33 Bombs Tracked · Updated Oct 2025

The Movie Flop

Graveyard

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$237M The MarvelsDisney = $1.6B in losses12 Bombs in 2010s alone33 films · $4.4B graveyard
Single biggest loss
$0M
The Marvels (2023) — Disney
All-time worst ratio
0%
Cutthroat Island returned $0.16 per $1
Top-33 losses combined
$0.0B
Documented studio writedowns
Major bombs since 2020
0
$80M+ losses through Oct 2025
Bombs in this graveyard
0
Each lost a studio $80M+
💀 The Marvels — −$237M — Lowest-grossing MCU film ever🗡️ John Carter — −$200M — Took down a Disney studio chief🤠 The Lone Ranger — −$190M — $150M marketing, $260M gross🕴️ Argylle — −$180M — Apple paid $200M for a $96M movie⚔️ 47 Ronin — −$175M — Universal wrote it off pre-release🚂 Mortal Engines — −$175M — Peter Jackson's costliest miss🍎 Snow White — −$170M — 2025's first $100M+ bomb⚡ The Flash — −$155M — Worst superhero flop ever🛡️ King Arthur — −$150M — Killed a planned 6-film series🏴‍☠️ Cutthroat Island — −$147M — Bankrupted Carolco mid-release🐪 Sahara — −$145M — Lawsuits revealed $240M true cost👽 Mars Needs Moms — −$144M — Closed Zemeckis's mocap studio🤡 Joker: Folie à Deux — −$144M — 2024's biggest disaster👻 R.I.P.D. — −$140M — Top-10 bomb in 24 hours🎩 Indiana Jones 5 — −$134M — $387M to make, $384M to gross💿 Tron: Ares — −$132M — Disney's lowest 2025 grosser💀 The Marvels — −$237M — Lowest-grossing MCU film ever🗡️ John Carter — −$200M — Took down a Disney studio chief🤠 The Lone Ranger — −$190M — $150M marketing, $260M gross🕴️ Argylle — −$180M — Apple paid $200M for a $96M movie⚔️ 47 Ronin — −$175M — Universal wrote it off pre-release🚂 Mortal Engines — −$175M — Peter Jackson's costliest miss🍎 Snow White — −$170M — 2025's first $100M+ bomb⚡ The Flash — −$155M — Worst superhero flop ever🛡️ King Arthur — −$150M — Killed a planned 6-film series🏴‍☠️ Cutthroat Island — −$147M — Bankrupted Carolco mid-release🐪 Sahara — −$145M — Lawsuits revealed $240M true cost👽 Mars Needs Moms — −$144M — Closed Zemeckis's mocap studio🤡 Joker: Folie à Deux — −$144M — 2024's biggest disaster👻 R.I.P.D. — −$140M — Top-10 bomb in 24 hours🎩 Indiana Jones 5 — −$134M — $387M to make, $384M to gross💿 Tron: Ares — −$132M — Disney's lowest 2025 grosser

What a $200M Bomb Actually Means

Modern blockbuster losses are so big that "millions" stops meaning much. To anchor the numbers below, here's what those write-downs look like beside other large dollar figures from the same era — from a real NASA mission to one Marvel hit that paid for nearly everything that went wrong.

The Marvels ($237M loss)$237M
Same as building 8 new IMAX theaters from scratch.
NASA Kepler mission (entire)$600M
Cost less than Disney's 3 biggest 2023 flops combined.
Disney 2023 flop pile (3 films)$526M
Marvels + Indy 5 + Wish — single fiscal year.
Avg US public school budget$12M
A single Snow White loss = 14 years of one school.
Avengers: Endgame profit$2200M
One film recouped what Hollywood lost on its 10 worst bombs.

The Leaderboard of Loss · 33 Biggest Bombs

Net Loss to Studio (USD millions)
Each bar is one film's best-cited net loss after marketing, theater splits and ancillary revenue. The Marvels (2023) tops the list at −$237M; even No. 33 still lost a studio $80M. Bars are colored red for losses over $150M, gold for $100–150M, sepia for $80–100M.
Sources: Deadline, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Bomb Report (bombreport.com), Koimoi/IMDb, Saturation.io budget tracker

Bombs Are A Modern Problem

Big Bombs Per Decade (count + total loss)
Count of $80M+ losses (bars) plus total combined losses (line) per decade. The 2010s land 12 bombs — more than the 1980s, 90s and 2000s combined. The 2020s are halfway through and already at 10.
Source: aggregated from TOP_FLOPS dataset (Variety, Deadline, Bomb Report)
Average Bomb Budget By Decade
The average production budget of a top-30 bomb jumped from $44M (1980s) to $217M (2020s) — a 5× rise in 40 years. Marketing typically adds another $50–150M, so a modern $200M tentpole needs to clear $500M+ globally just to break even.
Source: TOP_FLOPS dataset; production budgets only (not inflation-adjusted)

The Studios Doing The Bleeding

Total Losses Across The Top 33 — By Studio
Disney alone accounts for $1.63B of the losses on this list — almost 40% of the total. Warner is second at $844M, Universal third at $604M. Note: Disney's number includes Touchstone, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox titles released after the 2019 merger.
Source: aggregated from TOP_FLOPS; sums of per-film losses, not company-wide P&L
Disney · 11 bombs
Warner · 7 bombs
Universal · 4 bombs
Sony · 2 bombs
Lionsgate · 3 bombs
Apple · 1 bomb
Carolco · 1 bomb
Paramount · 1 bomb
Touchstone · 1 bomb
DreamWorks · 1 bomb
New Line · 1 bomb

Budget vs. Box Office · The Breakeven Line

Production Budget vs. Worldwide Gross
Each dot is a bomb. The diagonal green line is the rough "breakeven" ratio — a film usually needs to gross about 2.5× its production budget worldwide to break even after theater cuts and marketing. Every dot below the line lost money. Cutthroat Island and Pluto Nash are way out near the X axis. Indiana Jones 5 made $384M and still lost $134M because it cost $387M to make.
Source: TOP_FLOPS dataset · breakeven heuristic from Deadline / Hollywood Reporter financial models
Reading the chart:Theaters keep roughly half of every ticket sold. A $200M film typically needs ~$400M in box office just to break even on production — and once marketing is added (often $80–150M), the breakeven climbs toward 2.5–3× the production budget. That diagonal line is the "safe zone." Every dot below it is somebody's very bad year.

What Kinds Of Films Bomb Most?

Genre Breakdown · Sum of Losses
Sci-Fi is the deadliest category — 7 films total over $1B in combined losses. Big-swing original sci-fi (John Carter, Tomorrowland, Mortal Engines, Solo, Tron: Ares) keeps trying to launch new franchises and keeps failing. Superhero films had a 15-year clean run before The Marvels and The Flash both tanked in 2023.
Source: aggregated from TOP_FLOPS · genre tags from IMDb / Wikipedia

Six Legendary Tombstones

Some bombs lost more money than others — but a few rewrote the industry on their way down. These six didn't just lose money; they killed studios, ended careers, or changed how Hollywood greenlights films forever.

R · I · P
Cutthroat Island
1995 · Carolco
Budget
$115M
Gross
$18M
Loss
−$147M
“A pirate epic that turned in $0.16 for every $1 spent.”
Carolco Pictures filed for bankruptcy 1 month before the film even released. Held the Guinness "biggest bomb" title until 2012.
R · I · P
John Carter
2012 · Disney
Budget
$263M
Gross
$284M
Loss
−$200M
“A $300M Pixar-style sci-fi epic about Martian princes nobody asked for.”
Disney took a $200M writedown the same quarter. Studio chief Rich Ross resigned weeks later. Director Andrew Stanton never made another live-action film.
R · I · P
The Lone Ranger
2013 · Disney
Budget
$225M
Gross
$260M
Loss
−$190M
“A Western in the wrong decade with Johnny Depp in face paint.”
$150M marketing budget couldn't save it. The same year, Disney also lost on Planes — but Frozen ($1.3B) made it all back six months later.
R · I · P
The Marvels
2023 · Disney
Budget
$270M
Gross
$206M
Loss
−$237M
“The lowest-grossing film in the entire 33-film MCU.”
Opened to $47M domestic — the MCU's worst-ever debut. Spelled the end of the post-Endgame "more is more" Marvel strategy.
R · I · P
Heaven's Gate
1980 · United Artists
Budget
$44M
Gross
$3.5M
Loss
−$37M
“A 219-minute western that turned a Best Picture winner into a pariah.”
Killed United Artists as an independent studio (sold to MGM 1981). Ended the New Hollywood era of director-driven blank checks.
R · I · P
Snow White
2025 · Disney
Budget
$271M
Gross
$225M
Loss
−$170M
“CGI dwarfs and a press tour the studio never recovered from.”
First $100M+ bomb of 2025. The remake's teaser became one of the most-disliked Disney videos ever uploaded to YouTube.

What The Graveyard Tells Us

🎬
Disney is the king of the graveyard
Disney bears $1.63B of the top-30's losses — almost 40%. The combined bill from John Carter, Lone Ranger, Marvels, Snow White and Indy 5 alone clears $930M.
📈
Budgets keep climbing, hits don't
The average bomb budget jumped from $44M in the 1980s to $217M in the 2020s — a 5× rise. Marketing now routinely matches production cost; a $200M movie needs $500M+ to break even.
🤖
The 2010s rebooted a graveyard
14 of the top-33 bombs land in the 2010s — more than the 1980s, 90s and 2000s combined ($1.9B in losses). IP-driven mega-budgets (John Carter, Lone Ranger, 47 Ronin, Mortal Engines) all bet the studio on franchises that never started.
⚡
Superhero immortality has cracked
Three superhero films now sit in the top-22: The Marvels (−$237M), The Flash (−$155M), Dark Phoenix (−$115M). For 15 years the genre lost no money — the 2023–24 cliff was sudden, and both Marvel and DC scaled back release slates after.
🪦
A bomb can be a great movie
Furiosa got 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and still lost Warner $120M. Treasure Planet (69%) became a cult classic but cost Disney $85M. Quality and box office stopped predicting each other long ago.
The Movie Flop Graveyard
Sources: Wikipedia (List of biggest box-office bombs), Bomb Report yearly breakdowns (bombreport.com), Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Koimoi/IMDb, Saturation.io budget tracker. Losses reflect best public estimates of net loss including marketing, theater splits and ancillary revenue. Not financial advice — these movies are just hilariously dead.
@Trace_Cohent@nyvp.com