Biggest movie flops of 2016

As the year draws to a close we spend time looking at the good and the bad films that hit cinemas, and Forbes has revealed the biggest movie flops.

These films have bombed in terms of figures, comparing budgets to the money they made at the box office, and it turns out that 2016 was especially unkind to comedy.

All of these films received a wide release of at least 2,000 screens, and for some, there was plenty of promotion surrounding them too, but they just couldn’t translate that to cinema goers.

Isla Fisher and Zach Galifianakis have the dubious honour of both showing up twice on the list. They starred together in Keeping Up with the Joneses, and Fisher featured alongside her husband Sacha Baron Cohen in Grimsby , while Galifianakis took the lead role in the long-delayed comedy Masterminds.

Here are the biggest movie flops of 2016, but could this change in the final few weeks of the year?

Biggest movie flops of 2016

10. Masterminds ($22m box office from $25m budget)

Masterminds was scheduled for release in 2015 but Relativity Media filed for bankruptcy so it was pushed back for a 2016 release. Jason Sudeikis joins Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson and Kristen Wiig in the comedic lineup, but it wasn't enough to drawer in the audience and this film made $3 million less than its budget.

9. Snowden ($34.3m box office from $40m budget)

Snowden is only released into UK cinemas this month, so can it make up its money in the UK?

Disillusioned with the intelligence community, top contractor Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) leaves his job at the National Security Agency. He now knows that a virtual mountain of data is being assembled to track all forms of digital communication — not just from foreign governments and terrorist groups, but from ordinary Americans. When Snowden decides to leak this classified information, he becomes a traitor to some, a hero to others and a fugitive from the law.

8. Grimsby ($28.7m box office from $35m budget)

Controversial star Sacha plays loud-mouth scrounger Nobby from the apparently run-down fishing town in northern England and the title of the movie Grimsby was changed for US audiences. Grimsby took £1.93million for its UK debut, The Dictator, which was panned by critics, even grossed £4.96million during its opener, including previews of £1.54million, in 2012.

7. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot ($24.9m box office from $35m budget)

Tina Fey‘s comedy-drama opened to $7.6 million, marking one of the actress’ lower-grossing movies in her career.

“Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” is based on Kim Baker’s memoir “The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” which follows her experience covering the wars in both countries for an American broadcast network.

6. Keeping Up with the Joneses ($26.9m box office from $40m budget)

Joneses follows the story of a suburban couple (Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher) who learn that their new neighbours (Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot) are government spies and become involved in their shenanigans.

With rumours that parts where rewrote without everyone knowing, tired comedy – three people fall over in the trailer and a project that’s softer than what we’re accustomed to seeing absurdist Galifianakis in, it’s no wonder this film didn’t do as well as people were expecting.

5. Ratchet & Clank ($11.8m box office from $20m budget)

The PS4 game sold so well and was loved by pretty much everyone that played it. The movie, on the other hand, is having the opposite effect as nobody is watching it and it has poor reviews. The video game movie only ended up making $4.8 million in its opening weekend.

4. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies ($16.4m box office from $28m budget)

One of the first films in 2016 to bomb, the classic story was given an unusual twist with zombies, and it failed to excited audiences.

3. Popstar: Never Stop Stopping ($9.5m box office from $20m budget)

So we have to admit that we hadn’t even heard of this film, so it’s no wonder it bombed.

It follows childhood friends Conner (Andy Samberg), Owen (Jorma Taccone) and Lawrence (Akiva Schaffer) who found fame and fortune after forming the hip-hop group the Style Boyz. Owen and Lawrence faded into the background when frontman Conner left the band to launch a successful solo career. Now, the egotistical singer decides to film a documentary about his life while he's still on top. When his second album flops, the camera is there to capture his world come crashing down.

Any chance you’ll be buying it on DVD?

2. Free State of Jones ($23.2m box office from $50m budget)

One of the more surprising films on the list is Matthew McConaughey’s Free State of Jones which was being hailed as an Oscar contender.

McConaughey plays the real-life Confederate soldier Newton Knight, who leads a band of deserters and runaway slaves to form a Robin-Hood outlaw group in the Louisiana swamp and attempts to make Jones county secede from Mississippi and the confederacy to form the “free state of Jones”. He allies himself with slave Moses (Mahershala Ali), marries freed woman Rachel (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and after the war takes a lead on democratic reform.

1. Max Steel ($4.4m box office from $10m budget)

For the last few years, superhero films have dominated at the box office. However, despite the genre seemingly unable to gross less than $500 million worldwide, one superhero flick has bombed heavily in America: Max Steel.

Based on the Mattel - the company behind Hot Wheels, Barbie dolls, and Monster High - action figures, Max Steel was never expected to gross huge amounts of money but was expected to do better than the $2.2 million from its first weekend.