7 Biggest Box Office Bombs of 2025 (#6 Deserved So Much Better)

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Like every year, some movies did really well financially in 2024, while others struggled. The big winners were Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Wicked. On the losing side were Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and Joker: Folie à Deux. Looking ahead to 2025, A Minecraft Movie and Lilo & Stitch are predicted to be successes. But not every film hits the mark. Here’s a look at some of the biggest disappointments of the year. While we can’t list them all, several films really underperformed. Christy had a poor opening and a record-breaking drop in viewership after its first weekend. Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, M3GAN 2.0 (which didn’t perform as well as the first movie, though it had a smaller budget), The Smashing Machine, The Alto Knights, and Good Fortune also fell short of expectations. After the Hunt also lost money for Amazon MGM Studios, but it seemed more suited for streaming than for a big theatrical release.

However, the upcoming films don’t look promising. Even with a large audience on streaming platforms, it will be very difficult for them to become profitable.

7) Mickey 17

Lots of smart, thought-provoking sci-fi films have actually been financially successful. Movies like Ex Machina, Looper, Source Code, Inception, Interstellar, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and The Matrix all proved that these kinds of films can be both popular and profitable.

Bong Joon Ho’s film, Mickey 17, unfortunately didn’t perform as hoped. Despite costing $118 million to make, it needed to earn almost $240 million worldwide just to cover its costs. Even with the director’s recent Best Picture win for Parasite and a lead actor who had just played Batman, the film lacked the broad appeal typically needed for a blockbuster. Ultimately, it’s estimated to have lost over $80 million.

Stream Mickey 17 on Prime Video.

6) Ballerina

While Ballerina might have one of the year’s best action sequences, the film was a disappointment at the box office. Its worldwide earnings of $137.2 million are significantly lower than previous John Wick movies. The original John Wick earned $86 million, Chapter 2 made $174.3 million, Parabellum grossed $327.7 million, and Chapter 4 brought in $447.3 million. The John Wick franchise had been steadily gaining fans with each installment, but they didn’t seem to support this spin-off.

Lionsgate announced a $94 million loss for the last quarter of August 2025. While their television shows are performing well, especially popular titles like The Studio, the majority of the loss stemmed from the disappointing box office results of Ballerina. The film earned $137.2 million despite a $90 million budget, and it’s unclear why audiences weren’t interested. Previous installments, like Chapter 4, were successful, and the film even featured Keanu Reeves, but audiences didn’t connect with Ana de Armas’ character, Eve Macarro. Both the character and the actress deserved a better reception.

Stream Ballerina on Starz.

5) Elio

Pixar films rarely disappoint, but their movie Elio didn’t perform well at the box office. This was a particularly unusual outcome, considering the huge success of almost all their previous films – all four Toy Story movies, A Bug’s Life, both Monsters, Inc. films, Finding Nemo and Finding Dory, both Incredibles movies, and many others. In fact, their first movie that didn’t make a lot of money wasn’t until 2015, with The Good Dinosaur.

Despite costing over $200 million to make, The Good Dinosaur earned $332.2 million at the box office. While this wasn’t the result Pixar and Disney wanted, it performed much better than Elio. Onward and Soul faced unique challenges as they were released during the pandemic, which impacted their numbers. Even Lightyear managed to earn $26 million more than it cost to produce.

Despite costing over $200 million to produce – and possibly even more – the movie Elio only earned $154 million at the box office. This makes it Pixar’s biggest financial failure so far, and suggests their films don’t draw the same large crowds as they used to. While Elio did gain popularity on Disney+, it’s estimated to have still lost around $100 million, making it unlikely the film will ever become profitable.

Stream Elio on Disney+.

4) Thunderbolts*

Despite losing an estimated $100 million, Thunderbolts was the biggest flop in the Marvel Cinematic Universe this year. However, it still performed better than both The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Captain America: Brave New World.

Several factors contributed to this situation. First, the Marvel Cinematic Universe isn’t performing as strongly financially as it was before Endgame. It hasn’t attracted new viewers and has been losing existing fans with films like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Thor: Love and Thunder. The trailers also didn’t clearly explain the movie’s plot. However, it’s probably good they didn’t focus on the movie’s central theme of depression, as that wouldn’t have helped with ticket sales.

It became clear Disney was worried after the first three days of release, as they quickly added the title “The New Avengers” to promotional banners, hoping the last word would boost weekend ticket sales. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. It’s a shame, though, because Florence Pugh delivers a strong performance, and it was fantastic to see Hannah John-Kamen reprise her role as Ghost, a compelling villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Stream Thunderbolts* on Disney+.

3) The Running Man

Although it wasn’t the top Stephen King adaptation of 2025—there were several that year—Edgar Wright’s film version of The Running Man is still a fun and accurate take on the original story by King (writing as Richard Bachman). The movie also benefited from a large marketing campaign.

Simply put, the movie needed to earn double its $110 million production cost just to break even—and probably much more. With a worldwide gross of only $70 million, it lost over $100 million. If official loss figures were available, The Running Man would likely be the biggest flop on the list.

2) Snow White

Honestly, even though it got a little boost on Disney+, Snow White was pretty much doomed after its theatrical run – it reportedly lost a whopping $115 million! Before it even came out, everyone was already making fun of it. Some of the criticism was fair, like concerns about Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen and the new take on the Seven Dwarfs. But a lot of it, especially the stuff about Rachel Zegler’s casting, just felt…off. It just didn’t seem to connect with audiences.

The situation became even more difficult when Gal Gadot and Rachel Zegler publicly shared differing opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This led to calls for boycotts from both sides, and the film ultimately failed to earn back its marketing costs. Marketing expenses ranged from a low of $240 million to $270 million, while the film only grossed $205.7 million worldwide.

Stream Snow White on Disney+.

1) Tron: Ares

I remember when the first Tron came out – it didn’t do great in theaters at first, but it slowly gained a really dedicated fanbase. Tron: Legacy had a similar story. But I have a feeling Tron: Ares won’t be like those films. It just didn’t connect with audiences, and honestly, it was a pretty big flop.

With losses of $132.7 million, Tron: Ares appears to be the end of the line for this franchise. It simply didn’t attract a broad enough audience to justify the huge investment. While the first film made three times its budget back, and the second earned about 2.4 times its cost, Ares only grossed about 65

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2025-12-27 03:16