To draw out the moviegoing public and help sell a film, Hollywood loves to attach some of the most famous and popular actors in the industry. While this often works out in fruitful box office numbers and a good quality film (just take a look at some of themost successful films with multiple storylinesand large casts of characters), it doesn’t happen in every case.
Most of the time, it’s never the fault of the cast but the decisions regarding creative direction, story, marketing, and your own personal interest in the movie’s plot. These are the films with a ginormous amount of famous actors starring opposite each other but failing to bring a successful theatrical experience, and helmed by some surprisingly notable directors as well.
Edward Norton
Main Cast
Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Willem Dafoe, Alec Baldwin, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael Kenneth Williams, Bobby Cannavale, Leslie Mann, and Ethan Suplee
2019
6.8
65 percent
Where To Stream
VOD
When will you ever get to see heavy hitters like Willem Dafoe,Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, and Alec Baldwin share the same screen again, let alone in a film directed by Edward Norton himself? Even so, having these names and an equally famous supporting cast couldn’t quite boost the niche noir story that is Motherless Brooklyn, failing to recoup even its smaller budget of $26 million.
Based on the novel by Jonathan Lethem, Motherless Brooklyn takes place in the 1950s and sees Edward Norton portray a private investigator with Tourette’s Syndrome and a photographic memory as he tries to solve the murder of his best friend. It’s quite a unique angle ona traditional noir story, and remains a highly underrated watch that deserves more attention.
Tom George
Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, Ruth Wilson, David Oyelowo, Harris Dickinson, Pearl Chanda, Charlie Cooper, and Reece Shearsmith
2022
6.5
75 percent
See How They Run is a star-studded movie you’ve probably never even heard of. You have the Oscar-caliber talent of Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, and Adrien Brody, as well as TV star Ruth Wilson and Babygirl’s Harris Dickinson all together in one film, but somehow, it still flew under a lot of people’s radars and therefore bombed horribly in theaters.
This film is another1950s detective mystery, though set in London, and it follows Rockwell’s Inspector Stoppard as he investigates a murder surrounding a film production crew adapting Agatha Christie’s play, The Mousetrap. It definitely tried to evoke the vibe of Knives Out and Branagh’s Hercule Poirot films, especially since author Agatha Christie appears as a character here, but couldn’t achieve the same success.
Drew Goddard
Jeff Bridges, Chris Hemsworth, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Cynthia Erivo, Lewis Pullman, Nick Offerman, Cailee Spaeny, Shea Whigham, and Xavier Dolan
2018
7.1
Hulu with Live TV
Drew Goddard is the writer and director of The Cabin in the Woods and creator of Marvel’s Daredevil series and ABC’s High Potential. For his original mystery film Bad Times at the El Royale, Goddard assembled a cast unlike any other, including future Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, future Thunderbolts star Lewis Pullman, and Thor, Don Draper, ‘The Dude’ Lebowski, and Ron Swanson.
Bad Times at the El Royale is set in the main titular hotel location and follows a seemingly random group of strangers who become embroiled in the greater mystery playing out. There arespecks of Tarantinoin it, and it’s full of story twists. Plus, there’s an amazing villain performance by Chris Hemsworth as Billy Lee, which certainly paved the way for the work he would later achieve in Furiosa.
Bad Times at the El Royale’s budget was $32 million, and it fell just short, grossing only $31.8 million.
Cameron Crowe
Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray, Alec Baldwin, John Krasinski, Danny McBride, Bill Camp, Jaeden Martell, Edi Gathegi, and Ivana Milicevic
2015
5.4
20 percent
Cameron Crowe, the director of Jerry Maguire and Vanilla Sky, is not a name you’d typically associate with bad films, but Aloha, which had Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, and John Krasinski, didn’t perform well in cinemas and would become one of the last projects he’d direct. It’s a military-infused romantic comedy that’s different and sounds good on paper, but not executed as well.
Aloha is set in Hawaii and follows Bradley Cooper’s Brian Gilcrest, a military contractor trying to broker a land deal to build a launch center for billionaire Carson Welch’s satellite (played by Bill Murray). Along the way, he runs into his ex-girlfriend and her new husband, and also pursues a romantic relationship with Emma Stone’s Air Force pilot character, Captain Allison Ng.
Steven Zaillian
Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, Mark Ruffalo, James Gandolfini, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley, and Kevin Dunn
2006
6.1
12 percent
The Roku Channel
All the King’s Men is adapted from the 1946 novel that was based on the real-life controversial demagogue politician and former Louisiana governor, Huey P. Long, who was famous for “Every man a king.” Sean Penn plays the fictionalized version of the politician, Willie Stark, and the film is even written and directed by Schindler’s List, The Irishman, and Netflix’s Ripley writer, Steven Zaillian.
The cast is quite legendary, as you also have Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law, and even James Gandolfini, who was inone of the best gangster TV series, The Sopranos. The story is set in the 1950s and chronicles Willie Stark’s influence and rise to power until his assassination, a fate that ultimately befell Long. Despite all this, it didn’t even make $10 million of its $55 million budget.
Tom Hooper
Taylor Swift, Judi Dench, James Corden, Ian McKellen, Idris Elba, Rebel Wilson, Jennifer Hudson, Jason Derulo, Robbie Fairchild, and Naoimh Morgan
2.8
19 percent
Netflix
Cats had a hopeful cast, a director who had previously adapted the musical Les Misérables into a very successful film and won a Best Director Oscar for The King’s Speech, but it instead became quite a disappointing, scary, and scarring film due to its horrid CGI cat fur on the actors that definitely didn’t have its intended effect. The reviews across the board reflect this as well.
You had Dame Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Idris Elba, and talented singers like Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, Jason Derulo, and James Corden, and while they genuinely put all their heart and soul into it, Cats was just a weird and bizarre musical film that was hard to follow and enjoy, and didn’t do the original broadway show justice. Its budget was also a high $95 million, and it fell short.
Drew Pearce
Jodie Foster, Sofia Boutella, Jeff Goldblum, Sterling K. Brown, Dave Bautista, Charlie Day, Zachary Quinto, Brian Tyree Henry, Jenny Slate, and Kenneth Choi
57 percent
Tubi
You’ve probably seen a theatrical trailer for Hotel Artemis and then forgot all about it. Well, this movie indeed hasthatmany famous stars in it, and also has one of the most interesting premises. It’s set in near-future LA, and it’s about a special hotel that acts as a hospital hideout for criminals, almost akin to John Wick’s The Continental, and the nurse and main operator is Jodie Foster’s character.
There are many colorful criminal characters inhabiting the Hotel Artemis, and they will be joined by a new band of bank robbers who seek out its shelter during a riot, and also a criminal called the Wolf King, who they stole from, played by Jeff Goldblum, which will steer the events that take place. There are also some interesting sci-fi ideas, but even with a small budget of $15 million, Hotel Artemis only grossed $13.3 million.
Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller
Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Josh Brolin, Eva Green, Bruce Willis, Ray Liotta, Juno Temple, Julia Garner, Lady Gaga, Jamie Chung, Christopher Meloni, Rosario Dawson, Powers Boothe, Dennis Haysbert, Christopher Lloyd, Alexa PenaVega, Jaime King, and Jeremy Piven
2014
43 percent
Amazon Prime Video, Starz, Tubi, Plex, Pluto TV
In 2005, the first Sin City movie did exceptionally well at the box office. It was a blockbuster comic book adaptation that had the grittier, hard-R tone of Frank Miller’s vision, with ratings that were both a critical and audience success. The 2014 sequel, with quite a long gap from the first, failed to achieve the same hype and successful reviews, despite adding even more famous stars.
Just scan through the list of names, and you’d be astounded as to who signed on, even Ray Liotta, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and pop star Lady Gaga. A Dame to Kill For follows a femme fatale storyline in Miller’s Sin City universe, with Eva Green playing the seductive and manipulative murderess Ava Lord. The overall story was weaker than the original, and some roles also got recast, most notably Josh Brolin now playing Dwight.
David O. Russell
Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, Robert De Niro, John David Washington, Zoe Saldaña, Taylor Swift, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rami Malek, Chris Rock, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon, Timothy Olyphant, Andrea Riseborough, Alessandro Nivola, and Matthias Schoenaerts
31 percent
David O. Russell is the director behind Oscar-nominated films such as Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, and The Fighter, and in Amsterdam, he reunites with Christian Bale and Robert De Niro, who star alongside the likes of Margot Robbie, Anya Taylor-Joy, and even Chris Rock and Taylor Swift. However, Amsterdam was ultimately a disaster of a movie with near-unwatchable pacing and story.
It’s a wacky period crime film with too many famous actors for its own good to keep track of, and definitely not the best performances from the cast. The story is based on the Business Plot of 1933, which you probably wouldn’t even remember from history class. Amsterdam only managed to make $31.2 million against an $80 million budget, and that’s still surprisingly high.
Francis Ford Coppola
Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, Nathalie Emmanuel, Shia LaBeouf, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, Talia Shire, Grace VanderWaal, Chloe Fineman, Kathryn Hunter, and James Remar
2024
4.7
45 percent
N/A
The story with Megalopolis is a heartbreaking one, especially seeing that it bombed so massively rather than rising to a new opus for The Godfather helmerFrancis Ford Coppola, who financed all $120 million of its budget from his own wallet. The film made $4 million in its opening weekend and ended with a total worldwide gross of less than $15 million, a disaster of epic proportions, and what most would dub ‘Megaflopolis.’
It has Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Game of Thrones' Nathalie Emmanuel, SNL’s Chloe Fineman, Aubrey Plaza, and Dustin Hoffman, and the visuals are all very unique and original, but that still can’t help the confusing storyline, which sees an alternate New York as New Rome. It was a script Coppola worked on for decades, and a film he’s incredibly proud of,even honored to accept the Razzie Awards it won.
