2018 was a landmark year for films. Box office record-breakers likeAvengers: Infinity War, Black Panther, andIncredibles 2, made massive headlines. It also bred some of the most significant commercial disasters. Nobody intentionally sets out to make a box office bomb. These movies, some made by top-notch directors, were surprise failures. With names like Shane Black, Robert Zemeckis, and Ron Howard feeling the sting of being on this list, that further underscores how fickle American box office tastes can be.
Update August 26, 2025: This article has been updated with further reflection on these 2018 box office bombs and the impact they have had on the film industry.
2023 has seen its fair share of box office disappointments, fromThe FlashtoMission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part OnetoThe Marvels. Looking to the past box office failures might paint a picture of how we got here. To quote another 2023 film,The Holdovers,“history is not simply the study of the past but an explanation of the present.”
Here is a look back at some of the biggest box office bombs of 2018 in order of release. Explore why they might have been disappointed at the box office and if they have had any lasting legacy on the film industry that can be observed five years later. Here are some of the biggest bombs of 2018 and why they were.
10A Wrinkle in Time (March 9)
A Wrinkle In Time
What Makes It a Flop?
Some movies wear their hearts on their sleeves.A Wrinkle In Timeattempted to be all heart but unfortunately ended up misfiring in the process. The film was clearly the work of auteur filmmaker Ava DuVernay, which sometimes means bold creative swings can be embraced or dismissed. The movie’s dismissal by critics, many of them male, had major repercussions as it was this movie that inspired Brie Larson to speak out about how much film criticism is dominated primarily by white men. This comment led many to turn on Larson andbegin a hate campaign against her andCaptain Marvelthat continues to this day.
Stream on Disney+
9Tomb Raider (March 16)
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raideris another movie about a daughter looking to unravel the secrets behind her father’s disappearance. Lara Croft is the fierce troublemaker daughter of Lord Richard Croft, who vanished years earlier. With nothing but hope and determination to find him, Croft embarks on a perilous journey to his last-known destination. Truthfully,Tomb Raideris really only a misfire in the US. It was made for $94 million, and it only made $58 million in the US and Canada.
Maybe people can only see Angelina Jolie in the role of Lara Croft. It was, after all, the role that established her as an actor who could carry an action movie on her own. It is certainly a huge performance to live up to. Besides, franchise reboots are generally tricky ground with all the comparing and contrasting attached to them. It also didn’t help that it was released only a month afterthe box office hitBlack Panther.
Stream on Directv or rent on Apple TV
8Solo: A Star Wars Story (May 25)
The bar for the box office must be in an insane place whenSolo: A Star Wars Storygrosses $400 million and is still considered either a flop or a misfire. The movie is supposed to be a dazzling spin-off about one of Star Wars' most famous characters (Han Solo) and his excitingly dangerous adventure to save his beloved Qi’ra. He forms an unlikely alliance with a Wookie named Chewbacca, who helps him get to where he needs to be. This tale of how Han Solo became Han Solo was supposed to be massive. Instead, it was a $250 million problem child.
What Makes it a Flop?
Solo: A Star Wars Storyis by no means a bad film. It just doesn’t feel like anybody’s film. The original directors were let go, and even the brilliant Ron Howard couldn’t save it. The movie’s box office underperformance can be attributed to many factors, from a late marketing campaign to opening three weeks afterAvengers: Infinity War. Disney might have been pushing out too manyStar Warsfilms as the film opened just five months after The Last Jedi, the shortest period betweenStar Warsfilms. This was a movie whose failure led Lucasfilm to rethink its approach toStar Wars. However, despite its commercial failure, enthusiastic fans kept pushing the studio for a sequel. The #MakeSolo2Happen campaign didn’t make its desired impact. As Director Ron Howard confirms, the project isnowhere near the studio’s priorities.
7Gotti (June 15)
The big issue is thatGottiseems like it only got made because it had John Travolta starring. But even a big star like him cannot ward off a boring scenario with unintentional and sometimes misplaced humor. The movie is about the exceptional life of a New Yorker raised on the streets who found his way into the Gambino crime family, and eventually climbed the ‘criminal’ ladder by becoming head of the most powerful and influential family in the city. Even if you wanted to sugarcoat it, the numbers wouldn’t let you, as the movie certainly sank in debt, grossing only $6.1 million worldwide against a 10 million budget.
Related:John Travolta’s Best Movies, Ranked
One of the reasons this movie didn’t receive the expected attention is that John Gotti’s life has been told and retold down to the last boring detail, which left no room for the 2018 remake to be unexpected, new, or captivating. What was even worse is thatGottigot a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of the worst movies of the year.
Stream on Prime Video
6The Predator (September 14)
The Predator
The Predatorwas set up to be a major hit. Hot offIron Man 3andThe Nice Guys, Shane Black was brought on board to relaunch thePredatorfranchise. It’s hard to think ofThe Predatoras a flop per se, as it grossed $160 million worldwide while the originalPredatordidn’t even reach $100 million. However, it came close to that number, and considering the films are decades apart, that is certainly saying something. It also doesn’t help thatThe Predatorcost $208 million, and the original cost $15 million.
The Predatorwas a mess of a movie, one that suffered from too many ideas and far too many studio notes. The movie had many alternate endings, and the third act was drastically reworked, leaving the final film a tonally confusing and expensive entry. It also did not help that the film had a late-minute cut to the movie, as star Olivia Munn became aware thatBlack had hired his friend and registered sex offender Steven Wilder Striegelfor a brief scene in Munn’s intro scene as a man trying to flirt with her. When Munn became aware of this, she went to Fox and, rightfully so, requested the scene be removed which led to her character with an awkward introduction.
The one silver lining to the film was that the film’s disappointing box office led 20th Century Fox to move forward withPrey, which was pitched around the same timeThe Predatorwas filming.Preybecame a hit with critics and audiences and nowPrey 2is in the works.
Stream on Fubo TV
5Life Itself (September 21)
Life Itselfteased shots of people screaming and other slow-motion images in an attempt to give this piece gravitas. The movie then turned out to be way simpler than that. It’s about college sweethearts, Will and Abby, who are preparing to have their first child. However, life makes its own mind about who they meet and where they go, and they feel caught in its tricky web. WorldwideLife Itselfhas amassed around $7 million against a budget of $10 million, making it more of a misfire and a flop.
Reviewers rewarded this effort with 14% on the Tomatometer. Critics and audiences alike expected so much more from the writer ofCrazy Stupid Love,but instead, they got a messy plot with loose ends that tries, maybe way too hard, to incorporatethe mysterious ways of life itself. Surely, life isn’t all rainbows and unicorns, but it isn’t one misfortunate event after another either, as the movie’s simplistic plot suggests.Life Itselfpresented itself as a movie about life, but ultimately, it wasn’t a life anybody really wanted to see on the big screen.
4The Girl in the Spider’s Web (November 9)
Sony Pictures looked to rebootThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoofranchise with a story that had not been adapted into film before,The Girl in the Spider’s Web. While theprevious film from David Fincher was critically acclaimed, the studio was not happy with the box office and figured a cheaper reboot would be a safer bet. Despite a talented director like Fede Alvarez and a great star like Claire Foy,The Girl in the Spider’s Webwas a box office dud, grossing $35 million worldwide against a $43 million budget. For comparison, that $35 million worldwide was just a little over how much the 2011 film made in just its domestic opening.
Why It Flopped
The Girl in the Spider’s Web was a sign of Sony thinking just because they had a recognizable brand, it would not translate to a box office hit. The movie lacked the star power of Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig, and being a restart instead of a sequel to the beloved 2011 film put it at a disadvantage. Combine that with the movie opening the same weekend as Illumination Entertainment’sThe Grinch, and the movie was quickly drowned out of the box office by holiday hits likeFantastic Beasts: The Grimes of Grindelwald(which was also a disappointment),Ralph Breaks the Internet,Creed II, and Green Book.
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3Robin Hood (November 21)
Robin Hood Origins
The action adventure movieRobin Hoodis about the story of young aristocrat Robin of Loxley’s fight against the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham who stole his family estate, and who’s freely exploiting the city’s resources. On a budget of $100 million, this new retelling of the classic Robin Hood story has brought in $30 million in the US. It’s worldwide total was $86.5 million.
In cinema, recycled materials impose a greater responsibility to be innovative. The movie simply lacked the fresh ideas and storylines that a modern audience would expect from a remake of a classic tale and instead induced a feeling of déjà vu in its bored-to-death audiences. Robin Hood is a property that Hollywood keeps trying to relaunch with little success.
Stream on Hulu
2Mortal Engines (December 14)
Mortal Engines
There was a time whenPeter Jackson’s involvementwith anything virtually assured box office returns. Truthfully, his performance outside the world of Middle Earth is a bit spotty. The biggest example of that isMortal Engines. The movie is set in a post-apocalyptic world in which cities are turned into huge giant engines on wheels fighting over resources. Politics, action, and magic are all mixed into a poorly directed two-hour runtime. Although the movie was based on a popular book by Philip Reeve, it has still grossed only around $83.7 million worldwide against a production budget of $100–150 million.
Related:7 Apocalypse Movies to Watch Before The Last of Us
The film not only received poor reviews from critics but faced stiff competition from other movies released during the holiday season, likeAquaman, Mary Poppins Returns, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,andBumblebee. Compared to those four,Mortal Enginesjust could not compete. If we combine that with a 28% Rotten Tomatoes score reflecting the audience’s repulsion, the movie’s box office disaster wouldn’t be so hard to explain. On the list of the 131 biggest box office bombs ever, this movie secured a place in the middle, ranking 83rd.
Stream on Apple TV+
1Welcome to Marwen (December 21)
Welcome to Marwen
Welcome to Marwenis one of those movies that seems to have everything going for it and everything against it all at once. It was based on a true story, had a solid cast, and having thelegendaryForrest Gumpdirector Robert Zemeckiscertainly didn’t hurt. Then people saw the film and the reviews were pretty brutal. The movie’s story was inspired by Jeff Malmberg’s 2010 documentaryMarwencol,which documents the main character’s brutal attack that left him with serious brain injuries, and his astonishing artistic creation of soldier dolls, which helped him make sense of the traumatic event that nearly ended his life. The film’s total box office revenue of $13.1 million could not begin to cover its miscalculated budget ($39 million).
This tale of recovery certainly has its heart in the right place. There is no dispute about that. It’s just that the execution seems odd, and thus the film feels that way. If the director’s original cinematic plan was to mimic his main character’s brain concussion, it was undoubtedly the wrong move. The weird plot that combined the tone of a painful story with the triviality of talking dolls made it hard for the audience to settle into a mood and connect with the movie. Expanding on the same point,The Guardianpoints out that, “what might have been a complicated drama plays like a dudForrest Gump.” December was a very bad month for Universal Pictures, as before it recovered from the first disappointment (Mortal Engines),it added another to the list.
