you count ‘Crimson Peak’, but he just had a supporting role in that.)  Neither Hunnam nor costar Jude Law were appealing enough to draw audiences.  The movie opened behind not just ‘Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2’ but Amy Schumer comedy ‘Snatched’.  It’s still a mystery as to why Warner Brothers approved such a massive budget.  If the film had been made more modesty, it could have actually made back its budget.  Not only was ‘Legend of the Sword’ intended to kick off a franchise, like many other movies on this list, it was supposed to start a SHARED UNIVERSE featuring spin-off films starring various citizens of Camelot, who could potentially star in their own strings of movies.  Presumably, that won’t happen now.

 

1. Monster Trucks

 

  • Production Budget: $125M
  • Domestic Gross: $33.4M
  • International Gross: $31.1M

This movie was announced in 2013 to be released in 2015 and was– yes– expected to kick off a franchise.  Instead, Viacom announced it was taking “a programming impairment charge” of $115 million for losses from ‘Monster Trucks’ four months before it even opened.  In the end, this movie, starring Lucas Till, lost over $60M, not counting promotion.

Did any of these movies get a bad rap?  Should any of them been bigger hits?  Comment below!