The 8 Biggest Box Office Bombs Of Summer 2016

While several films such as Finding Dory, The Secret Lives of Pets and even Suicide Squad (despite its poor critical reception) did some very impressive business at the box office, this summer season was packed full of dud movies. Interestingly, many of them were films that were predicted to be big successes but, in the event, fell someway short of the mark. One explanation for this is that there were just too many 'must-see' movies around this year. Usually a big release would have a while to build up a healthy box office but, in 2016, they only had a few days before the next hotly-anticipated film was stealing their thunder. Whatever the reason may be for their failure, here are the eight biggest box office flops of the summer. Take a look at them starting on the next page and let us know if you think any of the films listed here deserved to do better. 8) Pete’s Dragon Budget: $65 million Domestic gross: $55.5 million Worldwide box office: $78.3 million Despite very positive reviews and great word of mouth, this remake of Disney’s 1977 classic was far away from the strong successes of the House of Mouse’s other live-action reboots in recent years – for instance, Cinderella and The Jungle Book. Admittedly, it is still playing in theaters, so it could rake in a few more dollars, but so far, the movie has made a fairly paltry sum worldwide. On the other hand, Pete’s Dragon’s modest budget means it is not as sore a loss as it would otherwise be. Plus, it was always expected to earn less due to the original being a lesser known property than those previously mentioned remakes. Given all their other hits this year, Disney execs most likely won’t lose any sleep over this one. 7) Star Trek Beyond Budget: $185 million Domestic gross: $151.6 million Worldwide box office: $244.5 million The third film in the rebooted Star Trek series, Star Trek Beyond might be down on the numbers made by its predecessors, but its domestic gross is still pretty solid. The problem for the film is that its box office was not bolstered overseas as it should have been. Experts say the film needs to make up to $350 million to recoup the budget and promotional costs – which it is currently in danger of failing. The real test of the film will be if it fares well in China, where it just opened on September 1st. If audiences there flock to the movie, it could well match the $385.7 million earnings of 2009’s Star Trek. However, the $467.4 million gross of Star Trek into Darkness is definitely out of the question. 6) Independence Day: Resurgence Budget: $165 million Domestic gross: 102.9 million Worldwide box office: $383 million After 2015 was the year of the nostalgic sequel, as reignited franchise movies like Jurassic World and The Force Awakens swept the box office, this belated sequel to 1996’s Independence Day must have seemed like a surefire hit. In the result, unlike the aliens in the movie, Resurgence did not make a big impression on the world. Particularly surprising was its poor domestic gross when the ID franchise has always been geared towards American audiences first and foremost. Though it obviously made a fair bit of money, with all that was riding on the movie, Resurgence is considered a massive disappointment. Though there were clearly plans for more sequels to follow, we can safely say that they won’t come to fruition. 5) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows Budget: $135 million Domestic gross: $82 million Worldwide box office: $242.8 million Perhaps even more than most years, 2016 has been a battle of the brands. The stronger the brand, the better the film will do. This year, then, turtle power was not enough to cut it and the latest TMNT movie did not make as much as its predecessor did in 2014. Though his attempts to reboot beloved 80s kid shows turn off a lot of fans, movies with Michael Bay’s name on them do tend to rake in the cash (even if he is just the producer). This wasn’t so with Out of Shadows, however, despite the movie managing to be slightly better received than the messy first movie in this rebooted series. So unimpressive was the total gross for this one that it seems likely that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be disappearing back into their shells for some time to come. 4) Alice Through The Looking Glass Budget: $170 million Domestic gross: $77 million Worldwide box office: $295.1 million Reviews were not kind to Tim Burton’s muddled reimagining of Alice in Wonderland back in 2010, but Disney couldn’t care less as it made over $1 billion dollars worldwide. Six years later, the studio was clearly hoping to repeat the first film's success with Alice Through the Looking Glass. Unfortunately, things changed since the beginning of the decade – not least the reputation of Johnny Depp. It’s difficult to tell how much Depp’s very public and damaging divorce case with Amber Heard impacted how parents felt about taking their kids to see his latest film, but it couldn’t have helped. Critics laid into the movie just as badly as the first, but this time people listened and stayed away – making this a very costly bomb for Disney. After Pirates of the Caribbean 5 comes out next year, don’t expect to see Disney and Depp collaborate in the future. 3) Ghostbusters Budget: $144 million Domestic gross: $125 million Worldwide box office: $217.8 million After all the controversy surrounding the Ghostbusters reboot with its all-female cast, it would have taken a miracle for it to come out unscathed and become a box office success. Initially, things looked strong, as the movie garnered the biggest ever debut for a live-action comedy. Unfortunately, after a solid opening weekend, Ghostbusters’ fortunes dipped considerably. With some sources stating that the film really needed to earn around $500 million to break even, the fact that it failed to gross even half of that means this one can be safely labelled a flop. What this means for the future of the franchise is now unclear. Have the Ghostbusters themselves been consigned to the cinematic graveyard – or will bustin’ make people feel good again in a sequel? 2) The BFG Budget: $140 million Domestic gross: $54.3 million Worldwide box office: $160 million Despite all their massive successes earlier in the year, Disney were also culpable for one of 2016’s biggest flops. A big reason why The BFG bombed is because the studio shot themselves in the foot by scheduling it opposite their own Finding Dory - meaning that the movie's intended audience were siphoned off elsewhere. Still, it is surprising that the film did this badly. Particularly as it's a Steven Spielberg flick, which have always been smash hits in the past. And it received a warm reception from critics. Maybe Roald Dahl just doesn't do it for kids like he used to? As with Pete’s Dragon, Disney probably won’t be too perturbed by this failure. However, they will certainly be rethinking their scheduling strategy in the hopes of avoiding a similar situation again in future. 1) Ben-Hur Budget: $100 million Domestic gross: $19.6 million Worldwide box office: $41.4 million Unlike The BFG, everyone predicted that Ben-Hur would be a massive flop – and it definitely did not disappoint in t hat regard. This remake of the classic biblical epic might have roped in Morgan Freeman, but it's not enticing many folks to flock to cinemas to see it. While it couldn't have helped that the reviews for it were savage, Ben-Hur's failure might be to do with the fact that traditional epic movies are not really in vogue at the moment. Plus, it didn't really have a big hook - it's not part of a popular franchise, it didn't feature a famous central star and it was not made by a celebrated filmmaker. To be fair to Ben-Hur, it has yet to reach a few countries across the globe, so it could make a bit more money back. However, the damage has already been done and the film is set to go down as the biggest box office bomb of a summer that churned out many disappointments.