25+ Of The Worst, Career-Ruining Movies Of All Time, According To Moviegoers

Budget: $70 million*
Box Office Gross: $20.2 million*

Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever has a 19% on Metacritic, and it has become somewhat of a cult classic because of how bad it is. When you watch this action thriller, you won’t be on the edge of your seat; you’ll be laughing.

Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002) @Google/Pinterest

Starring Lucy Liu and Antonio Banderas, Ballistic was top of the list for Rotten Tomatoes’ “Worst Movies of All Time.” We know Lucy and Antonio can act; so the reason 100+ professional critics panned the film had to have something to do with the writing and directing. Bad luck, WBD, this one was a real stinker.

Budget: $20 million*
Box Office Gross: $45.8 million*

Shannyn Sossamon starred in One Missed Call, a movie that got 0% on Rotten Tomatoes and abysmal ratings elsewhere. This horror movie came out in 2008, and it made a decent amount at the box office (more than twice its budget).

One Missed Call (2008) @Beef_Perky/Twitter

That doesn’t mean it was a good movie, though. Far Out called it the year’s “worst horror remake,” stating that it was bland from “performance” to “direction.” The characters were predictable, the plot was overdone and confusing, and the entire movie was just trite.

Budget: $16 million*
Box Office Gross: $27.4 million*

Another 0%-er on Rotten Tomatoes was left-behind, a movie that didn’t fare well on any review sites, save the Google Users one. Nicolas Cage, a man who knows how to make a terrible film, for sure, starred in this sci-fi thriller.

Left Behind (2014) @RottenTomatoesTRAILERS/Youtube

Basically, a bunch of people disappear, and the movie is about the people left behind (get it?). The movie didn’t get traction in even the Bible Belt, a place where people love talking about the rapture. It was a critical and box office flop.

Budget: $40 million*
Box Office Gross: $22 million*

This movie didn’t wreck Eddie Murphy’s career, but it didn’t help it in 2012. A Thousand Words is a movie about a man who is cursed with a lack of speech. That took away Eddie’s best talent—his comedy.

A Thousand Words (2012) @zflixnetwork/Twitter

The movie had a $40 million budget, as they had to pay Murphy and his co-star, Kerry Washington, but it only made $22 million at the box office, representing a huge flop for its studio, PARA Pictures.

Budget: $250 million*
Box Office Gross: $284.1 million*

This movie very nearly crashed Taylor Kitsch’s career, but we’re glad it didn’t. John Carter came out in 2012, and the action movie quickly became famous as one of the biggest box office flops for Disney in the company’s history.

John Carter (2012) @fandomentertainment/Youtube

Shot on a $250 million budget, John Carter bombed at the box office. According to its filmmakers, it was the movie’s marketing that caused the film to fail, as a studio exec team without a lot of experience was hired to promote J.C. to the masses.

Budget: $225-$250 million*
Box Office Gross: $260.5 million*

Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer (yikes) starred in The Lone Ranger, a Western that came out in 2013. Depp was Tonto, while Hammer played the Lone Ranger. Hammer’s name is mud in Hollywood now, and Depp is making a comeback currently.

The Lone Ranger (2013) @HourlyDepp/Twitter

This movie came out years before all of those headlines, though. The Lone Ranger was such a flop, Disney wrote off $190 million in losses while the movie was just a few weeks into its theater run. Westerns, as a genre, just weren’t popular enough to make money overseas.

Budget: $10 million*
Box Office Gross: $6.4 million*

Gotti was shot on a $10 million budget, and it made slightly over half of that at the box office. Starring John Travolta as John Gotti (a weird choice), Gotti has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, amid dismal ratings elsewhere.

Gotti (2018) @RottenTomatoesTRAILERS/Youtube

Rotten Tomatoes’ critics described Gotti as a “comically terrible imitation of a biopic.” Don’t get Gotti confused with Get Gotti, a Netflix series about John Gotti that actually has pretty decent ratings.

Budget: $43 million*
Box Office Gross: $41.3 million*

Most of us have heard of the story of Pinocchio, a wooden doll that becomes a real boy by wishing (a simplification of the story, but you get it). Pinocchio, the movie, came out in 2002, and we’re not talking about the Disney film.

Pinocchio (2002) @YourStupidMinds/Twitter

This 2002 movie was made by Roberto Benigni, and it was a total misfire, with critics calling it “unfunny,” “poorly-made,” “creepy,” and a “vanity project.” Want to watch Pinocchio? Go with the Disney animated version, not this remake.

Budget: $20 million*
Box Office Gross: $9.5 million*

Baby Geniuses was a franchise that people loved to hate, but it was the sequel, Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2, that got the worst ratings (and that’s saying something, as the original was a stinker, too).

Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (2004) @r/shittymoviedetails/Reddit

Jon Voight starred in BG2, along with Scott Baio. As you can imagine, that winning lineup wasn’t able to turn this bizarre, poorly-made movie into a success. As one person online said, it wasn’t even “good fodder for mockery.”

Budget: $85 million*
Box Office Gross: $61.7 million*

You can pay $3.99 on Amazon to rent this movie, but we suggest you skip it. The 13^th Warrior came out in 1999, and it was based on a Michael Crichton novel. Though it had promise, this Antonio Banderas flick failed to pull it off.

The 13th Warrior (1999) @iamrollergirl/Pinterest

The events had a loose basis in history, but it was barely accurate. Though the Crichton novel was engaging, the 13^th Warrior was bland, thanks to a final cut that removed a lot of the story’s strengths and bite.

Budget: Unconfirmed 
Box Office Gross: $829,140*

Chris Owen is a name you don’t hear much from anymore, and perhaps National Lampoon’s Gold Diggers is why. Gold Diggers has a 6% on TV Guide, and it was a huge flop for its distributor, MGM.

National Lampoon's Gold Diggers (2003) @wordpressdotcom/Pinterest

The black comedy involves robbing and marrying old women, a plot that, as you can imagine, had a lot wrong with it. One reviewer on Rotten Tomatoes called NLGD “so incredibly bad” and “astoundingly wrong-headed.”

Budget: Unconfirmed 
Box Office Gross: Unconfirmed

Edgar Ramirez, Anna Brewster, and Michael Pitt all starred in The Last Days of American Crime, a thriller that they probably regret now, as it wasn’t too helpful to their careers. This 2020 movie has a goose egg on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Last Days of American Crime (2020) @teasertrailer /Twitter

As Metacritic said, it took a “potentially” good premise about a heist and government mind control (long story) and turned it into something “drain[ed] of any reason to get invested.” It was distributed, probably regretfully, by Netflix.

Budget: $23 million*
Box Office Gross: $51.9 million*

Perhaps you’ve heard the tale of Jaws: The Revenge, and the utter, abysmal, terrible tragedy it was. Its only good spot was that Michael Caine was in it, and we all love him. The Revenge was a sequel that didn’t need to happen.

Jaws: The Revenge (1987) @MOVIECLIPS/Youtube

Universal distributed it, probably hoping for the same magic that made Jaws, the original, a smash hit. As Common Sense Media put it, the dialogue was “hilariously bad,” and the SFX “even worse.” Somehow, this film still made $52 million at the box office.

Budget: $98 million*
Box Office Gross: $10 million*

If you want a laugh, watch Cutthroat Island. This nineties movie starred Geena Davis and Matthew Modine. The “swashbuckler” adventure movie was shot on a $98 million budget, but it only made $10 million at the box office.

Cutthroat Island (1995) @trailerchan5879/Youtube

That’s right, the losses were over $100 million, and the laughingstock film left the whole “pirate” genre toxic until Pirates of the Caribbean took hold. It also destroyed its studio, and people were shocked that Modine agreed to play the leading man, as every other major industry star turned down the role.