I wanted it to do well on paper. It sounded intriguing and the cast seemed tight, even if Depp always seemed miscast. Sci-fi, produced by Nolan, you'd think it couldn't go so bad, but it has.

So Transcendence joins the elite club of films that wanted to be great, but just sputtered into oblivion before they even got started.

I think on paper was the best it ever got for this film. The trailer was nothing special, the posters looked like they belonged in the 90s or DTV and then the reviews completed the sinking. 50% on Flixster after one day is another sign this is in for a very short run, plus it was kind of a joke how the estimates continued to fall throughout the day.

So, what other films can you remember that just stalled before they even made it out of the blocks?

I remember Jonah Hex didn't even make $10m OW but I think the writing was on the wall long before that.

Someone mentioned the Host; I never thought it'd be big, but I think it could fall into the same boat as Transcendence.

BOM mentioned the Island and Stealth back from 2005. (Damn I'm old) I don't remember following BO of these films back then so I can't be sure if they're in the same boat or not.

Godzilla (2014).

The Island sure as hell was in the same boat. Up until then Michael Bay was delivering blockbuster after blockbuster.

Obviously another one is R.I.P.D.

The Island may be the best comparison for Transcendence in regard to content, scope, and eventual financial performance.

But just in general: maybe The Sorcerer's Apprentice? A 150-million-dollar Disney fantasy epic which opened to around 17 million and was completely overshadowed by Inception.

Big Trouble in Little China
The Phantom
The Rocketeer
The Shadow
Judge Dredd
Most recently the majority of YA films (Vampire's Assistant, Ender's Game, etc)

It's usually the adaptations that end up on this list. But late 90s Stallone, Costner, Murphy as well.

I'll see that and raise you Poseidon and The Wolf Man. Also Josh Lucas in general.

John Carter too, I guess. Though most of us saw it coming.

For the record, The Wolfman opened extremely, extremely well. If only they did not spend such an absurd amount of money on an R-rated werewolf movie.

[quote

That is true, but I am not sure if would have opened this big otherwise anyway. It opened that big because Universal pushed it HARD as an effects-laden event film.

I was around and following b/o as well and while, yes, all those were bombs or disappointments financially, I also remember that Sahara actually outdid expectations most had around here. I think most expected it to make no more than $40-45 million because the marketing was so terrible.

And I don't think Serenity ever was a wannabe. If anything, it was an underdog.

Yes, Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist was trying so hard to be a blockbuster.

[quote

There's always Wiki's List Of Box Office Bombs.

Some interesting titles include:

- Bryan Singer's solid Jack The Giant Slayer at #8
- Scorcese's overrated Hugo at #23
- Jack Nicholson's last movie, the underrated How Do You Know at #24
- the fantastic 2003 live action version of Peter Pan at #34
- archetypal bomb Heaven's Gate at #52.

Would The Golden Compass count? Yes, it was a hit overseas, but New Line saw virtually none of that money because they had pre-sold all foreign territory rights (IIRC, to pay for the cost overruns?), and its domestic failure basically killed NL as an autonomous entity within Time Warner. And even with the religion controversy, I always got the feeling that it tanked in the States more because audiences just didn't give a shit about it (a la Ender's Game).

Good comparison - - both were too smart for US audiences. As I wrote in my review of The Golden Compass:

"It's like Harry Potter, but written for intelligent people."

Unfortunately, the future of both of these series was ruined for the rest of us.

I had thought Jack Ryan was already brought up in this thread, but then I remembered that was in the Paramount thread, so I'll throw it out here too.

Another one I completely forgot about: Speed Racer. Its OS performance was also quite pathetic - if it had been made a few years later, it would have been in 3D (and maybe IMAX) and would have likely made at least twice as much. (Though it would have still been a flop domestically...)

And can we save a spot on this list for The Seventh Son?

Good points.

That reminds me of Eragon too. Though most of these films still didn't do as badly as Transcendence.

I think some of them even adjust to "respectable" totals in today's dollars, but then again, so do their budgets.

Transcendence opening below Stealth, Island from 10 years ago is really a putrid performance.

I only liked the special effects in The Golden Compass. Ender's Game was quite good, I'm frustrated that one didn't catch on so we could see more of them.

Eragon is a travesty of a book adaptation. I hope someday they will do it over right.

The first movie that came to mind for me for this list though was actually the aforementioned The Island.

Strangely enough, many of the examples listed in this thread are actually very good movies - - one only need view the top ten BO winners in recent years to confirm that there is a very low correaltion between finacial success and artistic success.

To echo the sentiments from earlier in this thread, The Island and Stealth made for two of the more interesting weeks of summer box office tracking when they bombed back-to-back (those were also my first two weeks on the BOM forum). If you look back at it, however, the summer of 2005 was a bit atypical in that it had a good number of relatively risky big-budget productions rather than the usual roundup of safe sequels (I mean, when you start with a 2.5-hour Crusades drama in the leadoff spot...).

The sad piece about The Island is that it was actually rushed into and through production just so that it could be DreamWorks's big summer hit for 2005. Then, of course, it ended up effectively being the final nail in their coffin when it bombed.

Another one from animation that no one (rightfully) remembers is Mars Need Moms. That was a $150m Disney animation that opened less than $7m even more embarrassing was its OS gross of $17m.

For summer, Jupiter Ascending, TMNT and Hercules look like bombs.

I would say Jupiter has a chance of joining the legion of legendary bombs.

Tatum looks like he regressed from that and Kunis is no star, plus, Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas, sci-fi...crappy reviews and it's going the way of Transcendence.

I had actually been thinking about Mars Needs Moms at some point while reading this thread, but I wasn't sure if it was a "wannabe blockbuster" or not. Obviously, I had forgotten about the $150m budget. (And I was going to say that its failure killed Zemeckis' animation studio, but then I looked up and was reminded that its closure was actually announced a year earlier - almost to the day.)