These 25 Movies Were Highly Anticipated But Flopped Hard During the 2010s

Optioning unexpected properties for film adaptations was a major trend in the early part of the decade, but the misguided attempt to turn Battleship into a Summer action tentpole turned out to be one of the most roundly-mocked failures in years.

A Keanu Reeves-led action epic seemed like a good idea at the time, but the meandering plot, concerns over stereotypes, and overinflated budget doomed the movie to be one of the biggest misfires of all time.

It's not that the adaptation of Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel was bad, per se. But adapting a massive — and polarizing — book into a single movie led to some puzzling creative choices, and The Goldfinch wound up going from one of 2019's surefire award winners to having one of the worst box office showings in history.

It was touted as a big-budget franchise starter in the vein of Pirates of the Caribbean, but instead, John Carter became one of the most infamous flops ever. The sci-fi adventure flick reportedly lost Disney $200 million and was a perfect storm of bad decisions: a generic story with even blander marketing, no stars with name recognition, and a mid-March release date in the era before blockbusters really happened in non-Summer months. Star Taylor Kitsch managed to star in both this and Battleship within a few months of each other, ending his hopes of being an A-list action star.

If you ask movie buffs about the most disappointing adaptation of the decade, be prepared for a rant about 2010's The Last Airbender. Based on a fan-favourite animated series, the live-action movie was one of the most hotly anticipated movies of 2010 — until it came out. The reaction from critics and audiences was so bad that the movie eventually swept the "Golden Raspberry" parody awards and is often cited as one of the worst movies ever made.

There were high hopes for this ensemble drama — after all, it came from This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman and starred top talent like Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, and Mandy Patinkin. Unfortunately, critics panned it as melodramatic and inauthentic, and it was one of the biggeset bombs of 2018.

Disney had a lot of high-profile failed-franchise bombs this decade, but the one that might be the most infamous is its reboot of The Lone Ranger, which tried and failed to translate Johnny Depp's success as Jack Sparrow into a new franchise. The production was notoriously troubled (things got so bad at one point that the film was briefly cancelled altogether), and when it finally hit theatres, it made less than half its projected first-weekend earnings and was thoroughly panned by critics.

Every few years, it seems, Hollywood decides it's time for a Robin Hood update. This version provides a dark and gritty backstory for the famous folk hero, but it turned out no one was all that interested — it lost over $80 million, according to Deadline.

This was the decade the Transformers franchise hit major fatigue. The once-mighty Summer blockbuster series released its fifth instalment in 2017 and failed to win over critics — who gave it the worst reviews of the series (and that's saying something) — or audiences.

Sony's attempt at launching their own universe based on the Marvel properties they own hd a lot of eyes watching it, especially with the unexpected choice of anti-hero-turned-supervillain Venom as the lead. It turned out to be a very mixed bag: the box office was unexpectedly high, but the reviews were unexpectedly terrible. So, glass half full?

The finale of Fox's X-Men franchise was hyped as a fresh, improved take on the famous Dark Phoenix comics storyline, which was widely panned when it appeared, in heavily edited form, in X-Men: The Last Stand. Instead, the movie bombed commercially and frustrated the hopes of fans who were longing for a great film version of the iconic story.

After a stunning debut at Sundance in 2016, the story of a true slave rebellion became one of the hottest movies of the year, complete with major Oscar buzz. By the time it actually landed in theatres, though, the controversy over director/star Nate Parker's responses to a sexual assault case he had been involved with overshadowed the movie itself — which was, in the end, widely reviewed as deeply mediocre.

On paper, it seemed like a good idea to reboot one of the most popular superhero titles. But a deeply troubled production resulted in a messy, awkwardly "gritty" film that got horrible reviews and equally bad reactions from audiences, shutting down any hopes of a fresh franchise from the Fox-owned Marvel property.

As Marvel slowly increased its reach in the early 2010s, competitor DC hoped to launch its own extended franchise, starting with 2011's Green Lantern. Unfortunately, even the charm of Ryan Reynolds couldn't save the movie from too many story and CGI flaws, resulting in a flop that killed hopes of launching a unified universe from this movie. One good thing did come out of it, though: Reynolds met his future wife, Blake Lively, working on this movie!

Like the Robin Hood mythos, it seems like there's constantly a new version of the legends of Camelot and King Arthur. This fantasy adventure was touted as the first in a planned six-film series, which definitely turned heads in the industry. As happens too often with highly-hyped movies, though, the franchise starter was a non-starter, and The Hollywood Reporter ultimately revealed that the movie's failure cost Warner Bros. $150 million.

The second Star Wars anthology film after the successful Rogue One turned out to be an expensive misfire. It turns out that there wasn't much of an audience for a Han Solo origin story, leading Solo to be the lowest-grossing film in the franchise to date.

Disney poured a ton of marketing into its latest based-on-a-theme-park movie, and the trailers (featuring George Clooney) were visually stunning enough to spark plenty of interest in the sci-fi flick about a utopian alternate dimension. Although the movie was praised for its creativity and unique concept, it was ultimately a failure at the box office and was a major financial loss for Disney.'

An ensemble cast including Will Smith, Keira Knightley, Kate Winslet, and Helen Mirren in a mysterious story about human connection sounded like a surefire awards-bait film. Instead, it got some of the worst reviews of 2016, panning the film for overwrought, phony emotions and dialogue.

For every It, there must be a The Dark Tower. The other Stephen King adaptation was one of the most anticipated films in years, but left fans and critics ultimately disappointed.

A Princess Diana biopic starring Naomi Watts seemed like a surefire awards contender: famous, tragic real-life subject and a leading lady with a history of strong performances. The end product, however, was roundly panned by critics and resulted not in an Oscar nomination for Watts, but a Razzie one.

A famed futuristic sci-fi novel about a "chosen one" in the midst of the YA craze seemed like a sure bet, but it flopped at the box office and got mediocre reviews. Not helping matters: the history of homophobic statements made by the book's author, Orson Scott Car, which led to some organised boycotts of the movie.

Stephanie Meyer's follow-up to Twilight was one of the hottest properties of the decade, but even the talents of Saoirse Ronan couldn't save The Host from a muddled plot that resulted in poor reviews and a disappointed audience.

Ben Affleck probably hoped this mobster drama would follow in the footsteps of his highly-acclaimed director/actor films like the Oscar-winning Argo. Instead, he wound up with a tepidly reviewed film that barely made anything at the box office and definitely didn't get anywhere near any major awards.

Amidst the YA adaptation craze, a relatively sure bet seemed like this adaptation of Cassandra Clare's best-selling The Mortal Instruments series. Instead of being a franchise starter, though, the bizarrely adapted urban fantasy was a franchise killer, getting a toxic combination of bad reviews and worse box office. All wasn't lost for fans, though: a few years later, the series was rebooted for TV as Shadowhunters, which ran for three seasons on Freeform.

Based on a true story of a man coping with PTSD in an unusual way, the drama was expected to be a major award contender and to bring in audiences thanks to a lead performance from Steve Carell. Instead, it got miserable reviews and even worse box office, failing to even make back a third of its budget.