How Big Must a Flop Be to Ruin a Career?

[ScarletNumber]

I think Kevin Smith’s studio career is pretty much over after Zach & Miri and Cop Out.

[Evil_Captor]

@Death_of_Rats

Note the correlation between “Starring Ben Stiller” and “Produced by Ben Stiller” in his recent resume. The studios are willing to let you do a lot more when it is your money.

nvm

[Evil_Captor]

@garygnu

Well, good and profitable are not the same things. To a studio, it’s worth risking an Along Came Polly if you could get a Meet the Parents.

In the case of the films I mentioned, they were fine, serviceable comedies. Good, even.

[astorian]

@GuanoLad

It will be interesting to see if Andrew Stanton ever directs another live action movie, after John Carter. I certainly don’t think he’ll be given such an enormous budget again, anyway.

I’m sure he’ll be welcome back to direct Pixar movies, but I don’t think he’s likely t work with flesh and blood actors again.

[DMark]

@Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela

I haven’t seen anything of Elizabeth Berkeley since she was blamed for the failure of ‘Showgirls’.

Funny side note: I was standing in a hallway at MGM a few months after the Showgirls bomb had hit. Elizabeth Berkeley was being escorted to one of the offices and a few of the MGM bigwigs were walking through the hallway at the same time. The man escorting Elizabeth saw the bigwigs and introduced them:

“This is the actress, Elizabeth Berkeley.”
Bigwig one: “Nice to meet you!”
Bigwig two: “Thanks for stopping by, you were great!”
Bigwig three: “Pleasure to meet you - have I seen any films you were in?”
Dead silence.
Finally, escort says, “Showgirls.”
Bigwig three: “Oh. That.”

Let’s just say it was more than an awkward moment that I will never forget.

[Mister_Rik]

@NDP

First, I think one of the main reasons Cage has been in a lot of crappy movies over the last decade is that he’s got money problems and needs the quick paychecks.

I can’t remember who it was, but I heard an anecdote about some well-known actor who had been in a bunch of stinkers. Some fan or reporter asked him, “Why have you been in so many bad movies?”

Flabbergasted, the actor replied, “I’m an actor! It’s what I do!” (His point being, “This is my job - if I don’t act, I don’t earn a living”.)

[phreesh]

Pauly Shore seems to have used up all his goodwill. He made a truckload of money for years, but the crap crept up on him.

One wonders when Adam Sandler will stop making money. A) He has enough today to be fabulously wealthy forever B) Probably never.

[msmith537]

@phreesh

One wonders when Adam Sandler will stop making money. A) He has enough today to be fabulously wealthy forever B) Probably never.

Sandler’s worth like a $300 M so he probably just likes making films about retarded man-boys dating whatever hot girl he gets to start with him (Brooklyn Decker, Jennifer Anniston, Salma Hayek, Drew Barrymore, whoever.)

@Mister Rik

Originally Posted by NDP
First, I think one of the main reasons Cage has been in a lot of crappy movies over the last decade is that he’s got money problems and needs the quick paychecks.

I can’t remember who it was, but I heard an anecdote about some well-known actor who had been in a bunch of stinkers. Some fan or reporter asked him, “Why have you been in so many bad movies?”

Flabbergasted, the actor replied, “I’m an actor! It’s what I do!” (His point being, “This is my job - if I don’t act, I don’t earn a living”.)

I recall a similar story about an actor saying how some “bomb” payed for his beach house.

[D_Odds]

@msmith537

I recall a similar story about an actor saying how some “bomb” payed for his beach house.

That was Oscar winner Sir Michael Caine talking about Jaws 3D (or it could have been Jaws 4).

[Leaper]

Perhaps you’re thinking of:

@Michael Caine

I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.

[Ethilrist]

The people responsible for Krull seem to have been getting regular work, so grossing $16 million for a movie that cost $27 million to make doesn’t count as big enough.

[etv78]

@msmith537

Sandler’s worth like a $300 M so he probably just likes making films about retarded man-boys dating whatever hot girl he gets to start with him (Brooklyn Decker, Jennifer Anniston, Salma Hayek, Drew Barrymore, whoever.)

I recall a similar story about an actor saying how some “bomb” payed for his beach house.

“Money Dear Boy”

[JMH125]

I think huge flops are more likely to ruin director’s careers, more so than the actors. Especially if a director has 2 or more flops in a row, many studios wouldn’t finance another project.

But this does not explain Uwe Boll’s consistent regurgitation of films for so many years now.

[JMH125]

well, this answers my own question about Boll:

**Films

Boll’s first two major releases were the horror movie Blackwoods and the drama Heart of America, both of which he directed and co-wrote.

Boll is best-known for adapting video games into movies, having directed and produced a number of such adaptations, including House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, Alone in the Dark II, BloodRayne, BloodRayne II: Deliverance,[7] BloodRayne: The Third Reich, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, Postal and Far Cry.

In the opening credits to Seed (2007), Boll used footage of animal abuse and torture he acquired from PETA to underscore the film’s nihilism. He has also promised to donate 2.5 percent of his net profits from Seed to PETA.[8]
Financing

Boll’s movies have often performed poorly at the box office in the United States. House of the Dead, which was budgeted at $12 million, made $5.73 million in its opening weekend,[9] Alone in the Dark, which was budgeted at $20 million, made $5.1 million,[10] and BloodRayne, which was made for $25 million, made $2.42 million.[11] The least profitable commercial performance of his career was In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, which made barely $10 million worldwide at the box office on a $60 million budget.

Until the law was changed in 2005, Boll was able to acquire funding for his movies thanks to German tax laws that reward investments in film. The law allowed investors in German-owned films to write off 100% of their investment as a tax deduction; it also allowed them to invest borrowed money and write off any fees associated with the loan. The investor was then only required to pay taxes on the profits made by the movie; if the movie loses money, the investor would get a tax writeoff.[citation needed]

In the DVD commentary of Alone in the Dark, Boll explains how he funds his films: “Maybe you know it but it’s not so easy to finance movies in total. And the reason I am able to do these kind of movies is I have a tax shelter fund in Germany, and if you invest in a movie in Germany you get basically fifty percent back from the government.”

Boll has received a lot of negative publicity regarding this funding method.[12]**

Uwe Boll | Films

[Evil_Captor]

@msmith537

Sandler’s worth like a $300 M so he probably just likes making films about retarded man-boys dating whatever hot girl he gets to start with him (Brooklyn Decker, Jennifer Anniston, Salma Hayek, Drew Barrymore, whoever.)

I recall a similar story about an actor saying how some “bomb” payed for his beach house.

Micheal Caine, Jaws 3. “I have not seen Jaws 3, I understand that it is a terrible movie. I have seen the house that the money from that movie built, and it is magnificent!”

[Labrador_Deceiver]

@garygnu

Well, good and profitable are not the same things. To a studio, it’s worth risking an Along Came Polly if you could get a Meet the Parents.

Along Came Polly grossed $172 million.

[JMH125]

@Evil_Captor

Micheal Caine, Jaws 3. “I have not seen Jaws 3, I understand that it is a terrible movie. I have seen the house that the money from that movie built, and it is magnificent!”

I thought that was Jaws 4? J3 was at the water park with Dennis Quaid.

[a35362]

@DigitalC

I don’t think it’s one big flop but several in a row that will do you in. Take Michael Cera, a few years ago he was in new movie every other month because of arrested development, Juno and Superbad. But he followed that with Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist, Year One, Youth in Revolt and Scott Pilgrim vs the World and now all the awkward teenager movie roles are going to the Facebook movie guy.

In Michael Cera’s case it has to do with his “look,” though, right? I mean, how long can he go on playing the awkward teenager/young adult role?

I wonder the same thing about Elijah Wood, actually, but he seems to be doing just fine.

[Evil_Captor]

@JMH125

I thought that was Jaws 4? J3 was at the water park with Dennis Quaid.

I suppose so. They all kinda blur together.

[DragonAsh]

How can this thread exist and not have anyone mention Travolta’s eyeball-gougingly bad Battlefield Earth? It’s one of only two movies I’ve ever stopped watching midway through.

I don’t think it completely ruined his career - he can probably live 10 full lives on Pulp Fiction alone - but has he really done anything since?