Biggest movie bombs of the year

[ZeoBandit]

The biggest bombs of the year
POSTED: 10:13 a.m. EST, December 26, 2006
Story Highlights
• Year's bombs include "King's Men," "Fountain," "Instinct 2"
• Big stars -- Sean Penn, Russell Crowe -- featured in films
• "Basic Instinct 2" may have been most unprofitable
Adjust font size:
LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Oscar winners Russell Crowe, Nicolas Cage and Sean Penn starred in some of the year's biggest box office bombs, according to an analysis published Sunday by Variety, proving A-list stars are not invincible.

Crowe struck out with the romantic comedy "A Good Year," Cage with the horror remake "Wicker Man," and Penn with another remake, the political saga "All the King's Men."

High-profile directors such as M. Night Shyamalan ("Lady in the Water") and Wolfgang Petersen ("Poseidon") also made the hall of shame with their waterlogged movies.

The other films among its 10 biggest box office bombs were the erotic thriller sequel "Basic Instinct 2," the World War I aviation saga "Flyboys," the cartoon "Flushed Away," the transcendental love story "The Fountain," and the urban kidnapping thriller "Freedomland."

Variety said its alphabetically ordered list was determined by looking primarily at the ratio between a film's cost and its revenues. It noted that financial loss could be divided among various studios and other equity investors, while international box office receipts and DVD sales can restore some luster.

Based on figures cited in the article, the most unprofitable film appeared to be "Basic Instinct 2," a $70 million film that earned $5 million domestically, and continued actress Sharon Stone's 11-year string of bombs. But the German-backed film's domestic distributor, Sony Corp.'s Columbia Pictures, said at the time of its release that its financial exposure was limited.

More-spectacular misfires included "Flushed Away" with a $90 million shortfall between cost and domestic sales, and "Poseidon," which had a $100 million deficit, although it did well overseas.

Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Pictures, which had a dismal year at the box office, was the domestic distributor of four of the pictures: "The Fountain," "Lady in the Water," "Poseidon" and "Wicker Man." (Time Warner is also the parent company of CNN.) Columbia Pictures, the market leader with 13 No. 1 movies in 2006, also released "All the King's Men" and "Freedomland."

Closely held Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. handled "Flyboys," although software billionaire Larry Ellison put up almost half the $60 million budget. News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox released "A Good Year," and Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures "Flushed Away."

[bigdrewhalenite]

That's a shame about Flushed Away. Took the kids to see it on Thanksgiving and had a great time. Excellent movie!

[DreamIsOver]

I don't know about biggest bombs but the worst movie I saw this year was Let's Go To Prision.

[twonabomber]

M Night Shamalamadingdong was a fluke. one good movie and the rest seem to have tanked.

[smithjc]

M Night Shamalamadingdong was a fluke. one good movie and the rest seem to have tanked.

LOL!!! I thought I was the only one who called him that!

Thanks.

So hiiit it..........

[muffdiver]

I took 5 kids to Flushed Away, they all seemed to like it....

[Viking]

The one that should have bombed but didn't was that horrible Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Jesus, that was a horrible movie!

[Scotty]

There will be no disrespecting of Captain Jack Sparrow around here!

[ZeoBandit]

I haven't had a chance to see it yet. I bought it when it came out, but haven't gotten around to watching it yet.

[The J Man]

By CHRISTY LEMIRE, AP Movie Critic
Mon Dec 18, 12:56 PM ET



LOS ANGELES - Leave the Academy Awards to the important movies in the serious categories. Here are a few bests (and worsts) that, regardless of the quality of the films in which they occurred, are much more fun:

Best fight/chase scene: The opening of "Casino Royale."

Best car chase: "Deja Vu."

Best naked wrestling match: "Borat"

Most ill-advised reprise of an iconic role: Tie between Sharon Stone, "Basic Instinct 2," and Sylvester Stallone, "Rocky Balboa."

Most incomprehensible Southern drawl: Sean Penn, "All the King's Men."

Best cleavage: Penelope Cruz, "Volver."

Best kiss: Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson on the playground in "Little Children."

Best sex scene: The entire opening sequence of "Shortbus" — because they're really doing it.

Best self-introduction: "I am Al Gore. I used to be the next president of the United States of America," from "An Inconvenient Truth."

Most needless sequel: Tie between "Big Momma's House 2" and "Jackass 2."

Lamest horror remake: Tie between "The Omen" and "When a Stranger Calls."

Biggest waste of Scarlett Johansson: "A Good Woman."

Best use of Lindsay Lohan: "A Prairie Home Companion."

Best actor playing a gay, suicidal Proust scholar: Steve Carell in "Little Miss Sunshine."

Most persuasive argument for clean living: Tie between "Thank You For Smoking" and "Fast Food Nation."

The life-imitating-art award: Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston in "The Break-Up."

Best-dressed man: Andre Benjamin in "Idlewild."

Best-dressed woman: Anne Hathaway in "The Devil Wears Prada" (post-makeover, of course).

Best dig at a guy who did not win the role of James Bond, agent 007: "Boswell. Nigel Boswell. 006. You know what that means?" asks agent Boswell (Clive Owen) in "The Pink Panther." "Of course!" answers Inspector Clouseau (Steve Martin). "It means you are one away from the big time."

Best use of Spandex: "Nacho Libre." (Sorry, Superman.)

Best excuse for a good cry: "Lassie"

Best soundtrack: "Marie Antoinette," a New Wave mix that includes Bow Wow Wow, Adam and the Ants and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Biggest genealogical news: "You are the last living descendant of Jesus Christ!" Tom Hanks to Audrey Tautou in "The Da Vinci Code."

Best argument for everybody going down with the ship: "Poseidon."

Best withering gaze: Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II in "The Queen."

Best performance by an actor playing a decomposing corpse through much of the movie: Jeff Bridges, "Tideland."

Guy with the most movies: Hugh Jackman ("X-Men: The Last Stand," "Scoop," "The Prestige," "Flushed Away," "The Fountain," "Happy Feet").

Hairiest actor: Robert Downey Jr. in "Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus."

Most memorable line: "Enough is enough! I have had it with these (expletive) snakes on this (expletive) plane!" — Samuel L. Jackson in (you guessed it) "Snakes on a Plane."

[ZeoBandit]

Somewhat related article:

The best (and worst) films of the year
POSTED: 8:28 a.m. EST, December 28, 2006
Story Highlights
• CNN.com critic Tom Charity's best: Eastwood's pair
• Also in top 10: "L'enfant," "Good Shepherd," "Borat"
• Worst: Shyamalan's "Lady in the Water"
By Tom Charity
Special to CNN
(CNN) -- It has become almost meaningless to talk of "the year" in American film. The business is now more seasonal than the climate. No less than three of my top five choices were released within the last two weeks of December; such is the magnetic lock of the Oscar period.

Indeed, only the foreign-language titles in my top 10 were released in the first six months of 2006, though naturally they were barely distributed.

(Question: if the American public can enjoy "Apocalypto," "Babel" and "Letters from Iwo Jima" in significant numbers, is it impossible they would try "L'enfant" or "Pan's Labyrinth"? Are subtitles the barrier, or budgets?)

Sadly, without the requisite Oscar hype, even such impressive fare as "Hollywoodland," "Children of Men" and "The Good Shepherd" are deemed too risky to market. That doesn't bode well for next year's crop.

On the other hand, it's worth remembering that the year's most profitable film surely must have been "Borat," which probably cost about $700 and change to make, and has pulled in over $230 million worldwide to date -- more than enough to cover those lawsuits.

Anyway, here are my best films of the year:

'Letters From Iwo Jima' and 'Flags of Our Fathers'
Directed by Clint Eastwood; starring Ken Watanabe ("Letters"); Ryan Phillippe, Adam Beach ("Flags")

Clint Eastwood's WWII diptych was the most impressive achievement in American film this year. The two movies take opposing positions on the battlefield, but they share a deep respect for the men on both sides subjected to the horrors of war. "Iwo Jima," in particular, invests a brutal history with rare grace and compassion.

(Read the reviews of "Iwo Jima" and "Flags.")

'L'enfant' ('The Child')
Directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne; starring Jeremie Renier

The Cannes prize winner in 2005, this naturalistic drama from the Dardenne brothers is as intense as any thriller -- there's even a car chase. Bruno (Renier) is a petty thief and hustler who impetuously sells his newborn son on the black market. His girlfriend's absolute horror has him scrambling to recover the child and redeem himself in her eyes.

'The Good Shepherd'
Directed by Robert De Niro; starring Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie

Maybe this is the movie "Godfather III" should have been. De Niro's account of the foundation of the CIA is utterly absorbing, a study of the insidious influence of paranoia and mistrust in the corridors of power during the height of the Cold War. Damon heads up the heavyweight cast in a major picture that hasn't been given its due.

(Read the review.)

'Children of Men'
Directed by Alfonso Cuaron; starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Claire-Hope Ashitey

Cuaron brings breaking-news excitement to this allegorical thriller, a kind of 21st-century nativity story. The human race is living out its last days after succumbing to universal infertility. Owen is the good shepherd charged with delivering a miracle baby into a world tearing itself apart.

'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Great Nation of Kazakhstan'
Directed by Larry Charles; starring Sacha Baron Cohen

This was the funniest movie in recent memory and the most talked-about of the year. Baron Cohen's "cultural learnings" weren't always edifying, but he certainly has a knack for putting the cat among the pigeons. Even the Kazakhs finally got the joke.

(Read the review.)

'The Death of Mr. Lazarescu'
Directed by Cristi Puiu; starring Ion Fiscuteanu

"ER" by way of Samuel Beckett. An old man calls the hospital for help. Eventually an ambulance arrives and he is escorted from doctor to doctor, department to department, hospital to hospital until finally his ailment becomes immaterial. This is how we die, most of us: with a whimper, and forms in triplicate.

'The Prestige'
Directed by Christopher Nolan; starring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale

Nolan up to his old tricks. Like his films "Memento," "Insomnia" and "Batman Begins," this splendidly original mystery is constructed as a postmodern puzzle, framing stories within stories, flashbacks within flashbacks, and presenting us with at least two unreliable narrators -- feuding magicians Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman -- one of whom is the victim in the murder trial that opens the film. I look forward to seeing it again.

'Hollywoodland'
Directed by Allen Coulter; starring Adrien Brody, Diane Lane, Ben Affleck

Biggest shock of the year: Affleck winning an acting prize at the Venice film festival. Deservedly. He plays George Reeves, TV's Superman, in this overlooked, downbeat drama, a real-life mystery that turns into something unexpectedly poignant. Lane is also very fine as his Reeves' mistress.

'Three Times'
Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien; starring Shu Qi, Chang Chen

If cinephilia were as fashionable today as in the 1960s, Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien would be as well known as Fellini or Godard. Here, Shu Qi plays three roles in three different time periods, where she's romanced three times by Chang Chen. For all its formal experimentation, the exquisite "Three Times" very clearly pours its heart and soul in our lap.

'Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby'
Directed by Adam McKay; starring Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly

For a dumb comedy, this one is pretty darn smart. Against all odds Ferrell finds the innocence in ignorance, making his arrogant NASCAR jock strangely endearing as well as infuriating. Who can resist a guy who will stab himself in the leg to prove he's paralyzed (he isn't), then gets into a car with a hungry cougar to test his courage?

* * * * *

As for the year's worst films, it's always an achievement to waste talent, but these three do a particularly fine (or foul) job of it:

'Lady in the Water'
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan; starring Paul Giamatti

It takes a real gift to make something as excruciatingly self-important as this plodding fable, a bedtime story M. Night Shyamalan reportedly wrote for his kids. Be content they slept well.

'The Wicker Man'
Directed by Neil LaBute; starring Nicolas Cage

LaBute ("In the Company of Men") tossed off this ill-considered remake of a cult British horror movie, investing it with his own gender issues but failing to put them in a coherent form. I've never seen a sorrier bunch of pagans.

'The Sentinel'
Directed by Clark Johnson; starring Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland

Okay, there were many worse movies than this thriller, but few (except maybe "Firewall") seemed so depressingly lazy. Cobbled together from bits and pieces of "No Way Out," "Absolute Power," "In the Line of Fire" and "24," this looked like an attractive package, but open it up and all you find are cliches and loose ends.

[chefcraig]

Best use of Lindsay Lohan: "A Prairie Home Companion."

No, I can think of one or two, far superior uses for Lindsay Lohan. Sadly, they require trips to the free clininc upon completion.

[Dennis]

Somewhat related article:

The best (and worst) films of the year
POSTED: 8:28 a.m. EST, December 28, 2006
Story Highlights
• CNN.com critic Tom Charity's best: Eastwood's pair
• Also in top 10: "L'enfant," "Good Shepherd," "Borat"
• Worst: Shyamalan's "Lady in the Water"
By Tom Charity
Special to CNN
(CNN) -- It has become almost meaningless to talk of "the year" in American film. The business is now more seasonal than the climate. No less than three of my top five choices were released within the last two weeks of December; such is the magnetic lock of the Oscar period.

Indeed, only the foreign-language titles in my top 10 were released in the first six months of 2006, though naturally they were barely distributed.

(Question: if the American public can enjoy "Apocalypto," "Babel" and "Letters from Iwo Jima" in significant numbers, is it impossible they would try "L'enfant" or "Pan's Labyrinth"? Are subtitles the barrier, or budgets?)

I just picked up Pan's Labyrinth....what an excellent movie. It's a wonderfully dark fairy tale. I highly recommend....especially the special edition dvd.

[Kimmie5150]

I took 5 kids to Flushed Away, they all seemed to like it....

I did the same thing. I even got the DVD for my kids, they love it.

[Kimmie5150]

There will be no disrespecting of Captain Jack Sparrow around here!

I love those movies too. Captain Jack Sparrow is the coolest pirate ever.


I loved "Talladega Nights" too, laughed through the whole thing.