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- While Barbie and Oppenheimer have been massive commercial hits, 2023 has also seen a string of box office flops, chief among them Big George Foreman. Now's as good a time as any to look back at the lowest-grossing movies of the last decade.
Box office bombs can be hard to predict. Sometimes a killer premise and star actors aren't enough to bring moviegoers to the cinema. Some of the worst flops in recent years have been films that, on the surface at least, looked set to perform strongly. But which movies were the worst offenders?
Of course, low-budget indie movies that only play at a small number of theaters will naturally make less money. So, for the purposes of this list, we'll only be looking at movies with a wide opening at over 3000 theaters. These are the movies that grossed the lowest amount of money this decade relative to the number of cinemas they screened at.
Updated on August 13, 2023, by Luc Haasbroek:
While Barbie and Oppenheimer have been massive commercial hits, 2023 has also seen a string of box office flops, chief among them Big George Foreman. Now's as good a time as any to look back at the lowest-grossing movies of the last decade.
15 'Those Who Wish Me Dead' (2021)
Box Office: $19.1 million
Angelina Jolie stars in this Taylor Sheridan thriller as Hannah, a smokejumper haunted by a tragic incident in her past. When a boy named Connor (Finn Little) seeks refuge in the Montana wilderness after witnessing his father's murder, Hannah becomes his protector. Unbeknownst to them, Connor possesses crucial information that ruthless assassins (Nicholas Hoult and Aidan Gillen) are determined to silence.
The film had a disappointing box office run and received mixed reviews. While serviceable, it doesn't hold a candle (flare?) to Sheridan's directorial debut Wind River, or the terrific scripts he penned for Sicario and Hell or High Water.
14 'Hardcore Henry' (2016)
Box Office: $16.8 million
Hardcore Henry takes the concept of first-person gaming to the big screen. Shot entirely from the protagonist's perspective, the movie places the audience in the shoes of Henry (played by various actors), a cyborg with no memory of his past. He wakes up to find himself resurrected with cybernetic enhancements and learns that his wife, Estelle (Haley Bennett), has been kidnapped by a telekinetic warlord (Danila Kozlovsky).
With the help of a mysterious ally named Jimmy (Sharlto Copley), who seems to have a habit of coming back to life, Henry sets out to learn the truth and rescue Estelle. The film serves up non-stop stunts, gunfights, and combat sequences, but didn't seem to connect with audiences. With a budget of $2m and STX Entertainment spending $10m on acquisition rights, Hardcore Henry made a profit of just over $4m.
13 'Cry Macho' (2021)
Box Office: $16.5 million
Cry Macho is the latest neo-Western directed by Clint Eastwood, who also stars as Mike Milo, a retired rodeo star and horse breeder who is hired to bring back a young boy, Rafo (Eduardo Minett), from Mexico to his father in Texas. It's based on the novel of the same name by N. Richard Nash, with classic Eastwood themes of redemption, forgiveness, and finding a new purpose in life.
It's a shock that a star as huge as Eastwood can still bomb at the box office. The movie barely recouped half of its $33 million budget. Not to mention, it received mixed reviews, making it one of Eastwood's most unsuccessful projects in recent memory.
12 'Reminiscence' (2021)
Box Office: $16.4 million
Hugh Jackman stars in this sci-fi thriller as Nick Bannister, a private investigator who uses a technology that allows people to relive their memories. After a mysterious woman named Mae (Rebecca Ferguson) disappears without a trace, Nick becomes obsessed with finding her and uncovering the truth about her past.
As he delves deeper into Mae's memories, Nick discovers a dark, dangerous underworld that threatens to consume him. The film is jam-packed with interesting ideas but ultimately falls short of its ambitions. With a budget of at least $54 million, It might be Jackman's biggest flop ever.
11 'Firestarter' (2022)
Box Office: $15 million
The Firestarter novel by Stephen King is terrific, pure entertainment from beginning to end. However, no one has yet been able to translate it well to the screen, either with the 1984 version or last year's adaptation directed by Keith Thomas.
The film centers on a girl named Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) who can create fires with her mind. Despite the star power of Zac Efron as Charlie's dad, Firestarter failed to connect with audiences and was dismissed by critics.
10 'Bros' (2022)
Box Office: $14.7 million
Bros is a romantic comedy co-written by and starring Billy Eichner, about two men who claim not to be looking for anything serious but find themselves drawn to one another. Luke Macfarlane stars alongside Eichner as love interest Aaron Shepherd.
The performances of the leads were generally praised, but many critics found the story to be lackluster. Not to mention, the movie didn't really have any stars to reel in audiences. With a budget of $22 million, it made a substantial loss at the box office.
9 'Strange Magic' (2015)
Box Office: $13.6 million
Strange Magic is an animated musical fantasy from Lucasfilm Animation. Marianne (voiced by Evan Rachel Wood) and Dawn (Meredith Anne Bull) are two fairy princesses with very different views on love and relationships. When Marianne's fiancé is stolen away by the evil Bog King (Alan Cumming), she embarks on a dangerous quest to rescue him and restore peace to their kingdom.
On paper, it had all the ingredients to be a success, but somehow the project never quite coheres. It was a colossal commercial flop, raking in just $13.6 million against an estimated budget of $70 million to $100 million.
8 'The Many Saints of Newark' (2021)
Box Office: $13 million
The Many Saints of Newark is the prequel to The Sopranos, directed by Alan Taylor and written by David Chase and Lawrence Konner. Set in the 1960s and 1970s, it explores the early years of Tony Soprano (played by Michael Gandolfini, son of the late James Gandolfini) as he grows up in a turbulent environment of crime and violence.
At the same time, the film charts the rise of Tony's uncle Dickie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola), a key figure in the New Jersey mafia. While it doesn't quite reach the heights of the original series, it's still a great movie well worth watching. However, it failed at the box office, falling far short of its $50 million budget.
7 'Easter Sunday' (2022)
Box Office: $13 million
This comedy was a vehicle for stand-up comic Jo Koy and is inspired by his own life. He plays Joe Valencia, a struggling actor and single dad in LA, who takes his son Junior (Brandon Wardell) to a family Easter gathering in Daly City.
Critics were lukewarm about Easter Sunday, and it probably suffered from being released on the same day as Brad Pitt's Bullet Train. The film was released on VOD later that month, but its box office run resulted in a $4m loss.
6 'Fun Size' (2012)
Box Office: $11.4 million
Fun Size is a coming-of-age teen comedy centered around Wren (Victoria Justice), a high school senior eager to attend the Halloween party of the year. However, her plans take a detour when she's forced to babysit her quirky little brother, Albert (Jackson Nicoll).
After losing Albert in a crowd, Wren and her best friend April (Jane Levy) race to find him, with some help from a pair of nerds. Unfortunately, neither the charm of Justice nor Levy can rescue Fun Size. Most critics savaged the film, often comparing it unfavorably to the 1987 hit Adventures in Babysitting.
5 'The Hunt' (2020)
Box Office: $10.5 million
The Hunt is a thriller directed by suspense master Craig Zobel. It follows a group of strangers who wake up in a remote location with no memory of how they got there, only to find out that they are being hunted down by a group of wealthy elites for sport. Among the hunted is Crystal (Betty Gilpin), a sharp-witted and skilled combat veteran who is determined to survive and turn the tables on her captors.
It boasts a surprisingly star-studded cast, including Hilary Swank and Emma Roberts in supporting roles. The film aims to be a political satire but collapses into run-of-the-mill horror. Even though it was made on a relatively lean $14 million budget, it still failed to turn a profit.
4 'Hoot' (2006)
Box Office: $8.2 million
Logan Lerman leads this family film as Roy Eberhardt, a middle school student who moves to Florida and becomes obsessed with investigating the mysterious vandalism of a construction site near his home.
Along the way, he befriends two other outcasts, Beatrice (Brie Larson in one of her very first major projects) and Mullet Fingers (Cody Linley), who are determined to save the habitat of a group of endangered burrowing owls from being destroyed by a corrupt developer (Clark Gregg). It's interesting in light of the success Lerman and Larson would go on to have, but it is otherwise unremarkable.
3 'Copshop' (2021)
Box Office: $6.8 million
Two fugitives, a hitman named Bob Viddick (Gerard Butler) and a con artist named Teddy Murretto (Frank Grillo), are brought to the same police station in the small town of Red Rock, Nevada. A group of mercenaries arrives hellbent on killing Viddick, so the two criminals team up with a rookie cop (Alexis Louder) to survive the onslaught.
While not especially original, the plot is fast-moving, and the action scenes are solid. Butler is also as engaging as ever: he excels in these kinds of roles. Despite its modest performance, Copshop still made a small profit, as the budget was just $6 million.
2 'Big George Foreman' (2023)
Box Office: $6 million
Big George Foreman is a biopic about the titular heavyweight boxing champion (Khris Davis), a titan of the sport. The film charts his rise from a challenging childhood to boxing success, his transition to becoming a preacher, as well as the struggles with bankruptcy that drove him back into the ring.
Foreman is an interesting figure, but many critics and fans felt the film didn't do his story justice. What could have been an engaging character study is instead a by-the-numbers sports drama. With a budget of $32m, Big George Foreman was a colossal box office flop.
1 'The Rhythm Section' (2020)
Box Office: $5.9 million
The Rhythm Section is an action thriller starring Blake Lively as Stephanie Patrick, a woman who seeks revenge on those responsible for the plane crash that killed her family. She is recruited by a former MI6 agent (Jude Law) and trained in the art of espionage and assassination to take down the people responsible for the tragedy.
Despite praise for Lively's performance, the film was a commercial disaster. It had the all-time worst opening ever for a film playing at over 3000 theaters. After a dismal first week, Sony pulled it from over 2900 cinemas; the biggest ever drop in theaters. All told, The Rhythm Section earned just $6 million against a $50 million budget, the biggest bomb in years.