Once upon a time in a land called Hollywood, casting a big star was an investment that paid for itself in box office returns. That financial fairy tale is now pure fiction: The biggest box office flops of 2015 include vehicles fronted by Bradley Cooper, George Clooney and Johnny Depp, among others.
Topping the turkey pile is Bill Murray's Rock The Kasbah, an offbeat and off-color comedy in which a washed-up tour manager (Murray) finds himself in Kabul trying to turn a young Afghani woman into a TV singing competition winner. The fish out of water story was universally panned by critics and flailed like an asphyxiating goldfish, grossing just $2.9 million on an estimated $15 million production budget. With a dismal 19% return on production costs--and just an 8% favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes--Rock The Kasbah leads our list of 2015's biggest flops.
Even a leading man with a Best Actor statue can't save a bad film. Two-time Oscar winner Sean Penn returned to the multiplex this year with The Gunman, a shoot-'em-up thriller he co-wrote and co-produced. With just $13.6 million in box office receipts and a $40 million budget, the expensive misfire produced a 34% return, third worst this year behind Rock The Kasbah and the Chris Hemsworth hacker movie Blackhat.
To compile our list of Hollywood's Biggest Turkeys we used information from Box Office Mojo, IMDB and other sources to find worldwide box office and estimated production budgets. We ranked the films based on what percentage of their budgets they earned back at the theater as of November 18. We only looked at movies that opened in more than 2,000 theaters to screen out films that had small openings first; we did not include films released in November or movies that had not reasonably completed their theatrical run by our deadline (Our Brand Is Crisis included).
Even for a film that grosses nine figures, staying in the black can be a tricky business. Take Tomorrowland, which grossed $209 million on a production budget of $190 million. At first glance that doesn't look bad, but studios only keep about half of ticket revenues, so
Full List: Hollywood's Biggest Turkeys Of 2015
Ticket sales are projected to close out 2015 at record levels, with
Perhaps this year's most publicized flop was Aloha, the Cameron-Crowe directed rom-com featuring Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone. Long before it hit theaters, rumors swirled when emails leaked during the Sony hack revealed disparaging comments made by then-studio chief Amy Pascal about the film.
“I’m never starting a movie again when the script is ridiculous," Pascal wrote. "I don’t care how much I love the director and the actors."
Despite its all-star lineup, the film came under fire for whitewashing after Stone was cast as a character of Chinese and Hawaiian descent. Reviews were mixed and the box office was concurrently tepid--$26.3 million on a $37 million estimated production budget. That 71% return is likely not enough to turn a profit for its backers, Regency Enterprises, LStar Capital and RatPac Entertainment.
Thankfully for Tinseltown, audiences are quick to forget flops--especially ones few saw. In the expensive, uncertain business of making movies, that's as close to a happy ending as the ticket booth can tally.
Full List: Hollywood's Biggest Turkeys Of 2015
An earlier version of this list was based on incorrect information provided by Box Office Mojo, which did not include international box office numbers for The Gunman, Self/Less, American Ultra and We Are Your Friends. We regret the error.
