Top 10 Movie Sequel Bombs of All Time

Well, so much for that franchise. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Movie Sequels That Bombed at the Box Office. For this list, we’ll be looking at various big screens sequels that are considered financial failures. We don’t only mean those that failed to make a profit at the box office, but also those that technically made their money back but are still seen as major losses for the studio when compared to general expectations, production budgets, previous films’ successes, or other factors. We’re not taking critical reception into account though – if it was a financial bomb, it’ll be considered, regardless of how good it was.

While it’s been called more of a ‘continuation’ of the ‘70s TV series and the early 2000s’ movies rather than a strict sequel, the 2019 film most certainly did not continue those earlier productions’ box office success. Earning less than $52 million on a budget estimated between $48-55 million dollars, the Elizabeth Banks-directed flick following a new generation of Angels just couldn’t garner much interest for its subject matter. The action comedy also received mixed reviews, with some critics even going so far as calling it formulaic. While Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska are fun in the lead roles, they just couldn’t live up to their predecessors and the numbers showed it.

Movies don’t get much more unnecessary or ridiculous than “Evan Almighty.” This sequel to “Bruce Almighty” follows Evan, the slimy news anchor from the original who probably earned his own spinoff solely for that scene where Bruce forces him to babble his way through the news. In this film, Evan is forced into the role of Noah and builds a massive ark for an upcoming flood. Yes, they couldn’t even think of an original story idea, and to make matters worse, the movie came with a staggering $175 million bill. Alas, the profits were washed away when the film ended up grossing only $173 million worldwide.

Sure, the 2000 “Shaft” - which was simultaneously a remake of the 1971 film and a storyline sequel - topped the box office and was received positively by critics. But it doesn’t mean that putting Samuel L. Jackson back into the role of man related to the original John Shaft will also similarly succeed. That’s obviously what the filmmakers behind this second remake-sequel hoped for when they released 2019’s “Shaft,” which followed Shaft’s now-grown son J.J. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. In fact, the action comedy made only a paltry $21 million at the box office while its budget ranged between $30-35 million. The update to the “Shaft” series was more outdated than anything else.

Yes, this IS a real movie. And yes, it was something that absolutely no one asked for. The original “Basic Instinct” is a fine movie, but its main claim to fame was the sensual performance of Sharon Stone. It was a film that teenagers covertly rented and hid from their parents. Now here’s an unwanted sequel, released fourteen years later, and at a time when sexuality wasn’t nearly as taboo and didn’t guarantee big money. And big money it did not make. The movie opened to an abysmal $3 million and stayed in theatres for only 17 days before being pulled with a total domestic tally of $5.9 million.

While retconning may allow for a clean slate or at least for another chance to atone for past mistakes, it’s not always going to help return an intellectual property to its former glory. While critics seemed to agree that this 6th film was better than many installments before it, “Dark Fate” still did not blow them or audiences away. Acting as a direct sequel to the first two “Terminator” flicks, the sci-fi action movie didn’t only rehash previous plot points, but also ended up becoming a box office bomb. When comparing its $185-196 million production budget to its box office earnings of $255 million, the film’s break-even point has estimates pointing to a studio loss of up to $130 million!

And you thought “Caddyshack II” was unnecessary. “The Blues Brothers” is a cult classic, released to critical acclaim and notable financial success in 1980. Nearly twenty years later, an extraordinarily unneeded sequel was released with John Goodman trying to fill John Belushi’s shoes. It went over about as well as you’d expect. While some people saw the movie as a passable tribute to the original with a kickass soundtrack, others saw it as a woefully disappointing sequel that tarnished the original and insulted the memory of Belushi. The movie grossed only $14 million at the box office, about 12% of the original’s $115 million gross.

Coming in just barely under a decade after the original “Sin City,” “A Dame to Kill For” captures the same visual magic as its predecessor and retains much of its charming cast, including Bruce Willis and Mickey Rourke. There are even some exciting new additions, including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Josh Brolin, and Eva Green. While the cast and style were certainly there, the relevance had LONG gone. With an estimated budget of $65 million, the movie grossed a tragically horrendous $13 million at the domestic box office. It didn’t fare much better overseas, accumulating a worldwide gross of only $39 million. Now that’s a depressing tale worthy of “Sin City.”

You’d think that after 12 tries, they would have figured out the formula to box office success by now… unfortunately, the directorial debut of Simon Kinberg, who wrote several of the previous films’ screenplays, still did not get things right. At least when it comes to the numbers it didn’t - though critics’ reviews of the movie were quite unfavorable as well. This sequel to 2016’s “X-Men: Apocalypse” sees the failure of a space mission and the X-Men having to take on the titular Phoenix. However, despite an ensemble cast, this conclusion to Fox’s “X-men” franchise would go on to become the series’ lowest-grossing film, disappointingly making only about $52 million more than its $200 million production budget.

We honestly have no idea what Universal was thinking here. “Pitch Black” was a fairly standard horror movie about characters escaping from monsters while a reluctant antihero protects them from the dangers. This antihero was such a popular character that they decided to give him his own story. Only, they switched the genre from horror to big budget science fiction and took the series and character in a more fanciful direction. It wasn’t what fans of “Pitch Black” were hoping for. On a budget of about $105 million, the movie grossed only $57 million in domestic markets, and $115 million worldwide. And that wasn’t what the studio was hoping for. Fair trade.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are some honorable, or in this case dishonorable mentions.

“The Whole Ten Yards” (2004)

“RoboCop 3”

“Caddyshack II” (1988)

“Doctor Sleep” (2019)

“Independence Day: Resurgence” (2016)

Making a sequel to “The Mask” without Jim Carrey is one thing. Replacing him with Jamie Kennedy is another. “Son of the Mask” was far too wacky, which is saying something, considering the frantic energy of the original. The humor was childish - and don’t even get us started on that freaky CGI baby. It’s baffling that this comedy was greenlit with a budget between $84-100 million! What isn’t baffling, however, is that the film earned only $17 million at the domestic box office and $57 million worldwide, seemingly proving that everyone thought this movie belonged at the bottom of a river, just like its titular mask.