A-List Actors' Most Embarrassing Movie Flops

Ben Affleck shared a Best Writing Oscar with Matt Damon for “Good Will Hunting” in 1998, and has starred in well-received films such as the crime drama “The Town.”

But his career has had cinematic missteps, such as “Gigli,” in which he played a gangster and starred with offscreen girlfriend Jennifer Lopez. Amazingly, Critics Consensus on Rotten Tomatoes said “Affleck and Lopez lack chemistry.” The movie has a Freshness rating of just 6% among Rotten Tomatoes critics, and it grossed just over $6 million on a budget of $54 million. Affleck also received a Worst Actor Razzie in 2004 for the movie.

Bradley Cooper is a critics’ darling who has been nominated for eight Academy Awards for his work in movies such as “Silver Linings Playbook,” “American Sniper,” and “A Star Is Born.” These performances also contributed to his being ranked among the highest-paid actors in the world last year. Yet his career is not free from cinematic failures, the worst of which was “All About Steve” — a 2009 comedy in which a crossword puzzle writer (Sandra Bullock) romantically pursues a TV news cameraman (Cooper) across the country. Bullock and Cooper won a Razzie for Worst Screen Couple in the movie that received positive reviews from just 6% of critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

Sean Penn directed the most poorly received film of Charlize Theron’s career. Among the world’s top-paid female actors, Theron — who previously won an Oscar for her role in “Monster” (2003) — was accused by The Guardian critic Benjamin Lee of giving a “career worst” performance, along with co-star Javier Bardem, “as doctors falling in love in west Africa while black characters are relegated to the background.” While released theatrically abroad, it went straight to VOD in the United States.

Following his performance as Captain America in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” — which grossed nearly $260 million at the domestic box office — Chris Evans made the decision to star in his directorial debut, “Before We Go.” The minimalist tale of romance only impressed 27% of critics on Rotten Tomatoes, with most finding it bland and shallow. While Evans has since had great acting success, especially with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he has yet to return to the director’s chair.

Denzel Washington has had a prolonged run of success, starting in 1987 with his Oscar-nominated performance as South African freedom fighter Steve Biko in “Cry Freedom,” as well as his Oscar wins for “Glory” (1990) and “Training Day” (2002).

He was also nominated in 2018 for a Best Actor Academy Award for his role as an idealistic defense attorney in “Roman J. Israel, Esq.” Washington’s performance, however, couldn’t carry the film, which Critics Consensus on Rotten Tomatoes said was “Intriguing yet heavy-handed.” The movie, which was produced by Washington, failed to recoup its $22 million budget.

Former football player and professional wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been box-office gold since he transitioned into motion pictures. Beginning with his film debut in “The Mummy Returns” in 2001, movies that Johnson has appeared in have grossed nearly $4 billion domestically, according to Box Office Mojo.

In “Tooth Fairy,” Johnson played a hockey player who has to be a tooth fairy as punishment for his transgressions on the ice. Like most of Johnson’s films, the movie was able to turn a profit, but the reviews for the flick were mostly negative, with critics saying even Johnson’s charisma and charm were unable to save it.

Halle Berry made movie history in 2002 when she became the first African American to win Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her role as a wife grieving for her husband who was executed in prison in the film “Monster’s Ball.”

She played Catwoman in the movie by the same name two years later, and though the Critics Consensus on Rotten Tomatoes said Berry was the “lone bright spot” in the film, some critics said the movie was just an excuse to put Berry in skimpy clothes. “Catwoman” was a box-office bomb, failing to cover its $100 million budget. Berry received the Worst Actress Razzie in 2005 and became the first female actress to accept the award in person.

Sixty-six-year-old Jackie Chan continues to be one cinema’s top earners, collecting $58 million in 2019, according to Forbes. Among his most popular movies are his action-comedies, such as “Rush Hour” (1998) and “Shanghai Noon” (2000). However, both critics and audiences were disappointed with 2002’s similarly silly “The Tuxedo,” which finds Chan playing the role of a common chauffeur who gains special powers after donning a technologically enhanced tux. On Rotten Tomatoes, critics gave it a Freshness rating of 21% (Richard Roeper called it “One of the worst movies of the year”) while 30% of audiences liked it. The film grossed $50.6 million at the domestic box office against a $60 million production budget, but made up for the loss overseas.

Jennifer Aniston became a big star in the 1990s when she appeared on the hit ensemble television comedy series “Friends” and won both an Emmy and Golden Globe over its 10-season run. Aniston transitioned to the big screen and her films have grossed more than $953 million. Some of her successes included “We’re the Millers,” “Bruce Almighty,” and “Horrible Bosses.”

The film “Management” was not one of her career highlights. Critics Consensus on Rotten Tomatoes said “clever and often beguiling performances by Steve Zahn and Jennifer Aniston can’t revive this sweetly misguided stalker romance.” The film failed to gross even $1 million.

Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence has won legions of fans for her work in the Hunger Games and X-Men franchises, as well as for performances in critically acclaimed films such as “Winter’s Bone” and “Silver Linings Playbook.” Yet her stardom (combined with that of former “Silver Linings Playbook” and “American Hustle” co-star Bradley Cooper) couldn’t salvage the drama “Serena,” in which the two play an ambitious married couple living in Depression-era North Carolina.

While some of the critics who contributed to the movie’s poor 16% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes defended Lawrence’s performance, others disagreed, including The Irish Times’ Donald Clarke who called it “her first genuinely poor performance.” The movie that cost an estimated $30 million to produce grossed only $176,391 at the domestic box office and slightly more than $5 million worldwide.

John Travolta has forged a strong cinematic career based on such hits as “Saturday Night Fever,” “Grease” and “Pulp Fiction,” and his films have grossed more than $2 billion domestically.

Unfortunately for Travolta, the 2000 film “Battlefield Earth” was not one of his career milestones. The Critics Consensus on Rotten Tomatoes blasted the film, calling it a “stunningly misguided, aggressively bad sci-fi folly,” with Steve Persall of the Tampa Bay Times saying “a performance by John Travolta in which he abandons everything that ever made him cool.” The movie — which Travolta co-produced — was also a box-office dud, failing to recoup its $73 million budget. The Oscar-nominated Travolta received the 2001 Razzie for Worst Actor for “Battlefield Earth.”

Keanu Reeves is generally a reliable leading man, starring in blockbusters such as “Speed,” “The Matrix,” and, more recently, “John Wick.” Prior to his success with the Wick franchise, Reeves appeared in the big budget flop “47 Ronin” about a group of samurai seeking revenge for the murder of their master. The 3D fantasy adventure cost $175 million to make and earned just over $38 million at the domestic box office. Worldwide, it grossed slightly less than $152 million. Critics found it dull, dour, and tedious.

The summit of Kevin Costner’s film career, so far, was in 1991 when he won the Best Director Oscar for “Dances With Wolves,” which also took the Best Picture statue.

“Waterworld,” a dystopian sci-fi movie about a world overwhelmed by water from melting polar ice caps, did not achieve that level of glory. The film was called by the Critics Consensus on Rotten Tomatoes “an ambitious misfire: an extravagant sci-fi flick with some decent moments and a lot of silly ones.” Costner starred in and was also a producer of the movie, which sank at the domestic office, failing to cover its steep $175 million budget.

Two-time Oscar-nominee Margot Robbie has quickly become a giant in the industry since her performance alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013). Among her mostly well-liked filmography is “Terminal,” which impressed only 21% of critics on Rotten Tomatoes — the lowest share of any of her movies. The stylized noir in which a cast of mysterious characters cross paths in a train terminal not only stars Robbie, but was produced by her. It grossed less than $1 million worldwide.

No actor has received more acclaim than Meryl Streep. Director Sydney Pollack once called her the most gifted film actress of the late 20th century. Streep has been nominated for an Academy Award a record 21 times, and has won the Best Actress Oscar three times for “Kramer vs. Kramer,” “Sophie’s Choice,” and “The Iron Lady.”

“Lions for Lambs,” starring and directed by Robert Redford, was meant to encourage dialogue about America’s role in the fight against terrorism. The Critics Consensus on Rotten Tomatoes found the film disjointed. Despite a heavyweight cast that included Redford, Streep, and Tom Cruise, it only posted a Freshness score of 27% on Rotten Tomatoes, the lowest-rated film in Streep’s career, and it failed to recoup its estimated $35 million budget in domestic gross.

Michael B. Jordan’s film career has been brief but memorable. Jordan has appeared in six films that have received better than 80% Freshness scores from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, including “Fruitvale Station,” “Creed,” and the Oscar-winning blockbuster “Black Panther.”

The Critics Consensus on Rotten Tomatoes found the action film “Fantastic Four” less than fantastic, however, calling it “a woefully misguided attempt to translate a classic comic series without the humor, joy, or colorful thrills that made it great.” With a Freshness score of just 9%, it was the lowest-rated of Jordan’s movies on Rotten Tomatoes. “Fantastic Four” also failed to turn a profit domestically on its budget of $120 million.

Derek Malcolm of the London Evening Standard wrote that “Kidman seems totally uninterested” in her performance as the wife of a big-mouthed businessman (played by Nicholas Cage) in “Trespass.” The home invasion thriller from director Joel Schumacher (“St. Elmo’s Fire,” “Batman Forever”) won positive reviews from just 10% of critics and 22% of audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. In addition to being a critical failure, the movie was a box office bomb, grossing only $24,094 on a limited domestic release and $10 million worldwide against a $35 million budget.

Reese Witherspoon enchanted audiences in her starring role as the naive law student in “Legally Blonde,” and captivated critics and filmgoers in her Oscar-winning Best Actress role as June Carter Cash in “Walk the Line.” Witherspoon can also count films such as “The Man in the Moon” and “Wild” as successes on her cinematic resume.

“Hot Pursuit,” however, which she produced, would not be among her screen triumphs and is her lowest-rated film on Rotten Tomatoes. The film is about a police officer (Witherspoon) assigned to protect the widow (Sofia Vergara) of a drug kingpin. Critic Ed Potton of the Times (UK) said “the makers of Hot Pursuit would love to add Reese Witherspoon and Sofía Vergara to that list of great odd couples in road movies. They won’t, because the two entirely lack what those other duos had in abundance — chemistry.” The movie only broke even at the box office.

The casting of Scarlett Johansson in the 2017 live action adaptation of popular Japanese manga series “Ghost in the Shell” stirred significant controversy among fans who thought an Asian actress should have been chosen for the character originally named Motoko Kusanagi in the source material. This point of contention contributed to middling reviews: Only 44% of critics and 51% of audience members delivered positive reviews. The sci-fi flick about a cyber-enhanced crime-fighter grossed just $40.6 million at the domestic box office against an estimated production budget of $110 million.

Tom Cruise has reigned as a leading Hollywood A-lister since capturing audiences’ hearts in 1983’s “Risky Business.” It was therefore surprising to see him star in a critical dud like 2017’s “The Mummy” so late in his career. Only 16% of Rotten Tomatoes’ critics liked the franchise reboot, which the site’s Critics Consensus accuses of “lacking the campy fun of the franchise’s most recent entries and failing to deliver many monster-movie thrills.” The special effects-laden flick cost an estimated $125 million to produce yet grossed just over $80 million at the domestic box office. And, despite high grosses overseas, the film is estimated to have lost approximately $100 million for its studio.

Two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks has headlined some of the biggest and most impactful movies over the last 40 years, including “Saving Private Ryan,” “Philadelphia,” and “Forrest Gump.” The 45 films in which he has been a lead actor have grossed nearly $4.5 billion at the domestic box office.

But Hanks’ run of success that started with the comedy/fantasy “Splash” in 1984 has not been without a misstep. “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” based on Tom Wolfe’s often scathing novel about race and privilege in New York City, was savaged by critics. Among them was the Chicago Tribune’s Gene Siskel, who said “the film was cast wrong and written shallowly.” Hanks played a soulless Wall Street investor in the movie, one of his lowest-rated on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie failed to cover its $47 million budget.

Will Smith’s film career has included numerous critical disappointments, such as “Wild Wild West” (1999) and “After Earth” (2013). However, last year’s “Gemini Man” — in which Smith plays an aging hit man being hunted by a cloned version of his younger self — may be the actor’s biggest commercial flop. According to entertainment industry news site Deadline, the big budget sci-fi flick needed to gross $275 million worldwide in order to break even. To date it has brought in $173.5 million. Only 26% of critics on Rotten Tomatoes liked the movie, which has led some to question whether Smith’s acting career has stagnated.