Despite Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides all breaking the $1 billion mark at the global box office, 2011 hasn’t exactly been the best of years for Hollywood studios. According to a report from The New York Times, box office sales in North America are approximately $500m down on last year (and 2009, which narrowly pipped 2010 in terms of cumulative grosses), despite an increase in ticket prices and of course the dreaded 3D surcharge.
According to distribution executives, the poor box office performance can be put down to “competition for leisure dollars, particularly among financially pressed young people, too many family movies and the continued erosion of star power.” That’s all well and good, but another hugely important factor has to be the crop of movies that studios have released over the past twelve months and The Hollywood Reporter have put together a list of 2011’s fifteen biggest flops – take a look here…
Mars Needs Moms (Budget: $150M; Worldwide Gross: $39M)
Sucker Punch (Budget: $82M; Worldwide Gross: $89.8M)
Arthur (Budget: $40M; Worldwide Gross: $45.7M)
Green Lantern (Budget: $200M; Worldwide Gross: $219.9M)
Cowboys & Aliens (Budget: $163M; Worldwide Gross: $178.8M)
Glee: The 3D Concert Movie (Budget: $9M; Worldwide Gross: $18.7M)
Conan the Barbarian (Budget: $90M; Worldwide Gross: $48.8M)
I Don’t Know How She Does It (Budget: $24M; Worldwide Gross: $30.5M)
The Thing (Budget: $38M; Worldwide Gross: $27.4M)
The Big Year (Budget: $41M; Worldwide Gross: $7.4M)
The Rum Diary (Budget: $45M; Worldwide Gross: $21.6M)
Anonymous (Budget: $30M; Worldwide Gross: $14.8M)
Tower Heist (Budget: $75M; Worldwide Gross: $126.3M)
Happy Feet Two (Budget: $135M; Worldwide Gross: $115M)
New Year’s Eve (Budget: $56M; Worldwide Gross: $54.9M)
Although some of those figures don’t look too bad – such as Glee: The 3D Concert Movie, which made $18.7m from $9m – the production budget doesn’t include marketing and promotional costs (which in many cases can match the production outlay), while cinemas usually take between 45-55% of the total box office gross. Still, when you take into account home entertainment sales and rentals, television deals and associated merchandising, the majority of those films should go on to turn a decent profit… well, except for Disney uber-flop Mars Needs Moms, with its atrocious performance leading to the closure of Robert Zemeckis’ ImageMovers Digital studio and leaving the Mouse House some $100m+ out of pocket. Ouch.
Originally published December 26, 2011. Updated November 29, 2022.
