Ben Arnold

The Biggest Movie Flops Of 2015

Ben Arnold

November 20, 2015 at 9:02 a.m.

‘Mortdecai’: Johnny Depp chewed the scenery in this madcap action comedy, playing the art swindler of the title. A marmite cast (Ewan McGregor, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Bettany, Jeff Goldblum) and terrible, terrible reviews sealed its fate, as it scored a paltry £30 million, having cost £40 million to make. Don’t need a degree in maths to see the deficit there.

‘Blackhat’: This Michael Mann hacker thriller starred ‘Avengers’ star Chris Hemsworth, but the returns were far from Marvel-ous. It made just £11 million at the box office on a £45 million budget, with middling reviews and a stupid title mostly to blame.

‘Jem And The Holograms’: This movie, based on the 80s cartoon series, did so badly that it broke records. It achieved the worst opening of 2015, with a gross of £919,000 over 2000 screens. That made it the fourth worst opening of all time for a release of that size. After two weeks, and a gross of £1.5 million from its admittedly tiny £3.2 million budget, Universal pulled it from release.

‘We Are Your Friends’: Ill-conceived from the start, this movie about Zac Efron’s wannabe superstar DJ trying to make it big tanked in catastrophic fashion. Despite Efron’s pull in the teen market, it was hammered by critics, hated wholesale by the music industry and made £4.4 million from its £3.9 million budget (so a huge loss after advertising and publicity costs).

‘The Walk’: The amazing true story of French high-wire artist Philippe Petit’s walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 1974 – with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the lead – wasn’t enough to drag people to see Robert 'Back To The Future’ Zemeckis’s movie. It cost £23 million, and only made £27 million back.

‘Unfinished Business’: A comedy about a European business conference starring Vince Vaughn and James Franco’s less popular brother Dave. What could possibly go wrong? Everything, as it happens. Critics called it 'unfunny’, and moviegoers didn’t really call it anything. Having cost £23 million to make, it made back a woeful £9.4 million.

‘The Gunman’: Sean Penn’s gone terribly off the boil since 'Milk’ in 2008. 'The Gunman’ was no exception, a rote assassin thriller which despite a high-quality cast (Javier Bardem, Idris Elba, Mark Rylance, Ray Winstone) did no business whatsoever. It scored £10 million at the box office, having cost £26 million to make.

‘Hot Tub Time Machine 2′: John Cusack dropped out following the first movie, leaving Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry, Clark Duke and new boy Adam Scott the indignity of an £8 million box office from a production budget of £9 million. Presumably a third movie is now on the back burner.

‘Strange Magic’: Based on a story by George Lucas (uh-oh), itself inspired by 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, this unloved animation was a disaster with its B-team voice cast (Alan Cumming, Evan Rachel Wood, Kristen Chenoweth, Maya Rudolph) and its baleful £8 million box office takings. No figures on its production budget, but let’s just say you don’t get much cartoon for £8 million.

‘Child 44′: Tom Rob Smith’s novel was an international best-seller. The movie, produced by Ridley Scott with Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman as a Russian security agent and his commander investigating child murders, was an international disaster. It cost £32 million to make, for the sake of an £8.5 million return.

‘Seventh Son’: If it’s not a Peter Jackson-helmed fantasy, then best of luck. 'Seventh Son’ went the way of so many other swords and sorcery movies in recent years, its stars Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Kit Harington and Alicia Vikander unable to raise it from a critical mauling. At a cost of £62 million, only £72 million came back.

‘Aloha’: Cameron Crowe is sentimental at the best of times, but 'Aloha’ took the biscuit. Smug and self-satisfied, its notable cast (Bradley Cooper, Rachel McAdams, Emma Stone, Bill Murray, Alex Baldwin) couldn’t hide the mess nor the critical derision. With a budget of £24 million – that’s a lot of stars after all – it tanked, making £17 million.

‘Jupiter Ascending’: Where to start. Channing Tatum with pixie ears, alien dynasties and a plot with some rather striking similarities to 'The Matrix’, this Wachowski-directed space opera was a valiantly preposterous disaster, one which will give major studios serious pause for thought next time the sibling moviemakers want a cheque for £115 million to make a film. It made back £120 million.

‘Tomorrowland’: Disney made much of this mystery project while it was in pre-production, a movie inspired by secret boxes found in the vaults of the Mouse House, and helmed by the peerless Brad Bird (who reportedly had to turn down 'Star Wars’ because of it). Lost’s Damon Lindelof didn’t inspire with his story, and the Clooney-fronted movie made just £137 million with a cost of £124 million. But it’s thought that with its marketing costs, it could have lost Disney as much as £90 million.

‘The Last Witch Hunter’: Showing that far from everything Vin Diesel touches turns to gold, this fantasy fluff in the vein of the considerably more profitable 'Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters’ (crossed with a bit of Highlander for good measure, and with a cameo for Sir Michael Caine) was a thorough box office disaster to the tune of £64 million from its £60 million costs.

‘Steve Jobs’: So much in the plus column, but so few in the cinemas to see it. Danny Boyle directing Michael Fassbender in an ensemble cast (see also Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen and Jeff Daniels) in a movie about one of the iconic men of the 20th and 21st century, and it totally tanked, making an embarrassing £13 million on a budget of nearly £20 million. Though critically raved about, the dreadful 'Jobs’, starring Ashton Kutcher, did better, making £23 million in 2013.

‘Burnt’: Actors and directors like eating in expensive restaurants. So they occasionally try to turn this rarified, sometimes volatile world toward dramatic narratives, and it never really works. See Burnt, with its cast featuring Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Omar Sy, Daniel Bruhl, Alicia Vikander, Uma Thurman combined with ladles overflowing with cliches. It made £17 million from its £13 million budget.

‘Crimson Peak’: Some blame the studio marketing folk for misleadingly pitching this lavish Guillermo Del Toro period piece as a horror movie (it’s more like a gothic, supernatural romance). Despite a superb cast featuring Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, Charlie Hunnam and Mia Wasikowska, things didn’t go well at the box office, with a £47.5 million haul from a not insubstantial £36 million (plus marketing) budget.

‘By The Sea’: Though it’s not opened globally just yet, it would take a miracle for Brad and Angelina Jolie-Pitt’s 'passion project’ set in 1970s France to turn a profit. Stopping just short of singing the theme tune, the Jolie-Pitts wrote, produced, directed and starred in this beautiful-looking but critically-pounded drama, and will have to pray to see the £6.5 million investment back. At the time of writing, it’s only made £267,000.

‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’: A remake no one really wanted, Clooney was in line for the lead role, but walked. Every leading man in Hollywood was then considered, even Tom Cruise, despite his Mission: Impossible gig. In the end, the underwhelming Armie Hammer, still with the stink of 'The Lone Ranger’ on him, signed up, along with Henry Cavill, fresh from 'Man of Steel’. The results, middling, with a box office of £69 million, and a production bill of £49 million.

‘Entourage’: The show of choice for frat-bros the world was a cameo bonanza. Jessica Alba, Tom Brady, Jon Favreau, Kelsey Grammer, Mike Tyson, Ronda Rousey and Piers Morgan (eww) featured, but it couldn’t pull Vince, Ari and co. out of a box office funk. Costing £18 million (with rumours of unseemly pay demands by its stars before film even began rolling), it made back a dismal £29 million.

‘The Cobbler’: Nothing pleases the critics like an Adam Sandler flop. And this one was an absolute doozy. A lumpen fantasy in which Sandler’s character, a cobbler, magically assumes the identity of his clients once he tries on their shoes (IN THEIR SHOES, GEDDIT), everyone hated it. As such, it was a financial catastrophe, making just £15,721. At a cost of £6.5 million. Unsurprisingly, it was one of the few projects the business-savvy Sandler didn't self-produce.

‘Mortdecai’: Johnny Depp chewed the scenery in this madcap action comedy, playing the art swindler of the title. A marmite cast (Ewan McGregor, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Bettany, Jeff Goldblum) and terrible, terrible reviews sealed its fate, as it scored a paltry £30 million, having cost £40 million to make. Don’t need a degree in maths to see the deficit there.

‘Mortdecai’: Johnny Depp chewed the scenery in this madcap action comedy, playing the art swindler of the title. A marmite cast (Ewan McGregor, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Bettany, Jeff Goldblum) and terrible, terrible reviews sealed its fate, as it scored a paltry £30 million, having cost £40 million to make. Don’t need a degree in maths to see the deficit there.

We round-up the blockbuster films that have failed to find an audience this year. Johnny Depp fans, look away now…

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