5 Box Office Bombs From The 2010s That Changed Hollywood Forever

The 2010s were the era of “Party Rock Anthem,” Dat Boi, Netflix getting into television programming, and Vine stars. In the midst of these cultural events, countless movies debuted that forever changed the cinema landscape. Sometimes, these appeared as gargantuan blockbusters like “The Avengers” or “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Other times, it was through critically lauded features like “Carol,” “Shoplifters,” and “You Were Never Really Here” that are now considered some of the greatest movies of all time. The 2010s weren’t a bad time to be a movie geek, though it could sometimes be rough waters for studio executives.

This often materialized as major costly titles that sank at the box office. Given that this was when major studios began abandoning mid-budget movies for slates comprised largely of $200+ million budgeted franchise fare, there were more opportunities than ever for pricey movies to fall flat on their faces. Across this decade, five particular box office duds proved not only catastrophic in their losses, but also lastingly influential. These movies reverberated across Hollywood in profound ways, whether through inspiring executives to abandon certain kinds of adaptations or leading to the collapse of independent studios.

The failures of these five 2010s box office flops weren’t confined to a single bad opening weekend. Instead, their financial misfortunes had expansive consequences on the larger film industry. Nobody was blaring “Party Rock Anthem” over these duds.

Seven months after “Transformers” opened to massive box office numbers in July 2007, Hasbro and unrelated movie studio Universal Pictures signed a first look deal to develop movies based on various Hasbro properties. With this partnership, it was clear that Universal was hoping to launch franchises on par with “Transformers.” Four years later, this deal collapsed and Universal let Hasbro go. This didn’t just produce a slew of movies based on toys that never happened. It also offered a foreboding sign for the first Hasbro/Universal production, “Battleship,” which wouldn’t debut until May 2012.

Universal must’ve smelled blood in the water, and the studio proved right. “Battleship” was one of those box office bombs everyone saw coming, only grossing $313.47 million worldwide (including a dismal $65.23 million domestically) on a massive $220 million budget. Save for further “Transformers” sequels and a pair of “Ouija” movies, “Battleship” ensured Hollywood largely stayed away from costly adaptations of toys for the rest of the decade. Comic book movies (like “The Avengers,” which wiped out “Battleship” when it debuted two weeks prior) were in vogue, not Hasbro titles.

The failure of “Battleship” also inspired Universal to not prioritize $200+ million tentpoles just for the sake of having those titles. As early as 2014, Universal instead embraced cheaper yet more lucrative movies like “Neighbors” that were the antithesis of the bloated bomb “Battleship.”

“Battleship” tilted Universal towards more mid and low-budget offerings (save for the occasional “Jurassic World”), but the siren song of tentpoles couldn’t be resisted forever. Five years after that watery flop, Universal plunked down an enormous amount of cash into a 2017 reboot of “The Mummy” meant to kick off a Marvel-style shared continuity of Universal Monsters. Universal had tremendous confidence in both “The Mummy” and this franchise, named the Dark Universe. But “The Mummy” immediately became a box office flop that killed its planned cinematic universe.

Costing $195 million to make, “The Mummy” grossed only $409.95 million worldwide, including an abysmal $80.1 million domestically. One of the biggest flops of 2017, “The Mummy” halted all future Dark Universe movies. The studio subsequently overhauled its approach to those classic Universal Monsters with lower-budgeted efforts like 2020’s “The Invisible Man.” Meanwhile, “The Mummy” made Hollywood hesitant over shared universes being the de facto approach of blockbuster movies. Even Warner Bros. announced that its DC films would emphasize standalone stories above interconnected narratives just a few months after “The Mummy” cratered.

“The Mummy” also signaled a shift in what audiences wanted out of horror movies. This expensive PG-13 flop was drastically outgrossed in 2017 by infinitely cheaper R-rated horror films “It” and “Get Out.” Immense scale doesn’t immediately produce immense scares. 

DreamWorks Animation has had its fair share of box office flops even before “Rise of the Guardians” arrived in November 2012. However, this was an impactful dud whose financial losses proved a turning point for this outfit. Costing $145 million to make, “Rise of the Guardians” only grossed $306.94 million worldwide. DreamWorks eventually reported an $87 million loss on the title, the kind of failure that the studio’s shift away from 2D animation to towards CG animated titles was supposed to prevent.

Worse, “Rise of the Guardians” started a streak of box office flops that diluted the DreamWorks Animation brand. In the following two years, “Turbo,” “Mr. Peabody and Sherman,” and “The Penguins of Madagascar” all lost immense amounts of cash for the studio. Less than four years after “Guardians” premiered, NBCUniversal bought DreamWorks Animation. This sale led to the demise of various original DreamWorks titles in development and constricted the world of American feature animation. DreamWorks lives on, but as a more cost-sensitive Universal label rather than an independent entity.

In hindsight, “Rise of the Guardians” was like the first domino whose tumbling began a chain effect that drastically altered the American animation landscape. At least its director, Peter Ramsey, would eventually land on his feet by being one of the “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” helmers.

“Transformers: Age of Extinction” was easily the biggest movie of 2014 worldwide with a whopping $1.1 billion globally. It didn’t matter if it contained some of the most egregious and questionable moments in the Transformers franchise, audiences still came out in droves to see it. With that kind of box office haul, it would seem like Paramount Pictures would’ve had nothing to worry about when it came to the long-term viability of the Transformers movies. Three years after “Age of Extinction,” though, “Transformers: The Last Knight” only grossed $602.89 million worldwide. 

That number sounds large on the surface, but given that $229.4 million of that sum came from China, “The Last Knight” actually made under $400 million worldwide discounting Chinese ticket sales. Domestically, “The Last Knight” only grossed $130.1 million while its total budget was a whopping $260 million. Losing $100 million for Viacom, “The Last Knight” put all American tentpoles on notice. If Transformers could produce a box office failure, no saga was safe. 

Since “The Last Knight,” Paramount has repeatedly tried reviving its cash cow franchise with titles like “Bumblebee” or “Transformers One.” Yet, nothing from this near-decade of reconfiguring Transformers into something new-ish yet profitable have come close to “Age of Extinction” numbers. Meanwhile, Michael Bay, once a reliable director of box office hits, has only helmed one theatrical movie (“Ambulance”) since “The Last Knight” flopped.

Once again bemoaning how badly “John Carter” flopped feels a bit like kicking someone while they’re down. The box office performance of “John Carter” is so infamous that it’s almost redundant to once again label it a flop. For those unaware, though, “John Carter” only grossed $284 million worldwide on a $263 million budget. Just 11 days into its theatrical run, Disney announced that it would be taking a $200 million write-down on the production. Any hopes from director Andrew Stanton and company for a pair of proposed “John Carter” sequels went up in smoke.

In hindsight, the failure of “John Carter” closed a chapter of one Disney era just before another began. Two months after “John Carter” premiered, Walt Disney Pictures distributed its first Marvel movie, “The Avengers,” and Marvel Cinematic Universe titles quickly became lucrative fixtures of Disney’s annual slate. Nine months after “John Carter” debuted, Disney announced it was purchasing Lucasfilm and producing new Star Wars movies. The days of Disney taking risks on pricey non-sequel tentpoles like “John Carter” or “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” were firmly in the past.

“John Carter” cratering at the box office only reaffirmed to Disney executives that the studio needed to embrace safer Marvel movies, Star Wars legacy sequels, and live-action remakes of Disney cartoons. “John Carter” helped steer Disney into a new creative trajectory that’s still influencing every sector of Hollywood.