Entertainment
'The Lone Ranger' Loses Major Cash for Disney; What Other Films Were Financial Flops?
Action movies are supposed to be a sure-thing for raking in the big bucks for studios. The Johnny Depp/Armie Hammer flick The Lone Ranger should have been like striking gold for Disney but unfortunately, the box office numbers couldn't replenish the cash that it took to make The Lone Ranger, and now the film is estimated to be an incredible $190 million in the hole. Yikes. It's hardly the first film to be losing money instead of making it, though. Here are some of the most expensive flops in recent memory. Image: Disney
Disney Loses Millions With 'The Lone Ranger'
Action movies are supposed to be a sure-thing for raking in the big bucks for studios. The Johnny Depp/Armie Hammer flick The Lone Ranger should have been like striking gold for Disney but unfortunately, the box office numbers couldn't replenish the cash that it took to make The Lone Ranger, and now the film is estimated to be an incredible $190 million in the hole. Yikes. It's hardly the first film to be losing money instead of making it, though. Here are some of the most expensive flops in recent memory. Image: Disney
'John Carter' (2012)
If you're thinking "BUT LOOK AT THOSE CGI MONSTERS! How could a film that looks this cool possibly fail?!" then you were probably one of the three people who saw and enjoyed this Taylor Kitsch adventure flick. As great as the former Tim Riggins looked battling the monsters of Mars, people just didn't turn out to see this movie... and the studio lost $200 million. Image: Disney
'Mars Needs Moms' (2011)
Before Disney made the flops that were John Carter and The Lone Ranger, there was this weird little animated movie about aliens who kidnap Earthlings' mothers, er, something like that. I don't know the details because I didn't actually see this movie, and apparently, neither did anyone else -- the film lost $136 million. Image: Disney
'The Green Lantern' (2011)
Ryan Reynolds might look great in that green suit, but the expense of bringing this DC comic book hero to life on the big screen was much higher than what the film brought in. The film lost $105 million, and audiences everywhere began counting down the days until the release of The Dark Knight Rises. Image: Warner Bros.
'Meet Dave' (2008)
Eddie Murphy is a really funny actor who occasionally takes on really bad movie roles. The sci-fi comedy Meet Dave was one of them. It was so bad that in its third weekend it broke the record for the highest number of theater drops of a film ever -- and that's a lot of lost cash. What does the star, Eddie Murphy, have to say about the lack of success? "Part of me is proud and wants to own this movie, promote it, generally celebrate it and look forward to all the possibilities that may emerge from the experience. And an equally real part of me wants to lock myself in a dark room for a month and pretend it never happened." Image: 20th Century Fox
'Speed Racer' (2008)
So apparently I wasn't the only one who thought that a live-action Speed Racer was a terrible idea. Despite the film being penned by the team behind The Matrix, the expensive cost of production was too high to overcome. Image: Warner Bros.
'Sahara' (2005)
Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz should be able to carry a film together, but the desert-set action film didn't quite pan out the way the studio needed it to. The seriously costly film ended up losing about $75 million. Then there was that whole "maybe-the-filmmakers-illegally-bribed-the-Moroccan-government" scandal which complicated everything. Image: Paramount Pictures
