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‘John Carter’ can’t hold a candle to these flops

Lesson: Don't ever go to space.

Many had high hopes for Disney’s “John Carter,” an epic space western directed by Pixar legend Andrew Stanton. But, although the movie was only released a few weeks ago, the company has already admitted their failure: The movie will generate an operating loss of $200 million from production and marketing costs. Sadly, “John Carter” will go down in history as a major flop. Here are other “memorable” films that are only known for bombing the box office.

“Cutthroat Island”

(1995, Carolco Pictures)

This pirate-themed action film starring Geena Davis and Frank Langella cost $115 million to make, but only raked in a paltry $18.5 million worldwide. Adjusting for inflation, that’s a loss of over $147.2 million. Ouch. It also previously held the Guinness World Record for Largest Box Office Loss. Double ouch.

“The Alamo”

(2004, Touchstone Pictures)

There were many things not going for this film when it was released, including going up against “The Passion of the Christ,” poor reviews and a ton of inaccuracies that angered historians. It’s no surprise then that the film only grossed $25.8 million worldwide, and 87 percent of that came from the U.S. audience. Apparently, no one remembered “The Alamo.”

“The Adventures of Pluto Nash”

(2002, Warner Bros.)

This Eddie Murphy children’s film lost 94 percent of its total cost of $120 million. Even though children are often the easiest film critics, only $7.1 million worth of tickets were sold. It also holds the dishonor of the seventh worst wide box office release of all time, according to Box Office Mojo.

“Sahara”

(2005, Paramount Pictures)

Apparently even if your film stars two international sex symbols, Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz, you can still go wrong.  With marketing and production costs figured in, Paramount paid a whopping $241 million to get “Sarahra” in theaters. Sadly, the reward was not great: It lost $121.7 million. McConaughey had said that the movie was supposed to have a sequel, but the poor box office performance has prevented that from coming to fruition.

“Mars Needs Moms”

(2011, Walt Disney Pictures)

Bad news for Disney: Earth didn’t need “Moms.” Not only is the movie 37 percent rotten and has a weak 49 out of 100 score on Metacritic, it only grossed $40 million worldwide of its $175 million budget. It opened on over 3,000 screens, so it had all the chances it could to be a success — well,  except for a decent plot.


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