The Numbers: Top 10 Biggest Box Office Bombs

This season has already seen a few films lose a substantial amount of money at the box office, including Alternative which has become the biggest bomb in the history of the studio. For this latest edition of The Numbers, we will look at the 10 biggest bombs in studio history and and disect them a little bit to look for any common trends. To help analyze the films, we asked a selection of writers and critics to give each of the films a score between 1-5 for a number of different categories.

The Categories:
-Star Power (name recognition of cast and director)
-Plot (how good AND marketable the plot is)
-Genre Appeal (how popular the genre of the film is)
-Source Material Recognition (how well-known is the source material - only applies to adaptations)
-Audience (how big the audience for this film should be - family friendly action movies obviously have a larger potential audience than an R-rated dark comedy)
-Poster Quality (quality of poster and how well it represents the film in question)
-Overall Film Quality

Top 10 Biggest Box Office Bombs

10. High Society

Budget: $161,000,000
Domestic Box Office: $88,723,019
Foreign Box Office: $125,103,259
Total Profit: -$46,357,838

Star Power: 5
Plot: 3.5
Genre Appeal: 4.25
Audience: 3
Poster Quality: 3.75
Overall Film Quality: 3.25
Average Score: 3.8
Conclusion: The controversy surrounding the film's release didn't help matters, but this one simply cost too much money for a thriller. This film did have its supporters though with high home video sales making sure the film didn't lose even more money than it did.


9. Raptor Red

Budget: $150,000,000
Domestic Box Office: $114,543,091
Foreign Box Office: $117,013,369
Total Profit: -$49,410,038

Star Power: 1.75
Plot: 2.75
Genre Appeal: 3.5
Source Material Recognition: 2.25
Audience: 3.25
Poster Quality: 4
Overall Film Quality: 3.5
Average Score: 3
Conclusion: This film was always a risky endeavor. No cast to market the film around, just the effects and the director's name. In hindsight, the studio really should have added voices to this one - it being a silent film severely hindered its chances at the box office.


8. Fevre Dream

Budget: $74,000,000
Domestic Box Office: $37,054,088
Foreign Box Office: $42,764,671
Total Profit: -$49,761,356

Star Power: 5
Plot: 3.25
Genre Appeal: 2.25
Source Material Recognition: 3.25
Audience: 2.5
Poster Quality: 2.75
Overall Film Quality: 3
Average Score: 3.1
Conclusion: The studio figured horror story written by a popular writer was a sure thing - especially given the A-List pedigree of its cast. Ultimately though, there just wasn't enough of an audience for this period supernatural drama. Maybe if it had been marketed as more of a traditional horror story there would have been more of an audience.


7. Dead Space

Budget: $77,000,000
Domestic Box Office: $25,799,078
Foreign Box Office: $51,088,265
Total Profit: -$57,807,532

Star Power: 3.5
Plot: 2.75
Genre Appeal: 4.5
Source Material Recognition: 3.75
Audience: 4
Poster Quality: 2
Overall Film Quality: 2.75
Average Score: 3.3
Conclusion: This one looked good on paper, but it may have felt to familiar to the superior films of the Alien series. This Sci-Fi/Horror film just didn't stand out enough in its plot and marketing to make it big at the box office.


6. The Job

 










Budget: $46,000,000
Domestic Box Office: $39,946,010
Foreign Box Office: $27,427,828
Total Profit: -$57,964,586

Star Power: 3.25
Plot: 3
Genre Appeal: 3
Audience: 2.75
Poster Quality: 2.75
Overall Film Quality: 2.75
Average Score: 2.9
Conclusion: This one doesn't look too bad on paper, but the film made practically no money on the home video market. The lack of a marketable actor in the lead role did not help this film one bit.


5. Invisible Monsters

 













Budget: $53,000,000
Domestic Box Office: $28,815,044
Foreign Box Office: $35,122,141
Total Profit: -$68,665,327

Star Power: 3.75
Plot: 2.75
Genre Appeal: 2
Source Material Recognition: 3
Audience: 1.75
Poster Quality: 3.5
Overall Film Quality: 3.25
Average Score: 2.9
Conclusion: While an entertaining film, it simply cost too damn much in relation to its genre and how difficult the premise was to market.


4. Blue Heat

 










Budget: $100,000,000
Domestic Box Office: $55,802,334
Foreign Box Office: $76,921,777
Total Profit: -$80,090,489

Star Power: 4.25
Plot: 3
Genre Appeal: 5
Source Material Recognition: 2.5
Audience: 4.25
Poster Quality: 5
Overall Film Quality: 2.25
Average Score: 3.75
Conclusion: Will Smith isn't quite the box office draw he once was, couple that with a played out and out-dated plot and the results were not good.


3. The Story of the Assassin

 










Budget: $80,000,000
Domestic Box Office: $25,996,702
Foreign Box Office: $47,255,313
Total Profit: -$81,560,111

Star Power: 2
Plot: 2.25
Genre Appeal: 3
Audience: 2
Poster Quality: 3.5
Overall Film Quality: 2.25
Average Score: 2.5
Conclusion: A big period set in the Middle East with an almost entirely unknown cast. This film didn't really stand much of a chance.

2. Lost Planet

Budget: $95,000,000
Domestic Box Office: $31,110,491
Foreign Box Office: $33,400,899
Total Profit: -$99,010,220

Star Power: 2.75
Plot: 2.5
Genre Appeal: 4.25
Source Material Recognition: 2.25
Audience: 3.25
Poster Quality: 3.25
Overall Film Quality: 2.75
Average Score: 3
Conclusion: With a generic premise and no big name stars, this film failed to stand out from the other similar Sci-Fi/Action films in recent years.


1. Alternative

Budget: $110,000,000
Domestic Box Office: $21,932,178
Foreign Box Office: $33,900,999
Total Profit: -$124,078,444

Star Power: 2.5
Plot: 3.25
Genre Appeal: 3.25
Audience: 2.75
Poster Quality: 4.5
Overall Film Quality: 2.25
Average Score: 3.1
Conclusion: A large budget, an unproven cast, and a director in a slump were clearly a recipe for disaster with this film.