Matthew McConaughey is known as one of Hollywood’s best actors. The star has the looks, the voice, and the charisma to carry him through almost any role. However, with the horrible premise and material he had to work with when acting in “Surfer, Dude,” it seems that even McConaughey couldn’t live up to the challenge. This 2008 comedy film centers around a soul-searching surfer who experiences an existential crisis when there are no waves on the beach for over a month.
The film also stars Woody Harrelson, who’s also a highly respected Hollywood actor. The two joked about the film being one of their easiest jobs of all time. “Surfer, Dude” ended up making just over $50,000 against a budget of more than $6 million, certifying it a true flop.
Estimated loss: $5.5 million
The Lone Ranger (2013)
Johnny Depp and Pirates director Gore Verbinski teamed up with Disney once more to try to make the Wild West as entertaining (and as profitable) as the South Seas. The immensely successful "Pirates of the Caribbean" starring Depp scored $600 million at the box office. The Lone Ranger didn’t. Ranger John Reid (Armie Hammer) and his Indian sidekick Tonto (Depp) were flatly not entertaining enough, according to many critics.
Typical of Disney production budget this one ballooned to up to $250 million. Gross sales matched it at $260.5 million. Estimated loss, adjusted for inflation: $100-$200 million.
Estimated loss: $95-$190 million
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
K (Ryan Gosling) an LAPD cop and blade runner, finds himself situated in 2049 Los Angeles, in search of a long-buried mystery. The problem is unearthing it could cause human annihilation. It’s a Warner Bros. picture directed by Denis Villeneuve, with a storyline influenced by Philip K. Dick’s book, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"
"Blade Runner 2049" is the sequel to the original mega-hit, "Blade Runner," also based on Dick’s book, and one of the most celebrated science fiction films ever made. The fact that the sequel did well with critics up against that measure says something. In fact, "Blade Runner 2049" was considered one of 2017’s best movies and won two 2018 Oscars — Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. Evidently, the 163-minute box office flop is worth seeing. Its production budget was $150-$185 million. It grossed $259.1 at theaters, but it lost $80 million dollars.
Estimated loss: $80 million
Monster Trucks (2016)
Nickelodeon and Paramount pulled together some big names for this irreverent, high-concept action kids flick. Lucas Till plays Tripp Coley, the high school boy who confronts an actual monster in his truck, as well as Terravex Oil, the big, bad fracking company. Rob Lowe and Danny Glover also animate the comedy adventure. Creech, the monster, turns out to be an adorable beast and a very useful ally against the formidable fracking giant.
Fun trivia: The ‘monster inside of the truck’ concept came from an actual 4-year-old. Adam Goodman, former president of Paramount, had been wanting to bring the idea to the big screen ever since his toddler son imaginatively introduced it to him. Audiences didn’t hate it, critics were mixed, but it had a budget of $125 million and a box office of $64.5 million.
Estimated loss: $109 - $123.1 million
Heaven’s Gate (1980)
This western, loosely based on the Johnson County War, was such a disaster that it changed the movie-making industry forever, and Michael Cimino's directing career would never completely recover. When adjusted for inflation, the film lost approximately $123 million at the box office. Cimino had such an expensive and ambitious vision, that he pushed production costs to nearly four times over its initial budget.
"Heaven’s Gate" heavy financial loss literally drove United Artists, a major American studio at the time, to bankruptcy. When it comes to cinema history, the Heaven’s Gate "disaster" often represents the key event that eventually led American film-making away from director-driven projects, putting an end to their free-wheeling excesses. Studios began to take more control over films, as they still do today.