Making movies is an expensive business. Actors and actresses demand high payment. The props, special effect, and editing are also costly. If a production house makes a terrible decision of producing a movie, the company may face bankruptcy immediately after the film is released.
And if you think that only the poorly-crafted films are suffering from disabling money loss, you are wrong. Some movies are excellently made, yet they attract very few movie-goers anyways. And below are the three biggest movie flops that threatened their production houses to cease to exist.
Asura
Asura was a Chinese high-fantasy movie inspired by Tibetan Buddhist mythology. The person behind it was the tycoon Jack Ma. He tried to infuse Chinese people with traditional narratives presented in a modern way. With the budget of $113 million invested in the production, Asura turned out as a flop, with only $7,3 million revenue in its opening.
Despite the failure, the movie is state-sponsored. The Chinese government has the agenda of promoting traditional mythology to strengthen the people’s sense of national identity. Many journalists have also reviewed the movie as the most highly anticipated film for the summer season. But in spite of all the efforts, Alibaba Pictures did not get its money back.
47 Ronin
Keanu Reeves had his big time from the Matrix trilogy. But ever since, he has not seemed to get a hit on his roles, except for the mediocre John Wick series. Nevertheless, Keanu Reeves’ movie that was a flop was the 47 Ronin.
The story of the movie is not entirely disastrous. There are plenty of others which are way worse. It tells a story of a group of ronin (samurai vigilantes) who were enraged by a murder of their master. They sought help from mystical beings, called the tengus, to set for revenge against their wrongdoer.
The visual effect is arguably brilliant. You can expect to see many exotic war armors and weapons. Although they are far from being historically accurate, they are still fun to watch.
Nevertheless, the movie lost $98 million from the production budget $175 million. Universal Studios did make a wrong move on 47 Ronin. They trusted a green director, Carl Rinsch, for the job. And as we can see, even Keanu Reeves couldn’t help the rating.
John Carter
John Carter is like Superman in reverse. Instead of an alien becoming a superpower being on Earth, like Clark Kent, it was John Carter who got superhuman invulnerability for visiting Mars through a mysterious portal.
The movie is engaging enough with all the visual effects and plot twist. It also has a long duration. Because perhaps, the director wanted it to be a comprehensive story for the audience. However, John Carter made the production house lost $122 million.