10 Times Legendary Movie Directors Made Huge Box Office Bombs, From Francis Ford Coppola To Steven Spielberg

The abysmal opening weekend gross of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis has proven that not even the most legendary filmmakers in the world are immune to the occasional box office bomb. Even the promise of a new movie from the director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now isn’t enough to get audiences to theaters. No movie is guaranteed to find success at the box office. Some of the most iconic, grandfathered-in filmmakers in Hollywood, from Martin Scorsese to Steven Spielberg, have suffered commercial flops (with some of their best movies no less).

Of course, sometimes a director gets too ambitious, and their own vision trumps the need to entertain the audience. This was the case with Oliver Stone’s Alexander, Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, and, indeed, Megalopolis. In some cases, a director’s chances at the box office were hurt by the lingering effects of the pandemic, like Christopher Nolan’s Tenet — which arrived in theaters at the height of lockdown — or Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel. And sometimes, a movie just fails to connect with a wide enough audience to turn a profit.

10 Francis Ford Coppola – Megalopolis

Megalopolis Has Grossed $4 Million Against A $120 Million Budget

The latest movie from a legendary director to bomb at the box office is Francis Ford Coppola’s epic sci-fi drama Megalopolis. Megalopolis is a passion project that Coppola has been dreaming about since the 1970s.Coppola self-financed Megalopolis’ $120 million budget by selling off a chunk of his winery business. Despite its star-studded cast, raft of controversies providing free publicity, and the director of The Godfather trilogy at the helm, Megalopolis grossed a measly $4 million in its opening weekend (via Deadline).

The writing was on the wall for Megalopolis’ box office struggles. When Coppola initially screened the film for distributors, not a single studio wanted to pick it up because they thought it had no chance of turning a profit (and they were right). But since Coppola made the movie for the sake of the art itself with money he could afford to lose, this box office bomb isn’t as financially devastating as it sounds.

9 Martin Scorsese – Hugo

Hugo Barely Recouped Its Production Costs

Martin Scorsese usually makes low-budget character dramas like Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, which don’t need to gross a ton of money to turn a profit. But in 2011, Scorsese tried his hand at a big-budget blockbuster with Hugo, a fantasy adventure set in 1930s Paris. It marked his first foray into making a family film (aside from his self-referential cameo in Shark Tale), as well as his first foray into 3D filmmaking. All told, Hugo cost around $180 million to produce.

When it arrived in theaters, it made back its production budget almost to the penny with a worldwide total of $180,047,784 (via The Numbers). But since that figure doesn’t take marketing costs or the exhibitors’ cut into consideration, it was considered a box office bomb. Although Hugo is a great film, it struggled to find an audience, since it’s too family-friendly for Goodfellas fans and too lofty and intellectual for kids.

8 Oliver Stone – Alexander

Alexander Grossed $167 Million On A Budget Of $155 Million

In 2004, Oliver Stone stepped outside his comfort zone to helm a mega-scale three-hour biopic of Alexander the Great. With a $155 million budget, Alexander was one of the most expensive movies ever made at the time. But its box office receipts didn’t match its ambitions, as it went on to gross just $167,298,192 worldwide (via Box Office Mojo). Although the film performed well in European markets, it failed to find an audience in America.

At the time, similar swords-and-sandals epics like Gladiator and Troy had found box office success. But the difference was that those movies were well-received, whereas Alexander was universally panned by critics. Alexander was unfavorably compared to those movies for being dry and academic, whereas they were action-packed and entertaining. It was also criticized for its historical inaccuracies and lack of emotional engagement.

7 Michael Cimino – Heaven’s Gate

Heaven’s Gate Was A Historic Flop

Michael Cimino had perhaps the fastest rise and fall in Hollywood history. In 1978, Cimino’s second directorial feature, The Deer Hunter, was lauded as one of the greatest war movies ever made, winning Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. Cimino was instantly catapulted to the A-list and given carte blanche for his follow-up movie. Then, his very next movie, Heaven’s Gate, was panned by critics and became one of the biggest box office bombs in film history.

Heaven’s Gate cost $44 million to produce and grossed a paltry $3,484,331 at the box office (via Box Office Mojo). According to Peter Biskind’s book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, the failure of Heaven’s Gate is credited with singlehandedly ending the New Hollywood movement. American studios stopped giving auteurs like Cimino so much artistic control and focused on more commercial projects throughout the 1980s.

6 Christopher Nolan – Tenet

Tenet Grossed An Admirable $359 Million Mid-Pandemic (But Still Lost Money)

After Inception, Interstellar, and The Dark Knight trilogy, it seemed as though Christopher Nolan could do no wrong. He’s one of the few filmmakers whose name alone can draw blockbuster crowds to movie theaters.

Nolan insisted on giving his spy-fi thriller Tenet a traditional pre-pandemic-style theatrical release.

But even Nolan isn’t a miracle worker. In the summer of 2020, when big-budget movies like Black Widow and A Quiet Place Part II were being sent to streaming or delayed indefinitely, Nolan insisted on giving his spy-fi thriller Tenet a traditional pre-pandemic-style theatrical release.

Considering it arrived in the midst of lockdown when governments around the world were advising people to stay in their homes, Tenet made an impressive haul at the box office. It grossed $359,518,466 (via The Numbers), which is more than some of 2024’s most expensive films have made. But it wasn’t enough to recoup its $205 million budget and the marketing costs on top of that.

5 Orson Welles – Citizen Kane

Before It Was A Renowned Classic, Citizen Kane Was A Box Office Bomb

Today, Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane is a revered masterpiece regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made. But when it was released in 1941, it wasn’t an immediate hit. Welles based the character of Charles Foster Kane not-so-subtly on media magnate William Randolph Hearst, who wasn’t too pleased that a cinematic critique had been produced in his honor.

According to the books Orson Welles, A Biography by Barbara Leaming, The RKO Story by Richard B. Jewell and Vernon Harbin, and The Making of Citizen Kane by Robert L. Carringer, Hearst used his widespread influence to bury Citizen Kane.

A theater chain with more than 500 theaters had the option to screen Citizen Kane, but refused to show it out of fear of Hearst’s retaliation. As a result of Hearst’s petty disruptions, Citizen Kane lost $160,000 during its initial theatrical run. It would ultimately turn a profit in re-releases, but it took a while for it to be recognized as a classic.

4 Quentin Tarantino – Death Proof

Death Proof Was Released As Part Of A Double Feature

Like Nolan, Quentin Tarantino is a one-man hit factory whose name alone can turn even the most experimental film — like a blood-soaked, darkly comedic spaghetti western about American slavery— into a blockbuster hit. But, like Nolan, Tarantino also has a notable box office bomb to his name. In 2007, Tarantino teamed up with fellow filmmaker Robert Rodriguez to helm the double feature Grindhouse.

Rodriguez directed the first film on the bill, the zombie comedy Planet Terror, while Tarantino directed the second, the genre-blending carsploitation slasher Death Proof. Although it was a cool idea to recreate an old-school B-movie double feature, Grindhouse was a box office bomb, grossing just $25,422,088 against its $67 million budget (via Box Office Mojo).

Although it was a cool idea to recreate an old-school B-movie double feature,
Grindhouse
was a box office bomb

If anything, Planet Terror and Death Proof replicated the scratchy, amateurish feel of those old exploitation movies a little too well. The audience that shared Tarantino and Rodriguez’s nostalgia for those drive-in double features turned out to be pretty limited.

3 David Lynch – Dune

The Original Dune Adaptation Wasn’t A Blockbuster

Although Denis Villeneuve would eventually turn Dune into a blockbuster franchise, David Lynch’s original adaptation wasn’t so successful. Lynch’s films are so bizarre and transgressive that they’ve never made much of a splash at the box office. However, movies like Eraserhead and Blue Velvet are relatively cheap to produce, so that’s never been much of an issue.

Dune marked Lynch’s first (and last) time making a big-budget tentpole for a major studio. Lynch’s Dune cost a whopping $40 million to produce (equivalent to about $120 million today) and only grossed $30,928,421 at the box office (via Box Office Mojo).

The movie was hurt by the fact that it tried to cram the entire novel into one movie — a mistake that Villeneuve mercifully avoided — which didn’t give the rich themes of Frank Herbert’s opus enough room to breathe. Despite its underperformance at the box office and initial mixed reviews, Lynch’s Dune has since been reevaluated as a cult classic.

2 Ridley Scott – The Last Duel

The Last Duel Only Grossed $30 Million Against Its $100 Million Budget

In the months leading up to its release in 2021, The Last Duel seemed to have everything going for it. It marked Ridley Scott’s return to the historical epic genre, and it was Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s first screenwriting collaboration since their Oscar-winning work on Good Will Hunting. It was based on the fascinating true story of the last official duel in French history, told from three different perspectives in a Rashomon-style structure.

But The Last Duel arrived as one of the biggest box office bombs in history, grossing just $30,080,003 against its $100 million budget (via The Numbers). There are a couple of factors involved in The Last Duel’s failure. It was overbudgeted, it deals with the challenging subject of sexual assault (and shows it twice), and it arrived at the tail end of the pandemic, when audiences were still cautious about coming back to theaters.

1 Steven Spielberg – West Side Story

Spielberg’s West Side Story Suffered From Post-Pandemic Blues

Steven Spielberg, the originator of the summer blockbuster, finally realized his lifelong ambition to remake West Side Story in 2021. But despite being hailed as one of the director’s best films of the 21st century, Spielberg’s West Side Story bombed at the box office. It grossed just $74,826,329 against its $100 million budget (via The Numbers).

Like The Last Duel, West Side Story suffered from its post-pandemic release window. But that wasn’t the only reason for West Side Story’s underperformance. The musical genre hasn’t been doing well at the box office in recent years. Modern musical movies like In the Heights and The Color Purple have similarly struggled to make their money back. Even though West Side Story is one of Spielberg’s best films, there wasn’t much of an audience for it.

Source: Deadline, The Numbers, Box Office Mojo, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Orson Welles, A Biography, The RKO Story, The Making of Citizen Kane