Fantasy Movies That Bombed Hardest At The Box Office

At the dawn of the 21st century, the fantasy genre's standing at the box office changed dramatically. Thanks to the first Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings installments, live-action fantasy movies — a genre that had never previously produced a movie that grossed over $120 million at the domestic box office — was suddenly one of the most important genres around. In the two decades since, the world of fantasy cinema has continued to produce box office juggernauts, particularly once Disney began remaking their animated fantasy movies as live-action blockbusters.

But even the sturdiest genres have produced their fair share of box office misfires. Both before and after they became a hot Hollywood commodity, fantasy films were just as vulnerable as any genre to delivering a box office flop. Sometimes, these box office duds were the victims of poor marketing, others suffered from a bad release date and still others experienced financial misery because of studio politics. Whatever the reasons, these films serve as a reminder that not every live-action fantasy movie can be the next Thor: Ragnarok at the box office.

Prior to its release, the production troubles on 47 Ronin had already become legendary. Carl Rinsch's feature-length directorial debut went through multiple release dates before landing on a Christmas 2013 arrival. Those delays were due to 47 Ronin experiencing extensive behind-the-scenes turmoil, which included last-minute reshoots that drastically altered the movie and the removal of Rinsch from the post-production process. Of course, behind-the-scenes turmoil does not guarantee a dud. Sometimes, movies with fraught productions end up being classics, like The Wizard of Oz. But other times, it results in a landmark box office flop. The latter scenario was the case with 47 Ronin.

After opening to $20.3 million after its first three days of domestic release, it became apparent 47 Ronin was not going to work at the box office. Grossing $151.8 million on a gargantuan $175 million budget, it was projected that the film would end up losing $175 million for Universal Pictures. Its domestic performance was also unusually low for leading man Keanu Reeves, with the film, at the time, being only Reeves' second wide release since 2001 to gross under $40 million domestically. Considering 47 Ronin had to contend with The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in its December 2013 theatrical release, it's no wonder it had trouble attracting fantasy moviegoers. However, a lackluster marketing effort from Universal and atrocious reviews only further sealed the box office fate of 47 Ronin, a movie tormented by problems before it even hit the screen.

Today, Pan is best known for one inexplicable scene: Peter Pan, upon first arriving in Neverland, is introduced to the nefarious pirate Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman) through a pirate crew singing a rendition of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." It's a puzzling, anachronistic moment in a movie that otherwise adheres to an old-fashioned sensibility. It's a moment destined to be shared as a GIF or clip across social media in the years to come as people who saw Pan as kids try to figure out if this "Teen Spirit" scene was a fever dream or not. Unfortunately, the rest of Pan was nowhere near as memorable as that sequence. This Joe Wright directorial effort was widely derided as a forgettable slog, which helps explain the film's dreadful box office performance.

Taking in only $151.5 million worldwide, Pan fell far short of expectations, especially since it carried a sizeable $150 million budget. But the tale of Peter Pan has never been guaranteed to light up the box office. Steven Spielberg's Hook did fine but wasn't the runaway smash everyone expected, while 2003's Peter Pan was an actual money loser despite decent reviews. Pan was just another in a long line of reminders to movie studios that Peter Pan is just not a character audiences flock to, even with a cover performance of a Nirvana song.

With The Great Wall, Legendary Pictures hoped to create something that could resonate in the two biggest box office markets on Earth; the United States of America and China. The story about how The Great Wall of China was actually built to keep out an army of monsters, The Great Wall had both a high-concept idea and a star-studded cast that included Matt Damon, Willem Dafoe and Pedro Pascal. All of those notable qualities weren't enough, however, to make The Great Wall the box office success it was supposed to be.

The Great Wall only grossed $334.9 million worldwide and failed to leave much an impression at either the Chinese or domestic box office. Worse, on a $150 million budget, it ended up losing money for all its financiers, with one estimate projecting a loss of $75 million. The Great Wall had a number of problems that led to its box office demise, but chief among them was the miscasting of Matt Damon. Audiences like seeing him in tentpole fare, but his most successful blockbusters have been films like the Bourne movies or The Martian that have one foot rooted firmly in reality. Having Damon just react to CG monsters was not the kind of scenario audiences like to see the actor engage in. With a mishandled lead actor and a forgettable marketing campaign, The Great Wall ended up being a mass-appeal movie that appealed to no one.

Steven Spielberg and Disney joined forces for the first time with The BFG, an adaptation of Roald Dahl's book of the same name. On paper, combining the might of the Mouse House with Spielberg would seem to be a recipe for surefire box office success. In reality, though, The BFG ended up being one of the biggest box office bombs of 2016 with a $195.2 million worldwide gross on a $145 million budget. As a comparison, The BFG made only $16 million more than the worldwide gross of Spielberg's far cheaper 2017 adult drama The Post.

The reasons for why The BFG got squashed at the box office are numerous. For one thing, Dahl's book just isn't as famous as other Dahl works like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Matilda. Another issue was that The BFG was released in a massively competitive time for family movies, coming out directly between Finding Dory and The Secret Life of Pets. The biggest problem of all, though, was marketing that relied too much on the name value of Disney and Spielberg. Audiences turned out for the biggest Disney or Spielberg movies because of the spectacle or emotions those movies delivered — not solely because of a family studio or filmmaker's name on the poster. Leaning too much on brand names, The BFG's marketing failed to offer up unique qualities of its own and it suffered greatly at the box office as a result.

With The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, director Terry Gilliam was given access to more visual effects and a larger budget than he'd ever had before. Unfortunately, the use of all these tools ended up costing a pretty penny. Just over a year before its release, The Los Angeles Times noted that the film had turned into an "over-budget nightmare." Gilliam has delivered films throughout his career that have been beloved and highly influential. But they've also usually been niche affairs that don't attract enough moviegoers to justify the eventual massive (for its time) $47 million price tag of Baron Munchausen.

Then again, maybe Baron Munchausen would have crossed over if it had ever been given a chance to be seen by wider audiences. The film only grossed $8 million worldwide, all of that coming from its domestic performance. However, unlike many costly fantasy film flops, Baron Munchausen never got the chance to play in thousands of theaters or even in general wide release. Considering it never played in more than 126 locations, Baron Munchausen's performance was commendable, if still a money-loser. Gilliam would later recall how Baron Munchausen had been robbed of any chance to be a hit thanks to studio politics at its distributor Sony/Columbia, which refused to expand the film's theater count any further. While Baron Munchausen ended up being a flop, it was also the rare fantasy movie bomb that was clearly restrained from reaching its fullest potential.