Here’s a list of the top ten money-losing movies of all time:
http://topten-results.tripod.com/MovieFlops.html
Note the amounts given are the money lost on the film, not the amount spent. These amounts are everything spent on the film minus everything earned.
Then of course there have been many movies that were just shelved once they were completed and never grossed a dime. The $25 million Anthony Hopkins/Alec Baldwin movie THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER has been sitting on shelves for almost two years because the studio doesn’t believe it would even gross the amount it would cost to distribute it, which makes you wonder, why did they make it in the first place? I’ve never worked behind the scenes in Hollywood and I can tell you that this isn’t a movie to invest $25 million in unless you need a tax-write-off.
Of all the ones on the http://topten-results.tripod.com/MovieFlops.html list, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is the least deserving of it. That movie was great!
I find it hard to believe Chris Eliot’s Cabin Boy isn’t listed. It cost upwards of $60 million and made nothing.
I agree, Hail Ants. As you can see from my list of favorite films, I thought The Adventures of Baron Munchausen was a great movie:
It’s possible that it made diddly squat at the domestic box office, but managed to rake in enough nickle and dimes overseas. The IMDB only lists the U.S. box office take, it may have made more in foreign markets.
(I do agree though, the U.S. box office take was $3.2 million. If it cost $60 million to produce and promote - ouch!)
Technically, the Fantastic Four movie made a profit, despite not being released at all. Bern Eichinger made the movie in order to extend his option, which was going to run out at the end of 1992. He had Roger Corman produce the flick for as little as $750,000. He then bought the movie back for $1,000,000, so it never saw the light of day.
Despite the low budget, it apparently has decent FX for the Thing and the Human Torch.