2) Speed Racer
Production Budget: $120 million
Worldwide Box Office Total: $93,945,766
Hot off the success of The Matrix trilogy, Warner Bros. commissioned the Wachowski siblings to direct Speed Racer. The film had actually been in production since 1992 but it wasn’t until 2008 that it finally hit the big screen.
The $120 million was already a lot to begin with, and once you throw in marketing costs of close to $80 million, the amount of money spent on this one certainly made it a gamble. I mean, the Wachowskis were a hot commodity in Hollywood at the time but they lost a bit of their goodwill with the subpar Matrix sequels. Also, the film was an adaptation of a 1960s Japanese anime show. Still, the studio obviously thought that having the Wachowskis at the helm would be enough.
Unfortunately, they were wrong and Speed Racer ended up sinking the siblings’ careers, for a while at least. Critics slammed the film and the box office wasn’t too kind to it either. Admittedly, the visuals were pretty spectacular but for many, the film just missed the mark on far too many occasions and was geared too heavily towards children, leaving nothing of substance for those over the age of 10.
It solidified the soiled reputation of the Wachowskis and it wouldn’t be until 2012 that the siblings would redeem themselves with the fantastic Cloud Atlas.
