10 Massive Box-Office Bombs of the 2000s: Iconic Flops Ranked

The 2000s were a strange period for Hollywood. It was marked by the excitement of not only a new century but also a new millennium. So, the desire to make it count was strong. The CGI, through its evolution during the 90s, had established itself as a mainstay. All this jumble called on filmmakers to be ambitious and take risks. So, anything that even remotely looked like “franchise” material prompted them to throw nine-figure checks at it.

But, in all this excitement, they were forgetting that the audience actually needs to show up. Instead, they created a delusional “too big to fail” challenge, and the box office was more than happy to accept it.

And then fate would go only one way. It turned out to be a decade of massive swings and even bigger misses. And since the ambitions (read “investments”) were so large, when they collapsed, they didn’t just stumble; they outright cratered. We are talking about such huge financial losses that they shifted the entire trajectory of the industry.

This ranking looks at the financial carnage left behind by the decade’s biggest misfires.

10 Box Office Disasters of the 2000s

10. Evan Almighty (2007)

Written by: Steve Oedekerk | Directed by: Tom Shadyac

Box Office Performance

Production Budget: $175M | Worldwide Gross: $174.4M | Total Loss: $87M

The movie follows Evan Baxter (Steve Carell), a newly elected congressman, who is commanded by God (Morgan Freeman) to build an ark before a massive flood appears. Banking on the success of Bruce Almighty (2003), and vying to make a franchise, Universal Studios gambled big on this one, so much so that it eclipsed Iron Man’s (2008) budget and became the most expensive comedy ever made. The actual 450-foot ark and 200 pairs of exotic animals contributed to the hefty price. If nothing else, it teaches us that a comedy doesn’t really need a blockbuster budget to be funny.

9. Speed Racer (2008)

Written by: The Wachowskis | Directed by: The Wachowskis

Box Office Performance

Production Budget: $120M | Worldwide Gross: $93.9M | Total Loss: $88M

Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch), a professional racing driver, competes in a dangerous cross-country rally to save his family business. While the film’s live-action take on the anime racing series and its visual style were truly revolutionary, the whole thing was just too damn confusing for mainstream audiences. Plus, the marketing failed at defining its tone. In the coming years, the film garnered some cult admiration, but the initial losses were a major blow to the Wachowski sisters’ post-Matrix clout.

8. The Alamo (2004)

Written by: Leslie Bohem and Stephen Gaghan | Directed by: John Lee Hancock

Box Office Performance

Production Budget: $107M | Worldwide Gross: $25.8M | Total Loss: $94M

This historical drama shows the 1836 standoff between a small group of Texans and the Mexican army. To begin with, the film struggled during its production, and to make matters worse, its release date coincided with serious modern blockbusters. The film tried to ride the patriotic sentiment, but proved that it alone cannot carry a bloated budget.

7. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

Written by: Al Reinert and Jeff Vintar | Directed by: Hironobu Sakaguchi

Box Office Performance

Production Budget: $137M | Worldwide Gross: $85.1M | Total Loss: $94M

The film is about two scientists who try to save Earth from an alien invasion using spiritual energy. The movie heavily (and, as appears, entirely) relied on its photorealistic visual style. Sure, it was a technical marvel, but with no soul. In other words, it was an interesting-looking movie that was a narrative mess. The audience couldn’t connect with it. The staggering losses caused Square Pictures to fold. This is a perfect example of the fact that “tech demo” doesn’t qualify as compelling cinema.

6. Stealth (2005)

Written by: W.D. Richter | Directed by: Rob Cohen

Box Office Performance

Production Budget: $135M | Worldwide Gross: $79.3M | Total Loss: $96M

Three elite pilots team up to fight a rogue AI aircraft as it threatens to start a nuclear war. The movie’s plot was razor-thin, and it heavily relied on explosions while ignoring character development almost entirely. The result was a hollow Top Gun lookalike starring robots. This was a major financial hit for Sony and underscored the importance of stronger storytelling in high-concept films.

5. The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)

Written by: Neil Cuthbert | Directed by: Ron Underwood

Box Office Performance

Production Budget: $100M | Worldwide Gross: $7.1M | Total Loss: $96M

In this sci-fi action-comedy, Pluto Nash (Eddie Murphy) owns a nightclub on the moon and fights off space mafia who are trying to take over his business and the moon itself. The ominous signs were there, such as production delays and weak previews. But no one could have guessed exactly how ominous. The movie effectively went down in history for the worst reason when it ended up earning less than 10% of its production budget. It basically turned itself into a punchline for years. It also damaged Eddie Murphy’s reputation as a reliable action lead.

4. A Christmas Carol (2009)

Written by: Robert Zemeckis | Directed by: Robert Zemeckis

Box Office Performance

Production Budget: $200M | Worldwide Gross: $325.3M | Total Loss: $100M

This is a motion-capture retelling of the Dickens classic. If you look at the numbers, outwardly, it looks like it made a profit. But if you factor in the massive marketing and promotion spend, which often equals the production cost, it becomes clear why Disney had to take a $100M write-down on the project. It’s no wonder that the movie effectively splashed water on Hollywood’s short-lived obsession with hyper-realistic “performance capture,” i.e., replacing human actors with their digital clones.

3. Titan A.E. (2000)

Written by: Ben Edlund, John August, and Joss Whedon | Directed by: Don Bluth and Gary Goldman

Box Office Performance

Production Budget: $75M | Worldwide Gross: $36.7M | Total Loss: $100M

In the 31st century, the Earth is destroyed, and a young man named Cale Tucker (Matt Damon) holds the genetic map to a spaceship, “Titan,” which is capable of hosting humanity. The film’s bombing was so severe that it led to the immediate closure of Fox Animation Studios. Today, the film may have achieved a cult following, but at that time, its inability to find an audience ended the space-opera animation subgenre.

2. Flushed Away (2006)

Written by: Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais | Directed by: Sam Fell and David Bowers

Box Office Performance

Production Budget: $149M | Worldwide Gross: $178.3M | Total Loss: $109M

Roddy St. James (Hugh Jackman), a mollycoddled rat, gets flushed into the chaotic London sewers and now must find a way back home. To be fair, the movie received critical acclaim. The problem occurred because of the massive expenditure on CGI to meticulously mimic the look of traditional stop-motion clay animation. This disaster ended the partnership between DreamWorks and Aardman. It proves that obsessing over small, vanity aesthetics might cost you a box office hit, if not your future entirely.

1. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003)

Written by: John Logan | Directed by: Tim Johnson and Patrick Gilmore

Box Office Performance

Production Budget: $60M | Worldwide Gross: $80.8M | Total Loss: $125M

Sinbad (Brad Pitt), a charming pirate, is framed for stealing the Book of Peace and is sentenced to death. When his childhood friend, Prince Proteus (Joseph Fiennes), volunteers to take the sentence instead, Sinbad journeys to the end of the world to retrieve the book. Waning interest in traditional animation caused low turnout, and the movie tanked hard. This failure nearly bankrupted DreamWorks Animation, and it also effectively killed the prospect of any 2D hand-drawn feature for the studio. This movie proves that the audience was already pivoting to the newer, fancier, and fuller 3D aesthetic popularized by Shrek (2001).