It's been an incredible year for movies with the likes of Avengers: Infinity War, Crazy Rich Asians, Black Panther, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Mission: Impossible – Fallout all bringing in the big bucks at the box office.
Not every movie was quite as successful, mind, with some movies just not connecting with the audience, more often than not after they got savaged by the critics. So we thought we'd scroll through 2018's releases and pick out the biggest flops.
How have we judged this, you ask? Well, we've taken into account the reported production budget (which doesn't include marketing spend) and compared that against what it took at the box office, as well as making judgment calls on what movies were largely expected to make.
We're not including low-budget indies or movies that only received limited releases, so even though the likes of Gotti and London Fields were notorious for how terrible they were, they were never expected to bring in big money.
Also, just because something is a flop at the US box office, that doesn't make them an overall flop as international grosses can save them. This means that Red Sparrow, Skyscraper, Tomb Raider and Pacific Rim: Uprising aren't included here because their international hauls saved them... just.
1. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
Reported budget: $132,900,000
Worldwide gross: $140,357,413
An all-star cast including Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley and Morgan Freeman couldn't save this big-budget Disney retelling of The Nutcracker. Released in early November, it was expected to sustain until Christmas as a family festive offering, but big box-office drops everywhere have put an end to that.
2. Robin Hood
Reported budget: $99,000,000
Worldwide gross: $65,789,193
If you're worried that we've put this in too early since it only came out on November 21, we haven't. Robin Hood suffered on its US box office debut with a $14.3 million five-day bow, dropping 48% in its second weekend. It hasn't really connected in the UK either, so this latest reboot has definitely missed the target.
3. A Wrinkle in Time
Reported budget: $103,000,000
Worldwide gross: $132,675,864
We really wanted A Wrinkle in Time to connect as it marked the first time a woman of colour had directed a movie with a budget of over $100 million. Sadly, Ava DuVernay's adaptation of the 1962 sci-fi novel of the same name didn't wow critics or audiences, especially not internationally.
4. Hotel Artemis
Reported budget: $15,000,000
Worldwide gross: $12,767,787
People are always bemoaning the lack of original offerings at the cinema, but when a stylish action effort is right there for them to discover, they don't give it a shot. Iron Man 3 writer Drew Pearce's directorial debut Hotel Artemis was like a futuristic John Wick and marked the big-screen return of Jodie Foster, yet that wasn't enough.
5. The Happytime Murders
Reported budget: $40,000,000
Worldwide gross: $27,506,452
Hoping to deliver the same sort of success as the likes of Ted, The Happytime Murders made a splash for getting sued by Sesame Street during its marketing campaign. However, that was about as notable as the movie got as a weak box office followed a critical mauling, marking one of Melissa McCarthy's worst-ever box-office performances.
6. The Darkest Minds
Reported budget: $34,000,000
Worldwide gross: $41,142,379
If you needed any further proof that the Young Adult boom kickstarted by Twilight was over, just look at the reception for The Darkest Minds. At this point, it seems unlikely that it'll even get a sequel as book fans didn't turn out for the movie and barely anyone else did either.
7. Death Wish
Reported budget: $30,000,000
Worldwide gross: $48,576,379
Death Wish was arguably fighting a losing battle from the moment its first trailer saw the remake accused of being "alt-right" and "racist". The more immediate problem for Eli Roth's take on the cult 1974 original, starring Bruce Willis in the Charles Bronson role, was that (like the original) it just wasn't very good.
8. Action Point
Reported budget: $19,000,000
Worldwide gross: $5,103,675
There's a strong chance you won't have even heard of Action Point, a comedy starring Johnny Knoxville about a daredevil who builds his own theme park. We promise you that it definitely got released around the world, but perhaps its woeful US box office take meant it was never going to get a big push elsewhere.
9. Solo: A Star Wars Story
Reported budget: $250,000,000
Worldwide gross: $392,924,807
Solo: A Star Wars Story might have made more money than any other movie on this list, but it sure cost a lot more too and can only be considered a disappointment. Reviews were solid, yet it seems Star Wars fans just weren't interested in the spin-off prequel, however good the cast were. Maybe if it had been saved until Christmas (like all the other new Star Wars films), things might have been different.
10. Early Man
Reported budget: $50,000,000
Worldwide gross: $54,622,814
The latest effort from Aardman Animations did well in the UK, but perhaps centring Early Man around football hurt its chances elsewhere, especially in the US where it grossed only $8.3 million. Even the presence of Eddie Redmayne and Maisie Williams on the voice cast wasn't enough for people to turn up to this charming and inventive animation.
11. The Hurricane Heist
Reported budget: $40,000,000
Worldwide gross: $30,964,184
In terms of doing what it said on the tin (or in the title, in this case), The Hurricane Heist didn't flop. It did deliver a heist that was set during a hurricane, but it didn't quite whip up good reviews or a bumper haul at the box office. In the UK it was a Sky Cinema premiere, so you can forgive a soft UK gross. The same can't be said in the US where it got a full cinema release...
12. Life Itself
Reported budget: N/A
Worldwide gross: $5,155,763
While we can't track down the budget for Life Itself (which starred Oscar Isaac and Olivia Wilde, no less), it was reported that Amazon Studios paid $10 million for the rights to release it.
It seemed like a sure thing, given it was another family drama from Dan Fogelman, the creator of This Is Us. The problem was that the movie is a total disaster that got some of the worst reviews of the year, leading to the second-worst US opening for a saturated (more than 2,500 cinemas) release.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
