There’s no denying that the 2020s have given us some seriously big movies – and while we’ve got more entertainment than ever at our fingertips thanks to streaming services, the cinema remains as popular as ever.
This year has already seen the biggest film so far – The Super Mario Galaxy Movie – smash past the $1bn mark worldwide, while the likes of Michael, Project Hail Mary and The Devil Wears Prada 2 have also raked in hundreds of millions of dollars.
And the successes of the decade don’t end there, with Spider-Man: No Way Home, Zootopia 2, Inside Out 2, Barbie, Avatar: Fire and Ash and Top Gun: Maverick all making it into the all-time box office top 20.
But for every film that’s made a fortune, there are those which haven’t fared quite so well – and we’re sorry to say that the 2020s has also given us a fair few of those too.
So let’s put down the popcorn for a moment and spare a thought for those films which had such high hopes – but which ultimately shed millions after failing to find an audience…
Strange World (2022)
The first film on this list comes as something of a surprise, because surely a big-budget Disney animation is a licence to print money, right? Not in the case of Strange World, which arrived in cinemas in time for Thanksgiving 2022, trailing a huge budget in its wake – and failed to make its mark.
Strange World follows a legendary family of explorers who have to set aside their differences as they embark on a journey to save a miracle planet, which is their own society’s source of energy.
On paper this should have worked – with the film boasting an impressive voice cast which includes the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Lucy Liu and Gabrielle Union – while its gay lead character, a first for a Disney animation, was a milestone moment for the studio.
Throw in a 72% Rotten Tomatoes rating and it should all have worked – but sadly audiences stayed away, with the movie making just $73m (£55m) against a reported production budget of $180m (£136.4m).
Overall estimates from Deadline Hollywood suggested it could lose as much as $197m (£149m) – which given this one had everything going for it, is just a little strange.
Amsterdam (2022)
Another one which should have been a no-brainer, Amsterdam ticked all the boxes – from a cast which includes the likes of Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and David Washington through to director David O Russell at the helm. Not that it made any difference to its fate.
Inspired by the true story of the Business Plot – a 1933 political conspiracy in the US which aimed to overthrow President Roosevelt – the film follows three friends who reunite and attempt to expose the plot, following the murder of a US general.
This one opened to negative reviews, landing a troubling 32% on Rotten Tomatoes – with iNews saying it was ‘let down by its own inanity and wayward plotting’, while the Chicago Sun-Times called it ‘jaw-droppingly terrible’.
In the end the film – which had a reported budget of $80m – grossed just $29.4m (£22m) – with a reported loss of around $108m (£81.9m) once marketing costs were taken into account.
A number of factors have been cited for its failure, from the decision to move the filming from Boston to Los Angeles in the wake of the pandemic, causing the budget to spiral, through to the poor critical reception.
The Marvels (2023)
Given how popular Marvel movies have been over the past decade, with everything from the Avengers series to Thor and Captain Marvel tearing up the box office – 2023’s The Marvels should have been a licence to print money.
Spoiler: It wasn’t. The Marvels – the sequel to 2019’s smash hit Captain Marvel, in which Brie Larson’s protagonist teams up with Monica Rambeau and Ms Marvel after their powers become entangled – proved to be one of the MCU’s biggest disappointments to date.
The reviews weren’t terrible, with the movie bagging a middling 63% Rotten Tomatoes rating -but the box office didn’t match them.
The film took $206m (£156.2m) worldwide, which is still an awful lot of money – plus it holds the record for the highest-grossing film ever to be directed by a black woman, Candyman helmer Nia DaCosta.
But despite its achievements, when you consider that the budget came in at around $219m (£166m) it still wasn’t enough to turn a profit.
Ultimately – including marketing costs – the film is estimated to have lost an eye-watering $237m (£179.7m). Why did it fail? That’s anyone’s guess – but the enormous budget, along with the fact the SAG-Aftra strike at that time prevented some of the stars (Larson, Samuel L Jackson) from doing any press, have been cited as possible factors.
Regardless, the outcome was far from marvellous.
Joker: Folie A Deux (2024)
Todd Phillips’ 2019 hit Joker was simply enormous – quite aside from the fact that it soared past the billion-dollar mark at the box office, it picked up 11 Oscar nominations and won two, including a best actor trophy for Joaquin Phoenix as the troubled title character.
Its sequel however? That’s another story. Folie A Deux arrived in 2024, with the high-profile addition of Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, and a story which swapped the crime thriller tropes of 2019’s original for a legal drama. With songs.
Of course this could have worked, but despite premiering at the 2024 Venice Film Festival in a blaze of publicity, it left critics unimpressed – it has a 31% rating on Rotten Tomatoes – and moviegoers staying away.
Ultimately the film made $227m (£172.1m) worldwide – which, given its budget of $371m (£281.5m) plus marketing costs, ended in a loss of $144.3m (£109.4m).
It wasn’t totally ignored when awards season came around though – being nominated for seven Golden Raspberry awards. So there’s that/
Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny (2023)
When Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) picked up his fedora for one final outing in 2023 everybody got excited – understandably, given the character is one of the most beloved in cinema history.
But just because a new Indy movie might be a cause for celebration, doesn’t mean it’s going to translate into box office receipts.
This one brings the action all the way forward to 1969, and sees our hero join forces with his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) in search of a mysterious dial which could facilitate time travel.
So far, so standard issue Indy – and potentially a recipe for plenty of action blockbuster thrills. The film nabbed itself a decent 71% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and took $384m (£291m) worldwide – but with its estimated budget of $295m (£223.6m) plus marketing costs, that wasn’t enough.
In fact, that gross was only half of what the previous outing in the series, 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, made. Ultimately it’s said to have lost around $134m (£101m) in total – a sad way to end such an iconic series.
Lightyear (2022)
Given how popular Toy Story is – the fifth film in the series is currently packing them in at cinemas – a spin-off Buzz Lightyear movie should have had fans of the franchise flocking.
Sadly, it wasn’t to be. Lightyear was a 2022 origin story in which we meet an actual human version of Buzz. Chris Evans voices the character, who’s joined by a bunch of recruits -and an adorable robot cat named Sox – as they take on the evil Emperor Zurg (you might have heard him mentioned in Toy Story a few times).
Sadly there wasn’t a lot of Buzz around for this Lightyear – which in spite of a decent 74% Rotten Tomatoes Rating struggled to make the impact of the Toy Story flicks.
Costing an estimated $200m (£151m) to make, the film ultimately grossed $226m (£171m) worldwide – once again this sounds like a lot of money, and it is. Against that budget however, it represented an estimated loss of over $100m (£75m).
Again, nobody knows what went wrong – but some have suggested drafting in Evans to voice the character instead of Tim Allen, who voices the Toy Story version, might have proven confusing or off-putting.
A premise which revealed that Lightyear was actually a film within a film – it turns out to be the fictional movie that inspires the Toy Story character – proved equally baffling for some.
Meanwhile, competition from the likes of Jurassic World: Dominion and Top Gun: Maverick didn’t help.