It’s been a long and stressful year for Hollywood blockbusters, and some would argue that the rise of Netflix and HBO, combined with sequel/prequel over-saturation, have caused some of the biggest movie flops of this year. There have been quite a few of them, but for now let’s focus on these 6 big-budget flops of 2017!
Transformers: The Last Knight
The Transformers franchise has been milked for years now, and thank goodness Michael Bay said this was the last one. And it definitely wasn’t the best one! The movie had a budget of $217 million, but only grossed slightly over $125 million at the domestic box office. Turns out, people don’t appreciate it when all they’re getting are explosions and subpar writing. I’m guessing going against Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Wonder Woman, didn’t help either.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
I really hoped Luc Besson would make another “Fifth Element”, but all we got was an amazingly gorgeous-looking world and… that’s it. You know your movie failed when people like side characters more than the titular hero. Also, as a rule of thumb, don’t drag the eyebrow model Cara Delevingne into your movies. She’s not an actress, she’s a set decoration at best. The movie grossed domestically only $40 million on a reported $180+ million budget. However, if we do get a great sequel one day, I’d forgive Luc Besson this little misfire.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
Speaking of misfires, Guy Ritchie’s “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword”, is a $175 million movie, starring Charlie Hunnam, did not do too well at the box office. Which is a shame because I enjoyed it, but the film brought in measly $39 million domestic. For some reason “King Arthur” had some ridiculously low reviews: 28% on Rotten Tomatoes. Those must have been some really dense reviewers.
The Great Wall
Another “why would you make this” movie idea, this time with Matt Damon at the helm. On paper “The Great Wall” looked bad, and the inevitable whitewashing controversy made it even worse. Add bad reviews to this equation and voila, you have yourself a big fat flop. Oddly enough, this deuce of a movie had 35% of Rotten Tomatoes. Go figure!
The Mummy
*Heavy sigh* Okay, I don’t know WHAT the Universal studios were thinking when they decided to reboot a fairly decent movie, as well as to make it a launching point of their own shared Monsterverse, but I gather it must have been something heavy. Of course, the movie flopped like a dead fish, making just $80 million domestic on a $125 million budget. I believe, no, I HOPE we won’t see any more movies from the Monsterverse anytime soon, even though they’ve already cast the Invisible Man (I think). Let’s just all forget this franchise got rebooted, okay?
Monster Trucks
For me Monster Trucks is one of those movies that I wanted to see but somehow missed. I like this kind of BS, sue me! But let’s just look at the numbers, shall we? With a budget of $125 million, this CGI-heavy comedy/adventure managed to get a whopping $33.3 million US dollars, making it the lowest grossing movie of 2017 (so far at least). Here’s a fun fact for you: the movie was based on an original idea of the then-Paramount president’s four-year-old son. That’s all you need to know, and I’m glad I didn’t see it.
