3 Action Movies That Flopped Badly Despite Great Critical Reviews, Ranked
No movie is safe from accidentally bombing in the box office, and here's proof.
There are many reasons why really good movies can end up failing at the box office. Even little things like a bad PR campaign or a poorly-scheduled release date can cause a movie to flop.
Sometimes it's simply about the movie not resonating with the public. Still, it happens that such movies get great reviews from critics despite receiving a lukewarm welcome from the audience.
However, action movies remain mesmerizing for the audiences, and it's jaw-droppingly rare when a decent, critically acclaimed shoot-em-up fails to catch on with ticket buyers.
Here are some of these rare occasions.
3. Dredd
There are a lot of people who will defend Dredd's unfortunate fate, but if you ask them if they went to the movies to see it, they will just mumble something.
But it's not their fault, it just seems that there was not even the slightest media campaign that could have given the movie a decent promotion.
It was projected that the movie would make near $8M at the domestic box office after premiering, but instead, it hardly got over the $6M mark.
Its total theatrical box office was about the same as its budget – minus that ridiculous marketing campaign.
2. Children of Men
According to critics, this film is a true masterpiece, and fans of dark and gloomy movies agree with them.
Nevertheless, the movie's box office speaks for itself, and it's easy to speculate about the reasons why the movie bombed.
The main one could be the absolutely dark and depressing plot, which was "soul-crushing" for many fans to follow.
And don't get us wrong, it's not like we don't enjoy a good depressing movie ourselves – it's just that the movie appeared to be so hopeless that, against a budget of $76 million, it came up $6 million short.
Well, maybe the audience was hoping for something more optimistic…
1. The Suicide Squad
Let's be honest – hating this movie was almost fashionable in the DC fandom.
Director James Gunn tried his best to at least make this DC masterpiece work. And he did – but for the critics only.
The movie has high ratings and is even 90% fresh on the Rotten Tomatoes website.
Nevertheless, the dark action comedy with a budget of $185 million only managed to gross $55.8 million domestically and $167 million overall – and up to this day, debates on Jared Leto 's Joker portrayal go on.