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With the holiday movie season just around the corner and the highly anticipated release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in just a few short weeks, 2015 has been quite a year for hit movies. From continuing installments like Jurassic World and Avengers: Age of Ultron to newer hits like Inside Out and Trainwreck, this past summer scored some of the hottest movies of the year. Even with the holiday season coming in, movies like The Martian, The Peanuts Movie, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 2 are reeling audiences in. However, with every good year of movies, the bad ones are just as rotten.
Daniel Radcliffe‘s fans couldn’t save his new flick Victor Frankenstein from bombing at the box office. The film, a retelling of Mary Shelley’s famous horror novel, only made about $2 million at the box office when it first opened during the Thanksgiving weekend. To top that off, Rotten Tomatoes only gave it a rating of 25%. Now that’s pretty bad. The problem with Victor Frankenstein, though, was it was up against Disney-Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur (the second movie Pixar released this year, along with Inside Out) and Mockingjay-Part 2.
Daniel Radcliffe wasn’t the only hottie that failed to appeal his fans. High School Musical heart-throb Zac Efron starred in We Are Your Friends, a drama about the world of EDM music. The movie opened back in the slow, end of August period, but barely made it to the top 10. The movie was basically Zac Efron being….Zac Efron.
Big budget superhero movies like Avengers should usually score with fans, right? Not in the case of Fantastic Four. This second attempt at creating a big budget version of the superhero quartet was met with miserable reviews (10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and made only $56 million in the box office, well under its $120 million budget. To top it all off, the studio had a dispute with director Josh Tank, who fought back against critics by saying his original vision of the movie was better. The first attempt at a big screen Fantastic Four movie 10 years earlier didn’t do much better review wise but it did do way better in the box office. The sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer, was released two years later.
Fantasy movies didn’t gear very well this year either. Tomorrowland, starring George Clooney, grossed over $200 million in the box-office. That’s sounds good, right? Well…not here. The film reportedly cost about $330 million to make and was met with mixed reviews, thus deeming it a bomb for Disney. The Disney magic of visuals was there in the movie, but the confusing plot was what killed it. But it’s alright. Disney made up for Tomorrowland’s failure with a repertoire of movies the company released this year.
Anyone remember Jupiter Ascending, starring Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum? I don’t either. This sci-fi flick only made around $18 million on it’s opening weekend and was met with mostly negative reviews. It didn’t help that The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water was released the same day, not mention American Sniper was still an audience attraction.
Pan’s case was even worse. The movie only made about $35 million in total with a budget of $150 million. No pixie dust magic could save this version of the boy who never grew up. Between Disney’s cartoon version, Hook with Robin Williams and last year’s Peter Pan Live! with Allison Williams and Christopher Walken, there’s just seemed to be too much Peter Pan in the world.
Even if a movie has really good reviews, it can still fail at the box office. Take Steve Jobs, the biographical pic about the co-founder of Apple. After a limited release, the film only made around $17 million in total. However, Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 84% rating. Then again, didn’t Ashton Kutcher star in a movie about Steve Jobs just two years earlier? ‘Tis true, in the film Jobs. So, why do we need another film about Steve Jobs so soon?
The distinction for biggest bomb of the year, however, goes to Jem and The Holograms. This reinstallment of the campy 1980’s cartoon made only $2 million in the box-office in total, making it the worst wide release by a major studio (Universal, which also owned summer hits Jurassic World, Trainwreck, and Minions) in Hollywood history. Perhaps, many fans were expecting this movie to be just like their favorite sci-fi campy cartoon. What they got instead, however, was a predictable mess set in the millennial age of Youtube.
Rock The Kasbah, starring Bill Murray, opened the same weekend as Jem and didn’t fare much better. The movie only made $3 million at the box office in total. Meanwhile, Sandra Bullock’s political drama Our Band Is Crisis made only about $3 million in its opening weekend, making it the worst wide release of any of her films.
While everyone is thinking about the movies that became hits to audiences, consider the flops that didn’t stick with audiences. Let it also be a lesson for those aspiring to become filmmakers or work in the industry business. It’s a hit or miss with movies. Only time will tell what movies await us in 2016.
Biggest Movie Flops Of 2015
(According to The Wrap)
1. “Jem and the Holograms” (Oct. 23)
Cumulative: $2.1 million; Rotten Tomato score: 20 percent
2. “Rock the Kasbah” (Oct.23)
Cumulative: $2.8 million; Rotten Tomato score: 7 percent
3. “Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse” (Oct. 30)
Cumulative: $3.1 million; Rotten Tomato score: 38 percent
4. “We Are Your Friends” (Aug. 28)
Cumulative: $3.6 million; Rotten Tomato score: 42 percent
5. “Our Brand is Crisis” (Oct. 30)
Cumulative: $5.9 million; Rotten Tomato score: 32 percent
