Coming into the fall, some Oscar pundits voiced curiosity about whether Bill Murray-led comedy Rock the Kasbah could emerge as an unlikely contender, but let’s just say times have changed. Instead, the pic has ended up leading the pack in a very different, far less enviable race – for the title of 2015’s least profitable movie.
Forbes, which put together a list of Hollywood’s Biggest Turkeys ahead of Thanksgiving, weighed information from Box Office Mojo, IMDB and other sources to find box office and production costs, then looked at what percentage of a given film’s budget it made back. (It didn’t look at titles released this month or at ones that opened in less than 2,000 theaters to weed out tiny titles with smaller debuts.)
When the dust settled, a “victor” was clear. Rock the Kasbah is, barring any unmitigated disasters between now and 2016, the biggest flop of the year, having earned only $2.9 million against a budget of $15 million (that’s an absolutely nightmarish 17% return for the studio).
Elsewhere, the list held few surprises, with some of the worst-reviewed titles of the year (Mortdecai, Unfinished Business) earning spots. It’s a little dismaying to see American Ultra, a fun and energetic little action-comedy that couldn’t at the box office despite the combined star power of Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, mixed in, but no one who watched it tank back in August should be shocked to see it here.
In order, the full list reads:
1. Rock the Kasbah
2. The Gunman
3. Blackhat
4. Unfinished Business
5. Jem and the Holograms
6. Self/Less
7. American Ultra
8. We Are Your Friends
9. Aloha
10. Mortdecai
Did you see any of the movies on this list in theaters? And if so, did they deserve to fail as badly as they did, or was poor marketing more to blame? Sound off in the comments.
