As 2024 draws to a close, the annual time has come for all movie lovers to think back on the films released this year. It has certainly been an exciting year for movies, with many major blockbusters like Dune Part Two and Wicked managing to delight both critics and audiences alike. However, not every film from the last 12 months has experienced the same level of success. When looking back at the most recent year in cinema, it is important to also remember the films that didn’t do quite as well and why.
As is typically the case with any year, several 2024 films severely underwhelmed their audiences, becoming undeniable flops at the box office. Whether it be because of lousy filmmaking, poor advertising, or something else altogether, these movies were not received nearly as well as their creators had envisioned. Regardless of how they were expected to perform or even their true quality, these films proved to be the biggest flops of 2024.
10
Joker: Folie À Deux
Budget: $190-200 Million | Box Office: $206.4 Million
The 2019 film Joker proved to be a major success from practically every standpoint, winning multiple Academy Awards and earning over a billion dollars on a budget of only around $55-70 million. Sadly, its 2024 sequel was not as successful in any regard. Set two years after the events of its predecessor, Joker: Folie à Deux offers a continuation of Arthur Fleck’s story, following the madness that ensues when he is introduced to Harleen Quinzel just before the start of his trial.
Much to the chagrin of many Joker fans, Joker: Folie à Deux made several unusual departures from the first film, most notably presenting the sequel as a musical. The budget for Joker: Folie à Deux was also much higher than that of the original, growing much closer to the $200 million mark. Despite this, box office numbers for the sequel proved to be drastically lower than those of the first film, earning only $206.4 million.
9
Madame Web
Budget: $80-100 Million | Box Office: $100.5 Million
Sony’s Spider-Man Universe has not exactly gotten off to the start that the studio had envisioned. Their early 2024 release, Madame Web, did little to straighten the course. This superhero film stars Dakota Johnson as Cassie Webb, presenting an action-packed origin story for the character, following her as she desperately attempts to protect three young women from an evil force that seeks to destroy them all.
Madame Web managed to earn $100.5 million at the box office, but this figure becomes much less impressive when you realize that the film’s budget was practically the same amount. To make matters worse, Madame Web received overwhelmingly negative reviews, with many declaring it to be not only among the worst films of the year but one of the worst superhero movies of all time. Needless to say, the project was a flop on all accounts.
8
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1
Budget: $50 Million | Box Office: $38.2 Million
Kevin Costner is no stranger to Westerns, but his latest addition to the genre has decidedly not been the most well-received. Halfway through 2024, he released the first film in an entire series he is planning to co-write, direct, and star in. Titled Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1, this introductory film is meant to set the stage for the franchise, following the lives of an assortment of characters struggling to get by in the Midwest during the Civil War.
In order for the franchise to be a success, the later installments will have to do much better than the first one. Although it was made on a budget of $50 million, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 only managed to bring in $38.2 at the box office, a statistic that could prove to be a dangerous warning sign for the future of the series. Part of the underwhelming results can perhaps be attributed to the film’s imposing runtime, coming in at over three hours long, a very intimidating length considering there are meant to be three more installments.
7
The Crow
Budget: $50 Million | Box Office: $24 Million
Image via Lionsgate
Oftentimes, remaking popular films feels like a surefire way for studios to easily make a sizable profit. However, the 2024 remake of The Crow, originally inspired by a James O’Barr comic series, proved that the strategy is not an absolute guaranteed success. Starring horror icon Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs, The Crow tells the haunting story of a vengeful man who is brought back to life after he and his girlfriend are both killed.
At the box office, The Crow massively underperformed, especially when compared to other modern reboots of classic stories, even others in the horror genre specifically. The film raked in a mere $24 million at the box office, just under half of its original $50 million budget. Adding insult to injury, the film also received consistently negative reviews, establishing the project as a failure on all fronts.
6
The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare
Budget: $60 Million | Box Office: $27.3 Million
Image via Lionsgate
Guy Ritchie has had a very wide range of successes with his movies over the years, but his most recent feature did not fall on the positive side of the spectrum. Released in April, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare offers an action-packed, highly fictionalized account of a daring mission during World War II. Ritchie has certainly explored the action-comedy genre before, but this latest effort was far from his most profitable attempt to do so.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare was not completely panned by critics, managing to earn at least a little bit of praise where it was due. This was far from enough to dub the film a success, though, as it only accumulated a mere $27.3 million at the box office. Having a budget of $60 million, this was not nearly enough to satisfy the team behind the film. Ritchie will definitely be hoping his next film does significantly better.
5
Here
Budget: $45-50 Million | Box Office: $13.4 Million
Image via Sony Pictures
With films like Back to the Future and Forrest Gump in his repertoire, director Robert Zemeckis has definitely made some major hits over the years. Sadly, his most recent film, Here, did not end up being one of them. Here takes on a unique premise, showing how a single patch of land has evolved over time, highlighting all the major events that have unfolded in that one particular spot over thousands of years.
Here was not the most expensive film to make in 2024 by any means, but it still failed to live up to its budget. The film cost around $50 million to make, but only brought in $13.4 million at the box office. Percentage-wise, Here was one of the least successful films of 2024 financially, barely making back a third of its initial budget. Factoring in the mixed reviews from critics, it feels safe to say that Here was far from being one of the more successful films in Zemeckis’s career.
4
Fly Me To The Moon
Budget: $100 Million | Box Office: $42.2 Million
Greg Berlanti’s 2024 film, Fly Me to the Moon, offered a classic romantic comedy story but with a unique twist. Set in the late 1960s, the film follows a talented marketing specialist who teams up with a NASA launch director to record a fake moon landing in case the real one proves to be unsuccessful. With a clever concept and a stacked cast led by Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum, Fly Me to the Moon seemed to have all the necessary elements to be a success at the box office.
This did not end up being the case, however. Despite having a nine-figure budget, Fly Me to the Moon recuperated less than half of what it cost to make. The underwhelming performance can be at least partially attributed to the poor release of the film. Fly Me to the Moon was originally meant to be a straight-to-streaming movie, so its theatrical release was rather underdeveloped, with many potential viewers very unclear as to what the film would really be about.
3
Borderlands
Budget: $110-120 Million | Box Office: $33 Million
Image via Lionsgate
Following the massive success of the HBO series, The Last of Us, it was no major surprise that other video game adaptations began to follow. Unfortunately, not all of these adaptations were nearly as well-received. One particularly underwhelming example was the action-packed sci-fi film, Borderlands, directed by Eli Roth. Backed by an all-star cast, Borderlands offers a new take on the beloved video game series, following an unlikely crew as they set out to find a very important missing person.
The popular source material and star-studded cast were not enough to bring viewers to the theater, though. And with a hefty budget, Borderlands only raking in $33 million at the box office spelled disaster. On top of that, the film received consistently negative reviews, failing to offer much of anything critics could find redeeming. In becoming one of the biggest flops of the entire year, Borderlands proves that filmmakers can’t expect to achieve success solely by adapting something popular.
2
Argylle
Budget: $200 Million | Box Office: $96.2 Million
Argylle may have had a fairly interesting concept and a dazzling cast, but these elements were not nearly enough to attract the audiences the filmmakers were expecting. Directed by Matthew Vaughn, this exciting action-comedy highlights the crazy circumstances that follow when an author inadvertently writes a novel that perfectly mimics a series of true events. Many found the plot to be too confusing and the humor to be too corny, prompting the film to underperform in theaters.
When looking at the massive cast of A-list stars, it is not really a surprise that Argylle had one of the largest budgets of any 2024 movie. It is estimated that the film cost around $200 million dollars to make. This lofty goal proved insurmountable for Argylle, as the box office numbers didn’t even amount to half of its budget. Only earning $96.2 million, Argylle proved to be a significant financial misstep for Universal Pictures and Apple Original Films.
1
Megalopolis
Budget: $120-136 Million | Box Office: $13.9 Million
Image via Lionsgate
Regardless of how any given person may feel about it, it is impossible to deny that Megalopolis certainly inspired a great deal of conversation surrounding its release. Many decades after the massive success of films like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, writer/director Francis Ford Coppola made his return to the big screen with Megalopolis, an epic science fiction story that had been in the making for quite a long time.
While the film inspired a very wide range of opinions (ranging all the way from “disaster” to “masterpiece”), one aspect of Megalopolis is clear as day: it was a colossal flop at the box office. The budget, which was reportedly supplied entirely by Coppola himself, was estimated to be approximately $120-136 million. One can only imagine Coppola’s dismay when the film only managed to recuperate around 10 percent of that. These disheartening numbers easily make Megalopolis one of the biggest flops in recent memory.
Source: Box Office Mojo