Quality cinema has been steadily declining in recent decades and many films have poorly developed stories. It has gotten bad with the wave of parody films that don’t have good acting or even a plot. On many occasions advertising executives are clever in displaying an intriguing movie preview and commercials, enticing us to the theatre. Many production companies are making millions of dollars off poorly made cinema. Predictably, many of these movies are sequels that don’t match up with the original, but have gained mass popularity. I have compiled a list of some of the worst Hollywood pictures that have made the most money at the box office. Many of the entries had advertising luck, a huge campaign, or were a franchise film. They are categorized by the lowest quality movie and not money earned. Be sure to check out some of my other Top 10 lists at www.listzblog.com
Quality cinema has been steadily declining in recent decades and many films have poorly developed stories. It has gotten bad with the wave of parody films t... more
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Rank (best ever) 16
Score (all time) 4832.00
Created 07/03/09
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1
Norbit - Worldwide Gross $160 Million - Norbit is a slapstick comedy that was released in 2007. The film stars Eddie Murphy in the three leading roles. It is a romantic comedy and follows the life of Norbit Albert Rice, who might have the most annoying voice in cinema history. Murphy has been known to play multiple characters in many roles, but it was never as obvious as in this film. Norbit has absolutely no plot, is not funny, and is the most predictable movie ever created. It was an extremely poor attempt at another Nutty Professor. It was one of the worst reviewed movies ever and received many Golden Raspberry Awards, which are given to the worst movie productions of the year. The celebrity of Eddie Murphy was the only reason this film made any money. Coming off a well publicized Academy Award win for his performance in Dreamgirls, Murphy was in the public eye when Norbit was released. It ended up being his 14th movie that opened at the #1 spot at the box office. It is amazing to me how one of the worst movies developed all year can make $160 million dollars worldwide.
2
Epic Movie & Meet the Spartans - Worldwide Gross $185 Million - I can’t stand the modern trend of parody films that don’t have any plot and are just a variety of bad jokes. They rely on celebrity power and crude humor to create a variety of skits. I prefer being able to follow a storyline when viewing this genre of film. I agree that there have been some classics such as Hot Shots, Scary Movie, and Not Another Teen Movie. Epic Movie was a 2007 release written by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, who previously worked on Scary Movie and Date Movie. As the previous films were well written, Epic Movie crossed a boundary where the humor became obnoxious and pointless. It was a box office smash and made close to $100 million dollars worldwide. Meet the Spartans was a 2008 release by the same production company that was a parody on the movie 300. It was the worse reviewed film of the year and received a 2% approval rating on many networking sites. Meet the Spartans was a financial success and made $85 million dollars worldwide. As of late it seems that many audiences are catching on to the lack-luster production quality of these parody films and we have not seen many released.
3
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - Worldwide Gross $400 Million Dollars - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is the third official film in The Mummy series. The movie stars Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, and Maria Bello and is a twist on the first films as Fraser discovers the tomb of The First Emperor of China, Emperor Han. This sequel seems to be targeted at a younger crowd with many corny one-line comedy bits. The critics did not like this film and claimed no plot and excessive special effects. Like many sequels, good writing was substituted for big movie pyrotechnics. It also felt that it was a mistake to move away from Egypt, mummies, and ghostly phenomenon. That genre of movie is what made the franchise so successful. I could hardly make it through this film and admittedly did not care how it ended. Amazingly it was a huge success at the box office and made an astounding $400 million dollars worldwide.
4
Fantastic Four - Rise of the Silver Surfer - Worldwide Gross $289 Million - Rise of the Silver Surfer was a superhero movie and sequel to The Fantastic Four. It explores a new adventure for the group as they tangle with a silver alien who rides a surf board. It might be the worst film that I have seen in a long time. The dialog and acting are extremely poor with little excitement or adventure. The film was extremely slow and the plot was surrounded by a wedding and certain turmoil between the group members, which is not exciting. It was predictable and almost laughable at times. The advertising campaign for this film was enormous. You couldn’t turn on the television or internet for weeks without hearing about the release. It did extremely well in its opening week, suffered a 66% drop in week 2, and an additional 54% drop in week 3. People were gradually realizing that is was a poorly made and directed piece of cinema. The film was an international success and gained around $290 million dollars on a $130 million dollar budget.
5
The Happening - Worldwide Gross $163 Million - The Happening is a 2008 horror film that was co-produced and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The plot revolves around a mysterious plant named neurotoxin that causes any person coming into contact with it to commit suicide. I was extremely excited to see this film when it was released, but was quickly disappointed. It turns into a gory and disturbing film with limited surrounding and collaborative character building. Mark Wahlberg was one of the most popular actors in Hollywood when this film was released and it did not help his career. It ended up looking like a cash cow that had the big names working on the crew, but no script to help. It was certainly a long ways away from Shyamalan’s direction of The Sixth Sense. The Happening has grossed a total of $163 million dollars, but numbers could have been much higher if it had been a good movie. I might not understand the true style of M. Night Shyamalan, but I was also disappointed with his 2004 film The Village. I was just expecting a bit more from the finishing sequence. The Village went on to gross $256 million dollars at the box office.
6
Batman & Robin - Worldwide Gross $239 Million - Batman & Robin is a 1997 installment in the Batman franchise. It was directed by Joel Schumacher and is defenently one of the worst superhero movies ever created. Audiences have come to expect success when it comes to Batman movies. We have had many classics spanning from the original 1989 feature to the recent blockbuster Dark Knight. Batman & Robin starred George Clooney as Bruce Wayne, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Uma Thurman, Chris O'Donnell, and Alicia Silverstone were also in the cast. The movie tries to adapt to the roots of the story, but ends up moving at an extremely slow pace. The action sequences are not that good and many special effects are not logical. It tries to have a sentimental ending, but the watcher is not involved enough to care. This film almost single handedly killed the movie superstar of Batman and another series wasn’t developed for almost ten years. It was still was a success at the box office and made around $240 million dollars worldwide. It suffered an extensive 63% drop in sales after the first week of release.
7
Wild Hogs - Worldwide Gross $252 Million - Wild Hogs is a 2007 comedy film with mega star power, including Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy. It tells the story of four friends who decide to get together and take a road trip across the United States. Immediately this was one of the worst reviewed and rated films of the summer. The script is weak and many scenes are fake and unbelievably bad. Fans still flocked to see Travolta and Allen who are amongst the most famous celebrities in the world. A wide range of people from teenagers to elderly adults paid to see this film and then decided “that was alright,” after leaving the theatre. The movies base plot had a lot of potential, but nothing exciting or heart-warming happened in the story. Despite many flaws Wild Hogs became one of the most successful movies of the year and earned over $250 million dollars worldwide.
8
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa - Worldwide Gross $600 Million - The original Madagascar was one of the best animated movies ever made. It did a wonderful job of blending adult material with a fun children’s adventure. Escape 2 Africa missed on all angles with the adult audiences. Many children still love to see some of their favorite animated characters, but the sequel did not have an interesting feel. It was catered to younger children who don’t quite understand a storyline, but love singing, dancing, and fun dialog. It wasn’t nearly as well put together or developed as the first movie. They failed to introduce any new and interesting twists. It received average reviews and was bashed on many networking sites. It was a smash success for Paramount Pictures and has grossed more then $600 million dollars at the box office, that is not mentioning the widely successful video game series. As one would expect, Madagascar 3 is due out in the summer of 2012, hopefully this attempt will have more of a creative story.
9
The Matrix Revolution - Worldwide Gross $540 Million - The Matrix Revolution is the third and final installment of The Matrix trilogy. The film stars Keanu Reeves and Jada Pinkett Smith and finishes off the sci-fi series. Unfortunately the plot of the film comes to a standstill and focuses on big action special effects to entertain the audience. The best thing about the original Matrix movie was the story development and anticipation. We all knew what was going to happen in this film and I was bored by the end. Sure there is a lot to live up to, but a more clever script and more character development could have made a Star-Trek like exciting conclusion. The film was one of the most anticipated in movie history and earned a total of $540 million dollars on a $150 million dollar budget. It did not get good reviews from world critics or most audiences.
10
Inspector Gadget - Worldwide Gross $134 Million - Inspector Gadget is a 1999 film based on the popular television cartoon series. The movie starred Matthew Broderick and depicts the origins of gadget. I still don’t know how the movie producers messed up the story of Inspector Gadget. The premise of this cartoon has everything that a hugely successful Hollywood blockbuster is looking for, a goofy, part man and part machine police detective, who can solve crimes and decipher problems. The movie did not use special effects very well and was criticized as being a bit dark for the average child. The director should have used the supporting cartoon characters more and Broderick did not sell the role as gadget. They should have developed more of a criminal conspiracy that gadget had to figure out and overcome. The film received poor reviews, but ended up making $134 million on a $75 million dollar budget. I hope that there are future plans for a more realistic and compelling Inspector Gadget movie on the horizon.
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