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Making an expensive Hollywood movie is kind of like steering a gigantic cargo ship through a thunderstorm.
On board are hundreds of crew members, each performing a specific function. At the vessel’s main helm are a handful of leaders, including the captain (the director), who may still be beholden to the powers that be. Tensions run high, and opinions can clash over the best course of action. It can seem like a miracle when the vessel arrives at its destination intact, but sometimes, it does not.
It’s easy to pinpoint where it all went wrong in certain situations. Perhaps unexpected bumps required a major change, such as bringing in a new director or having to recast the lead. Or maybe external controversies marred a film’s release—at least, that’s what actor Gal Gadot claims happened to 2025’s live-action “Snow White,” which failed to break even on its estimated $250 million budget. Similarly, it’s possible that backlash to Sydney Sweeney accounts for the disastrous underperformance of her biopic “Christy.”
Other 2025 releases, meanwhile, have no outside drama to blame: Despite big-name stars, movies like “The Alto Knights,” “Tron: Ares,” and “The Running Man” failed to break through. Of course, these are only a few recent examples of box-office disappointments. What about the most notable flops in film history?
Stacker is honoring the occasions when big-budget vehicles fail to deliver the goods by ranking the biggest box-office bombs of all time using estimates from The Numbers as of May 2025. More than 6,000 movies—every title with data available—were examined to find the biggest financial flops. Rankings were compiled by determining each movie’s estimated loss, which is the worldwide box-office earnings minus the reported production budget. The box-office gross does not incorporate video or other retail sales. The calculations also do not reflect that theaters receive a significant portion of ticket sales.
The estimated losses presented may underreport how much money studios were really out, as other expenses like marketing spend, distribution costs, and intellectual property rights are not factored in. Because studios keep those costs close to the vest, most of that data is not public and therefore can’t be factored into this ranking, which makes lists like these difficult to calculate. For example, Read more