Biggest Box Office Flops

Reader situation	Example	Reported figures	Planning use
You want the clearest measure of a loss, not just a low gross	Supernova	$90 million budget; $14.8 million worldwide gross; $83 million net loss	Use a reported net loss as the headline measure whenever one exists.
You suspect the budget got out of hand	The 13th Warrior	Budget over $160 million after extensive reshoots and delays; $61 million worldwide gross	Look for reshoots and delays before blaming audiences alone.
The gross looks close to the cost	Pan (2015)	Production cost upwards of $150 million; about $128 million worldwide	A gross below cost is a shortfall before any other expense is counted.
You want to see studio-level fallout	Mars Needs Moms	Nearly $150 million cost; $39 million made back	Disney shuttered ImageMovers Digital shortly afterward, so one flop can reshape a studio.

Figures are as reported by Filmsite for Supernova and by Collider for the other three films.

The biggest box office flops are best judged by loss against cost, not by gross alone: a film flops when its takings fall well short of production budget, marketing and break-even.

For wider coverage of releases and takings, browse our movie news hub. For the opposite end of the scale, compare the highest grossing movies of all time.

Defining a flop and its break-even point

A flop is a film whose total returns fall short of its total costs, and gross is only one side of that comparison. The other side is the production budget plus everything spent to release the film, which is why a large gross does not settle the question.

Break-even is the point where money coming back covers money going out. The film studio that funds a production and the film distributor that releases it can be different companies, so the exposure each carries differs from the headline budget. The Hollywood Reporter notes that Legendary covered 75 percent of Pacific Rim’s $200 million budget, and the film took over $400 million worldwide. The same roundup pairs Man of Steel’s gross of about $657 million worldwide with its $225 million cost. Both examples show that a headline gross means little until it is set against what was spent and who paid for it.

Advertising adds to that bill, and MovieWeb cautions that loss figures are imprecise because advertising, home media sales and studio non-disclosure all affect them. Read any quoted loss as a well-informed estimate, not an audited result.

When the budget ran away

Some films are in trouble before a single ticket is sold, because the cost grows during production. The two examples below suit readers who want to understand how budgets, rather than audiences, create the gap.

The 13th Warrior

Collider reports that the budget soared to over $160 million after extensive reshoots and delays, and that the film grossed only $61 million worldwide. It is the clearest case here of cost growth as the cause: every reshoot raises the figure the gross must eventually beat.

Ishtar

Collider also describes Ishtar’s production budget as ballooning past $50 million, which it calls exorbitant at the time. That figure looks modest beside later examples, so judge a budget against its era before ranking it. Ishtar is a reminder that overspending is relative to what audiences and studios expected a film to cost when it was made.

When the gross lands near the cost

These films earned money, sometimes a lot, yet still counted as misses because the gross sat close to or below what they cost. They suit readers who assume a flop must have emptied cinemas.

Pan, Sahara and Battleship

Pan cost upwards of $150 million and made about $128 million worldwide, according to Collider. Yahoo Entertainment puts Sahara’s estimated production budget between $130 million and $160 million against a gross of just under $120 million. Even the low end of that range is above the gross, so the uncertainty does not change the verdict.

Battleship is the instructive exception. Yahoo reports a budget of around $209 million to $220 million and a gross of $303 million, so it grossed more than it cost to produce yet still appears in flop roundups. Production cost is only the first line of the ledger.

R.I.P.D.

MovieWeb notes that R.I.P.D. made $78.3 million against a $154 million budget, so it did not even recover its production cost. It is the cleanest example here of a gross at roughly half the budget.

• Compare like with like. Set a gross against a budget from the same source, since outlets differ on both.
• Treat ranges as ranges. Sahara and Battleship are reported as spans, so quote the span rather than picking a midpoint.
• Look past production cost. A gross above budget, as with Battleship, can still fall short once release costs are added.

When the loss is the headline

For some titles the story is the size of the reported loss, not a near miss. Treat each figure as one outlet’s estimate.

Battlefield Earth

Filmsite lists a budget range of $73 million to $103 million for this 2000 release, a worldwide gross of $29.7 million, a net loss of $73.3 million and an inflation-adjusted estimated loss of $134 million. The gap between the two loss figures shows how much the method matters: adjusting for inflation turns the same film into a much larger number.

Supernova and Red Planet

Filmsite records Supernova’s $83 million net loss, set against a $90 million budget and a $14.8 million worldwide gross. Red Planet had an $80 million budget and a $33.5 million worldwide gross. Both are 2000 releases, and both show a film recovering a small share of its cost.

Pluto Nash and Gigli

Collider says Pluto Nash had a budget of around $100 million but earned only $7 million worldwide. Yahoo Entertainment reports Gigli grossing just $7.7 million against a budget of $75.6 million. The two are among the starkest ratios of gross to budget here.

Blackhat, Dark Phoenix and Catwoman

Yahoo says the hacker thriller Blackhat lost $90 million, and describes Catwoman as costing $100 million and grossing just over $82 million internationally. MovieWeb gives Dark Phoenix, listed under 20th Century Studios, an estimated loss range of $79 million to $133 million. A range that wide is a sign the true figure is not public, so quote it as an estimate.

When marketing and release costs muddy the picture

Marketing spend is a separate cost from the production budget, and it is the figure least often stated for these films. That is why a reported loss and a budget-versus-gross comparison can disagree.

MovieWeb says directly that advertising, home media sales and studios’ non-disclosure make loss figures imprecise. Campaign material such as trailers is part of that spend, and the difference between teaser and trailer is useful background when reading release-campaign coverage.

• Prefer sources that say what they include. A loss that states whether advertising is counted is more useful than a bare number.
• Stay within one source when ranking. Mixing outlets mixes methods.
• Read the word estimate literally. Where studios do not disclose, every published loss is an outside calculation.

When the studio feels the hit

A single flop can end a business unit, not just dent a quarter. Collider reports that Mars Needs Moms cost nearly $150 million and made back only $39 million, and that Disney shuttered ImageMovers Digital shortly afterward. It is the most direct example here of a flop changing how a film studio operates.

The wider response is on budgets. The Hollywood Reporter quotes producer Joe Roth saying studios are trying to get costs down by about 20 percent. If you follow release coverage, that is a useful signal: the lesson studios draw from a flop is usually to trim the cost they commit up front.

Frequently asked questions

Question	Answer
Which films lost the most money at the box office?	There is no single ranking, because outlets use different budgets and adjustments. The largest reported figures here are Battlefield Earth’s inflation-adjusted $134 million estimate from Filmsite, Dark Phoenix’s estimated range of up to $133 million from MovieWeb, and Blackhat’s $90 million loss from Yahoo Entertainment.
Which flops had the highest budgets?	Battleship is among the most expensive flops covered here, with a reported budget of around $209 million to $220 million per Yahoo Entertainment. The 13th Warrior followed at over $160 million per Collider, then Sahara’s estimated $130 million to $160 million. Man of Steel’s $225 million cost is higher, but it grossed about $657 million worldwide.
Do flops recover through home and streaming release?	Home media sales sit outside box office totals and are one reason MovieWeb calls published loss figures imprecise. Whether home or streaming income closes the gap depends on figures studios rarely disclose, so treat a quoted loss as a box office estimate.