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The 15 Biggest Box-Office Flops of 2013

By Dustin Rowles | Lists | December 30, 2013 |

By Dustin Rowles | Lists | December 30, 2013 |


These yearly box-office flops list that we do used to be so easy: We’d take the domestic gross, subtract it from the budget, and rank accordingly. But then everyone got so savvy about box-office, and people would yell, “But what about international grosses?! Huh?” So we had to begin taking into account the international grosses, as well. But no, what wasn’t enough, because readers would say, “Yeah, but that’s not really the whole story, either, because the studio really only sees about half of the tickets sales, while the rest goes to exhibitors.” At this point, the math begins difficult, but I adore you all, so I’m willing to do some division for you.

Still, none of these are official numbers. Studio accounting makes no damn sense. I mean, look at this list of Movies That Made Hundreds of Millions in Box-Office Dollars And Yet Somehow Showed No Profit, so the truth is, no matter how much math we do, we’re only given part of the picture. We know domestic and international grosses, and we know the production budget, and we know that studios take home about half of the box-office grosses, so that’s all we can play with. We do not know the marketing budgets, but for the sake of this exercise, let’s just assume that the DVD sales/rentals and licensing offsets the marketing cost, use the numbers we have, and come up with an unofficial list of box-office flops based on what we do know.

Based on what we do know, these were the 15 movies that lost the most money in 2013.

15. After Earth — $60 million domestically ($243 million worldwide) on a $130 million budget, equals around an unofficial $10 million loss.

14. The Family — $36 million domestically (no worldwide gross) on a $30 million budget equals a $12 million loss.

13. The Internship — $44 million domestically ($93 million worldwide) on a $58 million budget, results in an unofficial $12 million loss.

12. Red 2 — $53 million domestically ($142 million worldwide) on a $84 million budget, for an unofficial $13 million loss.

11. Gangster Squad — $46 million domestically ($105 million worldwide) on a $60 million budget, equals a $15 million loss.

10. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone — $22 million domestic (no worldwide) on a $30 million budget results in around a $19 million loss.

9. Broken City — $19 million domestic (no worldwide) on a $35 million budget equals a loss of around $25 million.

8. Walking with Dinosaurs — $20 million domestic ($54 million worldwide) and an estimated $80 million by the end of its run on an $80 million budget results in an unofficial loss of $40 million.

7. Beautiful Creatures — $19 million domestic ($40 million worldwide) on a $60 million budget equals a $40 million loss.

6. White House Down — $73 million domestically ($205 million worldwide) on a $150 million budget, equals an unofficial $45 million loss.

5. Ender’s Game — $61 million domestic ($88 million worldwide) on a $110 million budget, equals an unofficial $66 million loss.

4. The Lone Ranger — $89 million domestically ($260 million worldwide) on a $215 million budget, equals an unofficial loss of $85 million (although Disney expects around a $160 million writedown on the film).

3. R.I.P.D. — $33 million ($78 million worldwide) on a $130 million budget, equals an unofficial loss of $91 million.

2. Jack the Giant Slayer — $65 million domestically ($197 million worldwide) on a $195 million budget, equals an unofficial $100 million loss.

1. 47 Ronin — $20 million domestically (so far) ($42 million worldwide, so far) with a predicted $100 million worldwide by the end of its run, on a $175 million budget, equals an unofficial loss of $125 million.