There are countless websites and publications that track which movies grossed the most cash–in fact the industry seems obsessed with it, really–but I can’t find any authoritative (or even half-assed) list of which movies were the biggest losers for their respective studios.
I know that “Heaven’s Gate” brought down the studio that made it, and that “One From The Heart” destroyed Coppola’s film company, but I can’t find hard numbers on just what the difference was between production costs and domestic box-office (I realize that many films make up lost ground overseas and on video, but since domestic cume seems to be the standard of the winners, I propose we use it as a standard for the losers too.)
So does anyone know of an updated list, or care to propose one based on known numbers? I know last year’s “Titan A.E.” bankrupted Fox’s animation studios, and that current tanker “Final Fantasy” cost $125 million and is looking like it’ll barely bring in $40 million. Also, I heard that Sony’s “First Knight” from a few years back and “Cutthroat Island” both lost almost $100 million each.
Is anyone out there a maven of info on this? I would have thought that by now someone would have published a list, since failure always makes good news. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.
Adjusting for inflation, Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate gives it a run for its money. According to the IMDB, it cost $44 million and only made $1.5. Adjusting 1980 dollars (using a percentage from Mrshowbiz.com) to current dollars, that’s a cost of $65,465,000 with a return of only $2,231,761. This means it only made 3.4% of its money back, while Town and Country made 7.46%. So T&C may have lost more money, but Heaven’s Gate’s performance was twice as bad.
My 1996 edition of the Guiness Book credits the 1993 film Last Action Hero as the biggest loser, coming up short by about $80 million. Percentagewise, though, it did quite well compared to some of the other films listed so far.
Hecubus, the Internet Movie Database includes box office returns for many movies. According to their figures, It’s Pat grossed only $60,822.
Incidentally, I wouldn’t count out Final Fantasy just yet. While it may not do so well in the US, it will probably recoup its budget in Japan.
For absolute numbers, “Cutthroat Island” and “Town and Country” are currently duking it out for the top spot, with losses of approx. $85 million each (exact figures, of course, depend on which estimates of the films’ costs you use).
However, if you adjust for inflation, “Cleopatra” from 1962 would edge them out, as its $18 million loss is equivalent to more than $90 million in today’s dollars.
Of course, its possible that an even older film has a larger inflation-adjusted loss. (What would the losses on, for example, D.W. Griffith’s “Intolerance” from 1916 be equal to?)
Actually, MrShowBiz has an all-time box-office list and Cleopatra is listed in 36th place, with a $57,777,778 gross listed. In addition, if you compare the adjusted gross they use, based partially on rereleases ($293,591,731) with the adjusted production cost of $44M (as listed by the IMDB) of 1963 dollars ($253,748,558, calculated here), we find that the film actually is ahead by $40M dollars. Hmmm…
As for Intolerance, I don’t believe Variety started tracking box office figures until the late 20s, so this will be much harder to nail down (or even guesstimate).
Well, for what it’s worth, both the “Book of Lists 3” and the IMDB list “Cleopatra” as having a production cost of $44 million and film rentals of $26 million, for a loss of $18 million. Maybe they’re ignoring re-releases. Double Hmmmm…
Here’s a couple of articles about the closing of Fox Animation which indirectly blame its failure on “Titan AE”’s flopping:
This article makes reference to the “biggest flop” controversy, while mentioning “Cutthroat Island,” “Ishtar,” and others. Apparently “Town and Country” is the new contender, as folks have pointed out. Gotta wonder what cost so much in a movie with no special effects or exploding sets?
These reviews of “The Long Kiss Goodnight” and “Cliffhanger” say that “Cutthroat Island” lost more than any other film in 1995.
http://cinemaniacs.virtualave.net/filmreviews/cliffhan.htm
This round-up of last week’s gross suggests that “Final Fantasy” will lose about $80 million. True, it’ll make up much overseas, but sticking to our standard I’d say that’s a pretty big flop.
Well, I was wrong about “First Knight” in the OP as well–according to IMDb, it was made for $75M and grossed $37M, over half. In percentage terms Sony had a bigger flop that year with “North,” which was made for $40M and pulled in $7M.
Battlefield Earth looks like it may be one of the all-time stinkers. IMDb shows a budget of $73 million with a gross of less than $22 million, counting the US and UK.
That’s a net loss of $51 million and a return of only 30%.
Can anybody explain why:
(1) in spite of the huge losses of these (mentioned) turkeys, Hwood continues to churn out disasters
(2) how ANY movie can COST $50 million dollars! I mean, they own the sets, the actors, the costume, and yet the costs are so astronomical.
I think Hollywood likes to be creative with their numbers-seems like most other industrys would be out of business, if these (reported ) losses are real!
