The 25 Top Box Office Bombs

25. Sahara
Budget: $160 million
Domestic Gross: $68.7 million
It was supposed to make Matthew McConaughey an action star and launch a lucrative new ‘Indiana Jones’-esque franchise. Instead, the 2005 adventure flick became one of the most famous flops in history. Thanks to a much-publicized lawsuit filed by ‘Sahara’ author Clive Cussler months before release, the film rode a wave of bad buzz into theaters and never recovered. Of course, budget line items such as $200K for “local bribes” don’t help a healthy bottom line, either.

24. Alexander
Budget: $155 million
Domestic Gross: $34.3 million
Oliver Stone’s 2004 historic adventure drama seemed like a no-brainer: an Oscar-winning director, a fleet of A-list stars (Colin Farrell! Angelina Jolie! Anthony Hopkins! Val Kilmer!) … but alas, not even the anticipated raciness of Jolie as Farrell’s really hot mom could entice the masses to see this almost-three-hour epic misfire. Call him Alexander the Inferior.

23. Inchon
Budget: $46 million
Domestic Gross: $5.2 million
“Legend” has it Unification Church founder Sun Myong Moon began crying one day and could not stop until he went to see a movie, which he took as a sign from God to finance a film. The resulting 1982 Korean War drama starring Laurence Olivier, which took five years and way too much money to make, had the opposite effect on its viewers.

22. Poisedon
Budget: $160 million
Domestic Gross: $60.7 million
Expectations were high for Wolfgang Petersen’s 2006 return to the seas — he directed the submarine classic ‘Das Boot’ and the tragic ‘Perfect Storm.’ But it was the film he did in ‘04 that can be most aptly compared to this one: ‘Troy,’ in that both are bloated, too silly for their own good … and monumental letdowns. (Insert your own sinking ship joke here.)

21. Speed 2: Cruise Control
Budget: $160 million
Domestic Gross: $48.6 million
Did anyone think this was a good idea? Anyone? Transplanting the unlikely scenario of the first ‘Speed’ to the even more unbelievable setting of a cruise ship?!?! We can just hear the pitch now for this ‘97 stinker: “It’s ‘Speed,’ but on a boat! No one thought the bus-thing would work, either, and that hit HUGE. This can’t lose.” And we answer, “Oh, but it can. It really, really can.”

20. One From the Heart
Budget: $25 million
Domestic Gross: $636,769
After the difficult production of ‘Apocalypse Now,’ Francis Ford Coppola wanted something simpler and smaller, ergo this ‘82 musical romance budgeted at $2 million. But Coppola had a vision, and his vision pushed the costs to $25 mil, funded through his company Zoetrope. Unfortunately for the director and his studio, critics and ticket buyers weren’t ready for a surreal, downbeat musical. Tom Waits got an Oscar nod (for the soundtrack). Coppola got a trip to bankruptcy court.

19. All The King’s Men
Budget: $55 million
Domestic Gross: $7.2 million
The 1949 adaptation of Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the rise and fall of a Depression-era politician took home the Oscar for Best Picture, and the ‘06 film was widely expected to do the same. Then people saw it. And despite its source material and a star-studded cast (Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, Jude Law), critics hated it, and its box-office fall was so great that not even you-know-who could put it back together again.

18. Leonard Part 6
Budget: N/A — i.e. too bloated and embarrassing to reveal
Domestic Gross: $4.6 million
Bill Cosby’s first post-’Cosby Show’ star vehicle — a 1987 comedy about a spy battling a megalomaniac vegetarian who can control animals’ minds (it’s somehow dumber than it sounds) — was so embarrassing for everyone involved that Cosby himself encouraged people NOT to see it. Fittingly, it earned the Cos three Razzies, including Worst Picture, and made us never want to eat another Jell-O pudding pop again.

17. Shanghai Surprise
Budget: $17 million
Domestic Gross: $2.3 million
Back in 1986, pop goddess Madonna seemed poised to conquer the big screen, too. Not only did her ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’ follow-up require actual acting (she played a 1930s missionary — not a typo), but she also starred opposite new hubby Sean Penn. Oh, Madonna. Rookie mistake(s)! Critics pounced on the 1986 clunker, which doomed the Material Girl’s acting career and earned her her first Razzie … but not her last.

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