Movies That Bankrupted Studios

Suggestion: directors that failed to expectation after a sucess movie. Like Richard Kelly with soutland tales, Vincent Gallo with Brown bunny, Michael Cimino with Heavens gate and John Boorman with Zardoz.

I mistrust films that have the word "heaven's" or "gate" in the title.

The Spirits Within was, I thought, really good. I was disappointed it didn't find an audience.

Heaven's Gate is 3.5 hours of my life I'll never get back. I loved it when Siskel and Ebert were utterly savage over their criticisms of the film. I think the biggest problem was that Cimino had a hit with The Deer Hunter, then things went to his head. Heaven's Gate was the result. My biggest problem is that people use Heaven's Gate as an excuse to trash The Deer Hunter, which I think is one of the most gut wrenching films I've ever seen.

I’ve never liked Heaven’s Gate. It’s probably one of the most bloated films ever made. There are some good visuals however.

Here is a significant correction regarding film budgets. Using Final Fantasy as the example, the film cost $137 million; this cost does NOT include the marketing budget nor the film studio. $137 million was the film's production cost, with no ancillary costs. If you include the cost of the studio and marketing, The Spirits Within skyrocketed to $212 million. Since theatre chains take about half of a movie's box office as their cut to screen a film, TSW needed to earn approximately $430 million to break even. What this means is Final Fantasy The Spirits Within wasn't just a flop, it was a catastrophe for Square, who lost -$127 million.

It's absolutely amazing that James Cameron hasn't made a list like this yet.

To be fair, Cutthroat Island is not a bad movie. That is not to say that it's a great film by any means, but it's not terrible. It's a mediocre adventure film that has its high spots and its low spots and that is fairly enjoyable to watch. Neither Renny nor Geena nor the studio deserved the massive hit they took because of that film.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning underperforming is one of the most heartbreaking ones for me. Just an amazing movie from start to finish. Deserved to make as much as Barbie and Oppenheimer (not saying they stole its business though or that I don’t like them).

Heaven's Gate is a pretty okay movie when you get past the ridiculous runtime, but man did Cimino's ego get the best of him.

I'm noticing a theme: all of these movies have redeeming qualities and a respectable number of supporters. I imagine that it's because no movie that is truly, obviously terrible is going to receive enough money to sink a studio, as well as the fact that simply pouring more money on can improve certain aspects of a film.

I can’t recall the Storyline of FF, but the Images sure left a Mark. Ahead of its Time.

If I remember correctly, Sakaguchi said about Spirits Within (and I may be wrong); "If for a moment while you are watching, you are convinced the CGI characters are real, I have done my job." And didn't Square Pictures do Advent Children as well, with the few embers they had left?..

Spirits Within is a tragedy in retrospect. I remember seeing it in theaters when i was 6 and having no idea if I was seeing real people or CGI 😂 Imagine what Square could have continued to do in games with Sakaguchi and without Enix.

I will always defend Cutthroat Island as fun and ambitious, it is filled with with wild stunts (rolling out a window and landing in a moving carriage seat) and amazing effects. We will never get set pieces like two large wooden ships in battle ever again.

Should consider the fiasco of Cleopatra, probably the most expensive film made when adjusted.

Just wanted to comment that these videos are really well made and interesting. Keep it up!

Surprised you haven’t put Happy Madison Productions on this list considering almost every single film they fart out flops miserably. And they money by the millions on each one they release. Not one makes any kind of profit whatsoever.

Love the videos, man. Keep it up!!!

It will always depress me that because of Cutthroat Island we never got what would’ve the second Arnold Schwarzenegger/Paul Verhoeven collaboration, Crusade.