Random Most Infamous Box Office Flop From The Year You Were Born (26 items)

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  (#26) Battlefield Earth

  • John Travolta, Barry Pepper, Forest Whitaker, Kim Coates, Sabine Karsenti, Richard Tyson, Marie-Josée Croze, Kelly Preston, Michael Byrne, Jim Meskimen, Christian Tessier

  Production Budget: $73-103 million
  US Box Office Total: $21.5 million
  What Happened? Set in the year 3000, alien captors called Psychlos come to Earth, plundering its minerals and wiping out humanity in the process. John Travolta's pet project, written by Scientology leader L. Ron Hubbard, was a mess on every front - with a poor plot, bad special effects, uncool costuming, and a paper-thin storyline. As Roger Ebert said, "Battlefield Earth is like taking a bus trip with someone who has needed a bath for a long time. It's not merely bad; it's unpleasant in a hostile way."
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  (#4) Sextette

  • Alice Cooper, Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, Mae West, Timothy Dalton, Tony Curtis, Regis Philbin, Dom DeLuise, Walter Pidgeon, George Hamilton, George Raft, Ian Abercrombie, Van McCoy, James Bacon, Ric Drasin, Jim Morris, Gil Stratton, Jorge Moreno, Ben Astar, Rona Barrett, Richard Peel, Cal Bartlett, June Fairchild, Peter Liapis, Harold Fong, Keith Allison, William Beckley, Rollin Moriyama, Patrick Sullivan Burke, Klair Bybee, George E. Carey, Roger Callard, Ed Beheler, Jay B. Larson, Rick Leonard, Bonnie L. DeSouza, Denny Gable, Jill Freeman, John Austin, Jason Cooper, Kal Szkalak, Ed Ness, Harry Weiss, Jim Tarleton, Derek Murcott, Brent Williams, Brian Abadie, Reg Lewis

  Production Budget: $7-8 million
  US Box Office Total: $50,000
  What Happened? Casting Mae West as a woman with a high libido and a much younger husband was a tough sell for filmmakers who wanted it to be more camp, but it played cruelly to audiences. West, who was a sex symbol in the 1930s, had become a parody of herself at 85, and she was not in on the joke. The musical numbers were terrible, and the movie - which also features Timothy Dalton, Alice Cooper, and Keith Moon of The Who - fell flat with audiences. Today, it's a sad relic of '70s excess. 
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  (#10) The Cotton Club

  • Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane, Lonette McKee, Bob Hoskins, James Remar, Nicolas Cage, Allen Garfield, Fred Gwynne, Gwen Verdon, Lisa Jane Persky, Maurice Hines, Julian Beck, Novella Nelson, Laurence Fishburne, John P. Ryan, Tom Waits, Wynonna Smith, Charles "Honi" Coles, Larry Marshall, Joe Dallesandro, Woody Strode

  Production Budget: $58 million
  US Box Office Total: $25.9 million
  What Happened? The Cotton Club - the story of the Harlem nightclub in its 1920s heyday, featuring Richard Gere and Gregory Hines as the respective patron and entertainer - was a casualty of overzealous studio handiwork. Coppola had authority over the final cut of the film - or so he thought. The studio had other ideas and insisted he cut out much of the storyline involving Black characters.

  As he tells it, they thought it had "too many Black people, too much tap dancing, [was] too long," and wouldn't play well with audiences. That decision caused the film to tank with audiences and critics alike who found it thin on plot and confusing due to the editing. Coppola has since restored it to its former glory, making it an all-around better film. 
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  (#6) Heaven's Gate

  • Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, Isabelle Huppert, John Hurt, Jeff Bridges, Sam Waterston

  Production Budget: $44 million
  US Box Office Total: $3.5 million 
  What Happened? For better or worse, director Michael Cimino happened. The film cost quadruple the budget and was a year behind schedule because of Cimino's need for perfection. Cast members had to learn to roller skate; a full western town of the period was built; a vintange steam train was acquired; and the 1200 extras were handpicked by the director himself. 

  By the time the movie premiered, Cimino's name was mud in Hollywood. He had created over a million feet of footage, but was contractually obligated to make a film spanning two to three hours. He got it down to four hours, then cut it down to two and a half hours, but that didn't work either; it didn't catch on with audiences and was univerally panned.  
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  (#24) The Avengers

  • Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman, Sean Connery, Patrick Macnee, Jim Broadbent, Fiona Shaw, Eddie Izzard, Eileen Atkins, John Wood, Carmen Ejogo, Keeley Hawes

  Production Budget: $60 million
  US Box Office Total: $23.3 million
  What Happened? You would think a movie that was based of the cool, stylish, and iconic British TV show of the 1960s, featuring a gentleman spy and his fashionable sidekick, would have been a hit, but The Avengers lacked the wit and charm of its predecessor. Less than 90 minutes long, the film seemed incomplete and confusing, and while its special effects wowed audiences, its story did not, and it was named one of the worst films of the year and all time.  
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  (#12) Shanghai Surprise

  • Sean Penn, Madonna, Paul Freeman, Richard Griffiths, Philip Sayer, Clyde Kusatsu, Lim Kay Tong, Sonserai Lee, Victor Wong, Professor Toru Tanaka, Michael Aldridge, Sarah Lam, George She, Philip Tan, George Harrison

  Production Budget: $17 million
  US Box Office Total: $2.3 million
  What Happened? Madonna was at the peak of her pop power in 1986 and had just experienced rave reviews for her role in Desperately Seeking Susan. She was on her way to a lucrative film career, but that was put on hold with Shanghai Surprise. The movie teamed Madge (who played a missionary) with her then-hubby, Sean Penn (as a syndicate), who was already a hot property in Hollywood.

  The movie wasn't good, and Madonna wasn't good in it. Coupled with more Asian stereotypes than anyone could shake a stick at, the movie was a disaster with critics and audiences alike. Madonna didn't break the acting curse until the 1990s when she won acclaim for her roles in Dick Tracy and Evita. 

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