12 Actors Who Never Recovered From Box Office Flops

Nobody sets out to make a bad movie. Well, almost nobody. The jury's still out on Steven Seagal. We bet he's convinced he has the cinematic Midas Touch, it's just the rest of us who are wrong. But for the rest of the film business, the goal is to make a good movie — or at least a movie "good" enough to make a profit on its budget. But making movies can be a hit-or-miss business after all, and not every film can be a winner. Yet for every star-making movie that turned an unknown into a butts-in-seats draw, there are plenty more examples of box office flops that sent an established A-lister right into the straight-to-video section at Walmart (or worse, no longer being able to snag a table at Spago!).

Hindsight is 20/20 as they say, but we can't help but look at some of the films on this list and wonder "what the heck were they thinking?" Maybe it was an easy seven- or eight-figure paycheck that didn't pan out. Perhaps it was a lifelong passion project that had a potential audience of one (the actor). Whatever it is, we guarantee these former superstars wished they could take a mulligan on these movies. Sure, they may still be working, but they'll never be what they once were. Everybody makes mistakes, but these mistakes turned out to be career killers. Here are the 12 actors who never recovered from their box office flops.

Why do talented thespians follow up Academy Award-winning performances with really bad wannabe blockbusters? Perhaps they're tired of "being taken seriously as an actor," and want to be "taken seriously as an action star?" Sure, Oscar gold is nice, but the only mint that matters in Hollywood is money, and the list of award winners have who tried to parlay a payday includes Charlize Theron in "Aeon Flux" (after "Monster"), Adrien Brody in "The Village" (after "The Pianist"), and perhaps the biggest career-killer of them all, Halle Berry in "Catwoman" (after "Monster's Ball").

Berry plays Patience Phillips, a shy graphic designer for a cosmetics company with a product said to reverse the effects of aging. But when Phillips discovers the company's dirty secrets, her boss (Sharon Stone) tries to have her killed, only for her to be revived by a mysterious Egyptian Mau and endowed with the "powers" of a cat ... okay, then. Just that summary makes us wonder what Berry was smoking (catnip?) to make this movie, and Warner Bros. to greenlight it. Perhaps director Pitof just made a compelling pitch? Berry "won" the Golden Raspberry for her work, and to her credit accepted it in person (with her Oscar in tow). Despite her goodwill gesture, she didn't land on her feet, as between "Gothika" in 2003 and "Catwoman" in 2004, she used up all of her nine lives.

John Travolta's career has more twists and turns than his hips did in "Saturday Night Fever." The man has a habit of making bad choices going back decades. However, nothing's as bad as "Battlefield Earth." 

Travolta's cinematic career started strong, with a supporting turn in 1976's "Carrie" followed by the lead "Saturday Night Fever" in 1977 and "Grease" in 1978. But after 1980's "Urban Cowboy," he starred in a string of underperformers ("Blowout") and flat-out failures ("Perfect") in the '80s, descending to starring with a baby with the voice of Bruce Willis in the "Look Who's Talking" trilogy.

Travolta's salvation came in the unexpected form of a twitchy, fast-talking, former video store clerk who just so happened to be his biggest fan. Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" made Travolta the poster child for "the comeback kid," snagging him an Oscar nom in the process. Travolta followed it up with a solid string of hits in the '90s, including John Woo's action classic "Face/Off." But Travolta's gonna Travolta, so he decided to destroy all that goodwill with his passion project; his paean to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, "Battlefield Earth," based on Hubbard's novel. Sheesh, even Tom Cruise knows where to draw the line. How bad is it? Try "winning" the Golden Raspberry for Worst Picture of the Year (2000), Decade (2009), and of "For Our First 25 Years" (2004). Yeah, that bad. 

Hollywood saw dollar signs in Taylor Kitsch during his five-season run on TV's "Friday Night Lights," and it's not hard to see why. Tall, good-looking, jacked, and talented, he had all the ingredients to become a marketable movie star. The only thing he lacked was a star-making performance in a box office hit. While he played Gambit in the financially successful prequel "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," his performance wasn't well received, and the movie is considered atrocious (it even managed to screw up Ryan Reynolds' "Deadpool.") Kitsch hoped to turn things around in 2012 with two would-be blockbusters that were finally going to make him a movie star. Yeah, about that.

First up was "John Carter." Despite decades in development hell, Disney once had faith in an adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' sci-fi novel series, as it had inspired everything from "Star Wars" to "Avatar." But that was part of the problem; everybody had already seen the stories "John Carter" inspired, so there was no demand for a live-action adaptation. Certainly not to the tune of $250+ million, the purported budget for Pixar director Andrew Stanton's ("Finding Nemo," "WALL-E") first live-action feature. "John Carter" was given a death slot in mid-February, where it racked up a mere $282 million worldwide. What was left of Kitsch's blockbuster career was killed off that May by "Battleship," a movie based on the board game, only this time with Rihanna and aliens.

"Showgirls" is about a girl named Nomi who arrives in Las Vegas with nothing but a suitcase and a pocketful of dreams, but soon finds herself used, abused, chewed up, and spit out by the city. The actress who played Nomi — Elizabeth Berkley — can probably relate. Just replace Sin City with Hollywood, and being a showgirl with being a movie star, and it's basically the same scenario. Berkley played Jessie Spano for three seasons on "Saved By The Bell," debuting in the second season. Following the show's cancellation in 1993, Berkeley appeared mostly in TV for two years, before getting her big break (or so she thought) landing the lead in the next picture from Paul Verhoeven  – the dynamic Danish director of "Robocop," "Total Recall" and "Basic Instinct — "Showgirls." 

Berkley dreamed fame, she instead got infamy. "Showgirls" danced away with eight Golden Raspberry's out of 13 nominations, including three for Berkley — Worst Actress, Worst New Star, and Worst Couple, shared with Kyle MacLachlan. If that weren't enough, the Razzies honored "Showgirls" with "Worst Movie" of the 90s," though it lost "Worst Movie of Our First 25 Years" to "Battlefield Earth," so there's that. "Showgirls" has recently undergone a reappraisal, though the damage was permanently done to Berkley's career, who has continued to work and did come back for the "Saved By The Bell" revival on Peacock, but that was canned after two seasons.

"Jerry Maguire" is one of the best Tom Cruise movies, Cameron Crowe films, and even movies set in Arizona. So yeah, it's pretty good. It also managed to make stars out of Tom Cruise's costars, Renée Zellweger and Cuba Gooding Jr., who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Zellweger parlayed "Jerry Maguire" into a career that includes two Oscars ("Cold Mountain" and "Judy"), and two classics ("Bridget Jones' Diary" and "Chicago."). Gooding Jr. made "Boat Trip." Right.

Okay, that's not fair. Gooding Jr. was excellent as the title murderer role in the FX miniseries "The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story." But by then, "Boat Trip" had already sunk his career. Gooding Jr. plays a dude who's accidentally sent on a cruise for gay men, but sees the potential to "play gay" and seduce/trick the straight women on the ship. While gross-out bro humor was big in the early-2000s, the movies' onslaught of homophobic jokes, crass comedy, and obsession with bodily fluids was considered far beneath an Oscar winner. The failure of "The Fighting Temptations" and "Radio," all in the same year, destroyed Gooding Jr.'s goodwill with audiences, and no amount of "show me the money!" was going to save him.

Hollywood really tried to make Armie Hammer "a thing" in the early 2010s. To the dude's credit (or at least his agents and managers), he did everything right when it comes to making a movie star. He worked with major directors, including David Fincher in "The Social Network" and Clint Eastwood in "J. Edgar." He spoofed his square-jawed good looks in "Mirror, Mirror," playing the Prince in the "Snow White" remake starring Julia Roberts and Lily Collins. He even played the title role in a massive, multimillion-dollar action blockbuster, "The Lone Ranger." Alas, while almost none of these shots at stardom worked (save "The Social Network"), it was his time playing a cowboy that irreparably shot holes in his career.

"The Lone Ranger" co-starred Johnny Depp, was directed by Gore Verbinski, and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the trio that turned a theme park ride into a multibillion franchise, the "Pirates of the Caribbean." Piece of cake, right? Yeah, not so much. "The Lone Ranger" became a case study in what not to do, including investing $225 million into a character that hadn't been relevant in 60-ish years — and casting Hammer in a starring role. "The Lone Ranger" became one of Disney's biggest live-action failures, while Hammer rode off into the sunset, never recovering from this massive flop.

You can argue that out of all the "Saturday Night Live" alums to become major movie stars, Mike Myers was the biggest. With nearly $4.5 billion worldwide and an average of $250 million per movie, he's averaged more than Eddie Murphy ($184 billion), Will Ferrell ($142 million), and even Adam Sandler ($135 million), not counting for inflation. Okay, he's just a bit behind Robert Downey Jr. ($254 million), but he was only on SNL for one undistinguished season (1985-86), and made his money in action movies. Mike Myers became a butts-in-seats comedy draw for blockbuster series like "Wayne's World," "Austin Powers," and "Shrek," the first two which sprung from his fertile imagination.

Unfortunately that same fertile imagination also gave us "The Love Guru" in 2008. While "Dr. Seuss' The Cat In The Hat" coughed up a furball in 2003, Myers emerged unscathed due to the two "Shrek" movies that followed. That was not the case with "The Love Guru" because Myers was both the star and creative driving force. The fact that the movie isn't just not funny, but painfully not funny, meant all the blame fell on Myers' lap. He is also notoriously difficult to work with, a reputation Hollywood executives are willing to suffer if you're producing hits, but not for $40 million bombs.

"Batman & Robin" was a graveyard of broken dreams. Most obviously, it killed the Burton-Schumacher "Batman" franchise, but the Dark Knight recovered less than a decade later thanks to Christopher Nolan. George Clooney took a hit, but had a hit soon after with "The Perfect Storm," and has had a successful career as an actor and director ever since. Chris O'Donnell and Uma Thurman got career-defining roles on TV ("NCIS: Los Angeles") and film ("Kill Bill") respectively, while Arnold Schwarzenegger went onto the California governor's mansion, and cashed his $25 million payday anyway. 

The one person who never really recovered from the disaster that was "Batman & Robin"? Alicia Silverstone as Barbara "don't call me Gordon" Wilson, dba Batgirl. Silverstone had starred in the seminal '90s, coming-of-age teen comedy, "Clueless." She tried to capitalize on that success with above-the-title starring roles, but it was her supporting turn as Batgirl that promised to elevate her to the A-list. Alas, Silverstone got caught up in that film's failure, and while she has consistently worked since, as far as her post-"Clueless" movie star career is concerned? As if.

Chevy Chase was the first "Saturday Night Live" alum to make it big, leaving after the inaugural season to launch a movie career, starting with "Foul Play" opposite Goldie Hawn, and following it up with comedy classics like "Caddyshack," "National Lampoon's Vacation," and "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." Sure, the dude delivered duds ("Oh! Heavenly Dog," "Under The Rainbow," "Modern Problems"), but nobody cares about your bombs as long as your blockbusters deliver. Fortunately for Chase, he was able to do just that ... in the '80s. By the time a new decade rolled around, Chase's luck ran out.

Chase kicked off the '90s starring in "Nothing But Trouble," co-starring and directed by Dan Aykroyd. Even with its stacked cast (Chase, Aykroyd, John Candy, Demi Moore) the movie's strangeness was insurmountable, as was the fact it's unbelievably unfunny. You feel uncomfortable watching the weirdness, and even more uncomfortable watching the talented cast fail to find laughs. Chase had recovered from bombs before, but "Nothing But Trouble" was different because its title could also describe Chase's behavior. Chase's reputation for being a "jerk" has followed him throughout his career, and without the hits to back it up, filmmakers simply stopped casting him. Sadly, "Nothing But Trouble" also pretty much killed Aykroyd's career too, and he seems like a pretty nice guy.

You know it's bad when your name becomes a curse. "The David Caruso Curse" is essentially when a TV star leaves a popular show at the height of its popularity to pursue a career in film that fails. Caruso was a journeyman actor who had worked in the film and TV industry for a decade when he finally got his big break, starring as Detective John Kelly in "NYPD Blue." What did the working actor do now that he finally had a hit role (and a steady paycheck) after ten years of pounding pavement auditioning for roles? He left after just one season.

Caruso succumbed to the lure of the silver screen, departing "NYPD Blue" after its first season to star in not one, but two titanic turkeys in 1995 –- "Kiss of Death" and "Jade." To give you an idea of how big a star Caruso was following "NYPD Blue," he actually got top billing over Nicolas Cage and Samuel L. Jackson in "Kiss of Death." Too bad that didn't save the movie from being a $14 million flop. "Jade" followed and did even worse, tanking with $9 million. Two high-profile bombs in one year is enough to earn someone the reputation of being "cursed." Caruso eventually returned to TV for "CSI: Miami," but after that shows' cancellation after ten seasons he quietly retired from acting.

A Marvel comic book movie from "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" creator George Lucas sounds like a license to print money. Unfortunately, the producer's resulting film — "Howard The Duck" — wound up laying an egg. The sci-fi pseudo-comedy was released in 1986, meaning that yes, we got a big-screen "Howard The Duck" adaptation three years before "Batman," 14 years before "X-Men," and 16 years before "Spider-Man." The film centers on the titular Howard, a smooth-talking, smart-aleck, anthropomorphic duck-man-person, who arrives on Earth from the planet Duckworld, where he forms a friendship with wannabe rocker named Beverly (Lea Thompson) and a bumbling scientist named Phil (Tim Robbins), while doing battle with an evil scientist named Dr. Walter Jenning (Jeffrey Jones). 

Robbins survived this embarrassment, while Jones would star in "Beetlejuice" and "Sleepy Hollow," (before destroying his career due to his own transgressions). Lea Thompson wasn't so lucky. The Brat Pack adjacent actress turned in strong supporting roles in "All The Right Moves," "Red Dawn," and "Back To The Future," but chose the absolute wrong film to star in the lead. Besides being a complete mess tonally and a total flop commercially ($16 million worldwide), it was just really weird. Most notably, the fact Beverly almost hooks up with Howard. Moviegoers were willing to tolerate Thompson playing a mom crushing on her son (Michael J. Fox) in "Back To The Future," but seducing a duck turned out to be a career killer.

Geena Davis' career started strong, with a supporting role in her feature film debut, "Tootsie," in 1982, followed by a decade of career-defining classics like "The Fly," "Beetlejuice," "Thelma & Louise," and "A League of Their Own," plus an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in "The Accidental Tourist." Davis became a star playing characters who were loveable but quirky, fiercely intelligent but hopelessly naive, and courageously authentic if oftentimes demure. There was nothing in her resume to suggest moviegoers were dying to see her in an action movie.

Davis and her then-husband, director Renny Harlin, decided to swing for the fences, putting Davis not just in a big-budget action-adventure film, but in a genre that had been declared dead decades ago — the pirate pic. Well, you gotta admire their chutzpah. Alas, "Cutthroat Island" wound up being one of the biggest bombs of all time, earning only $18 million on a budget that ballooned close to $100 million (more than $200 million adjusted for inflation). The pirate ship sank like a stone, and took Davis, Harlin, and co-star Matthew Modine's above-the-title careers along with it, as well as bankrupting an entire movie studio. Bombs don't come much bigger than that. While "Cutthroat Island" is worth watching, there's no denying that its failure, (followed by the truly excellent "The Long Kiss Goodnight" flopping the next year), meant that Davis detour into action movies permanently derailed her A-list career.