The Biggest Movie Flops

Let's look at five of the biggest bombs in the movies.

"Howard the Duck" 1986 - lost $21 million

For starters, Executive Producer George Lucas spent $2 million on a duck suit.  A duck from another planet landed in Cleveland and romanced a punk rocker.  The movie contained a cross-species seduction scene.  Richard

Corliss of Time Magazine said, "The movie is too scuzzy to beguile children, too infantile to appeal to adults.”

"Hudson Hawk" 1991 - lost $43 million

It was a heist movie.  It starred Bruce Willis and Danny Aiello.  What could go wrong?  Willis is trying to steal daVinci artifacts.  One is a gold machine, constructed for $1 million.  For a sight gag.  This movie swept the Golden Razzies and walked away with Worst Picture, Worst Director, and Worst Screenplay.

"Ishtar" 1987 - lost $42 million

On paper, it had to be a winner.  Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty starring and Elaine May directing!  This movie has come to define true bombs.  But the damage didn't last forever.  Dustin Hoffman won the Oscar the next year for "Rain Man."  Elaine May wrote "Primary Colors" and "The Bird Cage."  Speaking of May, she edited the movie for months, only eventually turning it in when threatened by the studio with legal action. 

"Battlefield Earth" 2000 - lost $52 million

John Travolta was a 7-foot alien who was "groomed from birth to conquer galaxies."  But the dreadlocks and rotted teeth contradicted the idea of personal grooming.  The aliens defeat earth fighters in nine minutes, and humans become slaves, here in the year 3000.  The movie was based on a science fiction book by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology.  Travolta, a member and proponent of the religion, actually said of the film, "The bottom line is that I feel really good about it."  He even had hopes for a sequel.  Maybe in the year 3000.

"Cleopatra" 1963 - lost $18 million

This mega-epic took four years to make, going through seven writers and two directors.  It nevertheless was the highest-grossing film of 1963.  That sounds like success, but it almost finished 20th Century Fox.  The studio shut down for four months to save money and put 2,000 people out of work.  This was because Elizabeth Taylor almost died from meningitis and was off the set for months.  The movie seats were filled because of the public's curiosity over Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who filled the tabloids with their off-screen romance, despite both being married.  Judith Crist of the NY Herald Tribune called the film "a monumental mouse."  But Taylor and Burton married.  Then divorced.  Then married.  Then divorced.