15 Worst Box Office Openings Of All Time

It isn't good for anyone when a movie bombs its opening weekend. As franchises encourage Hollywood to focus increasingly on immediate returns rather than sustained, steady successes (the former favoring blockbuster event films; the latter adult dramas and comedies), a perceived rejection by audiences in the form of poor box office numbers risks teaching nervous studio execs all the wrong lessons.

When it comes to the worst of the worst, however, there might be a few lessons worth heeding. Most recently, as of this writing, Sydney Sweeney's boxing biopic "Christy" flopped so hard it broke into the top 15 worst box office openings of all time — which might have something to do with Sweeney's bizarrely dismissive reaction to her controversial American Eagle ad. Whatever the case, it's certainly striking to see where she's found herself on this list, considering it's almost entirely reserved for projects hindered by post-production delays, tiny target audiences, or COVID-19 lockdowns. 

Here are the 15 worst box office openings, ever.

When people first heard about Dave Grohl's haunted house flick "Studio 666," they weren't entirely convinced it was even a real movie. Nevertheless, fans of horror comedies and Foo Fighters were delivered an amusingly goofy and gory romp buoyed by a committed performance from Grohl — not that many people saw it.

"Studio 666" was released on February 25, 2022, a week so sleepy and unimpressive it was dominated by the likes of the forgettable video game adaptation "Uncharted," Channing Tatum's "Dog," Kenneth Branagh's "Death on the Nile," and extended holdover "Spider-Man: No Way Home" (at least Tom Holland was having a good time). Opening in 2,306 theaters, it grossed $1,540,543, making for a per-theater average of $668 — it's hard to imagine no one involved wished they'd grossed just a little less to bring that average down by $2. So close. Worldwide, "Studio 666" went on to make about $3 million. No information or estimations about the film's budget have been made public.

Our hopes for "Collide" were close to the gutter from the get-go. Obviously derivative and visually uninspiring from its first trailer — not to mention strangled by the behind-the-scenes shuffling troubled studios — it was no surprise that critics were as harsh as they were on the Nicholas Hoult/Felicity Jones antiheroic crime thriller.

"Collide" had a rockier path to release than most films, having to seek out new distribution after its original stewards at Relativity Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2015. It premiered in Germany in August 2016 before finally arriving in 2,045 theaters on February 24, 2017. It grossed $1,512,824, averaging $740 per theater. This disappointing result can be partially attributed to the unusually strong competition it faced the week, including buzzy holdovers "Split," "La La Land," and "Hidden Figures," and relative newcomers "John Wick: Chapter 2" and that week's champion "Get Out." In total, "Collide" went on to gross $6.8 million worldwide against a budget north of $21.5 million.

It's worth considering at this point whether or not Angel Studios is actually benefiting from the confidence instilled in them after the runaway hit that was 2023's "Sound of Freedom." Domestically, none of their subsequent efforts have even come close to its headline-making haul, and "Rule Breakers" in particular (a recent biopic about a girls' robotics team from Afghanistan) had an irredeemable opening at the U.S. box office.

"Rule Breakers" broke into 2,044 theaters on March 7, 2025, going head-to-head with another high-profile box office bomb — Bong Joon Ho's "Mickey 17." (Though the Robert Pattinson body-double sci-fi comedy debuted at the number one spot, it was projected to have lost Warner Bros. upwards of $70 million.) "Captain America: Brave New World" was also continuing to attract moviegoers by this point. With a much smaller budget than its competition (Angel Studios released no firm figure, but the highest figure reported online was only $15 million), the path to profitability was far more straightforward. Unfortunately for the studio, however, the film opened to $1,503,826, averaging $736 per theater. The final global haul came to about $2.97 million.

Maybe it should've been an early sign for Barry Levinson and Bill Murray that, after bringing Shia LaBeouf out of retirement for their 2015 film "Rock the Kasbah," the actor soon dropped out. Audiences were even more hesitant to venture out to theaters for this trying dramedy about a washed-up music manager (Murray) turning an Afghan singer (Leem Lubany) into a star.

If you can believe it, "Rock the Kasbah" dismal $1,470,592 opening (in 2,012 theaters, for an average of $731 per theater) wasn't even the worst seen the week of October 23, 2015 — but we'll get to that film in just a moment. It was a particularly brutal time for new releases overall — Vin Diesel's "The Last Witch Hunter" only came in third domestically and had a modest box office run afterward; even the low-budget / high-reward "Paranormal Activity" hit a new financial low with "Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension." The week was dominated almost entirely by holdovers, especially "Bridge of Spies," the Jack Black "Goosebumps" adaptation, and "The Martian." As for "Rock the Kasbah," its grand total came to $3.39 million against a production budget of $15 million.

For a film based on established IP, that had the backing of Blumhouse and Hasbro (via their now-defunct Allspark Pictures production house), and was directed by future musical visionary Jon M. Chu, "Jem and the Holograms" is a surprising inclusion on this list. Then again, given how shrug-worthy the final product was among critics and audiences, all the squandered potential is precisely what should be reflected in a film's financials.

"Jem and the Holograms" debuted the same week as "Rock the Kasbah," somehow managing to underperform the underperformer with an opening of $1,375,320. Its per-theater average was also notably worse, with its 2,413-theater debut amounting to a flat average of $570. It's one of only a handful of sci-fi films so financially disastrous that the studio pulled them from theaters early, with distributor Universal pulling "Jem and the Holograms" from all but about 50 theaters two weeks into its run. In all, its global haul came in at $2.3 million total against a fortunately modest budget of $5 million.

Of course, the reason we're all here — Sydney Sweeney's ill-timed boxing biopic "Christy." The embattled "Euphoria" actor swings for a transformative turn as Christy Salters, a professional boxer who fought against institutional barriers and later became a powerful advocate against domestic violence and abuse.

While there are many reasons why "Christy" performed as poorly as it did when it was released on November 7, 2025, it is worth noting that the film was uniquely challenged by other character-driven adult dramas targeting the same audience. Franchise blockbuster "Predator: Badlands" predictably debuted at the number one spot, but "Christy" was also trumped by the period biopic "Sarah's Oil," the World War II thriller "Nuremberg," and MUBI's buzzy Jennifer Lawrence-Robert Pattinson starrer "Die My Love." All three films also happened to draw more favorable reviews than Sweeney's "Christy."

As for the actor herself, she's eager to dismiss the financial hit as a glancing blow taken in the pursuit of making art. Across 2,184 theaters, "Christy" grossed $1,310,888, a per-theater total of $600. Though it's too early to call a global haul for the picture, it has yet to crack $2 million as of writing.

It was only a matter of time before this list came up against the era of COVID-19 lockdowns, perhaps one of, if not the most impactful and negative force on the film business in its history. With most moviegoers understandably choosing to stay in their homes as the virus tore through the planet, some studios chose to risk releasing films regardless. "The Empty Man" premiered in 2,027 theaters on October 23, 2020, as the only new, widely released film that week, and made $1,310,326. Per theater, that comes to an average of $646.

Given how poorly every film was doing at the time, however, "The Empty Man" still managed to debut in the top 3 (behind "The War on Grandpa" and "Honest Thief"). It had better legs than most other films on this list as well, ultimately grossing $4.79 million against a budget of $16 million.

All that being said, if any film on this list deserves a second chance, it's "The Empty Man." Writer-director David Prior's adaptation of Cullen Bunn's comic book series is one of the scariest movies of the 2020s so far, as well as one of the best cosmic horror movies ever made.

If we had a nickel for every time Jason Sudeikis starred in an animated project about animals who work as hitmen ... we'd have two nickels. It isn't much, but it seems like "Hitpig!" in particular could've used every penny audiences were willing to spare.

"Hitpig!" hit theaters like a slab of cold bacon in 2024, earning $1,154,144 across 2,107 theaters for a per-theater average of $548. The week of its November 1 release date had it coming in far below fellow newcomers "Singham Again," "Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3," and the Robert Zemeckis film "Here," all three of which cracked a top ten that included "Venom: The Last Dance" and, more significantly, "The Wild Robot." Though the latter film had been in theaters for over a month at that point, it was still dominating the family animation market that "Hitpig!" needed to capture. It did manage to gross $5.7 million against an unknown budget.

Another lockdown loss, Natalie Krinsky's charming romantic comedy "The Broken Hearts Gallery" wasn't given much room to connect with audiences in 2020. Geraldine Viswanathan ("Thunderbolts*") and Dacre Montgomery ("Stranger Things") star as two New York 20-somethings who fall in love through an art gallery memorializing dead relationships.

Like "The Empty Man," "The Broken Hearts Gallery" suffered from getting dropped in the middle of COVID-19 lockdowns. In June, Sony announced the film would aim for an ambitious July 10 release. But when July rolled around — and Warner Bros. made the call to pull Christopher Nolan's "Tenet" from their summer slate — Sony followed suit and postponed the release of "The Broken Hearts Gallery" indefinitely. It eventually got its wide release on September 11, 2020, debuting below "Tenet," "The New Mutants," and Russell Crowe's "Unhinged." It bowed at $1,126,401 in 2,209 theaters after its first week, averaging $510 per house. Numbers held strong, however, allowing it to gross $4.78 million over the course of its run.

As hopeless as it was attempting to release movies in 2020, waiting didn't always yield better results. Warner Bros. 3D-animated "Scooby-Doo" movie, "Scoob!" was meant to revive a key piece of IP; instead, it was the first half of a disastrous "duology" that ended before it could take off.

After sitting on the shelf for almost a year after Warner Bros. tested the international waters by releasing it overseas, "Scoob!" finally scrambled into a whopping 2,500 theaters in the U.S. on May 21, 2021,  only to gross just $850,000 (making for an average of $340 per theater). The film had as clear a runway as it could've hoped for, yet couldn't topple the theatrical release of Disney's "Raya and the Last Dragon."

On the other hand, "Scoob!" may deserve a bit of an asterisk on this list. When Warners initially released the film on VOD in 2020, it performed so strongly that comparisons were drawn to "Trolls: World Tour," which opened to $50 million in digital purchases. While "Scoob!" grossed $28 million theatrically (against a budget of $90 million), the absence of VOD sales may be sandbagging that figure significantly.

Director Timur Bekmambetov might've thought his "screenlife" movies were the future of cinema, but "Profile" certainly didn't support that hypothesis. After apparently spending several years seeking distribution after its original premiere in 2018, the film couldn't have had worse timing for its wide release.

"Profile" arrived in theaters just before "Scoob!" on May 14, 2021, grossing $730,290 in 2,033 theaters (a $359 per-theater average). Guy Ritchie's "Wrath of Man" had been an unfortunate holdover, but "Profile" was undoubtedly shut down by sharing a release date with the "Saw" spin-off-sequel "Spiral." Starring Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson, it promised similar thrills as "Profile" in its marketing, but with the backing of two major stars. It also can't be helped that the conceit of "Profile" was a pretty impossible sell at the time — who on Earth would want one of their first experiences back at the movies after a year of traumatizing video calls to be a movie that takes place entirely inside of one? Unsurprisingly, its total worldwide gross topped out at $1.8 million.

Originally titled "The Moon and the Sun," Pierce Brosnan's "The King's Daughter" spent an even longer period in post-production-hell than "Profile." It was originally slated to be released all the way back in April of 2015, where it likely would've been just as doomed, having to compete for attention with Disney's live-action "Cinderella" remake. By March, however, distributor Paramount had pulled it from the schedule entirely with no official cause (reports at the time pinned the delay on VFX) or a committed release date posited for the future.

The film spent the next seven years on a shelf, resold from nervous distributor to nervous distributor until it finally landed at Gravitas Ventures in October of 2021. When it finally surfaced in 2,170 theaters on January 21, 2022, it was trounced by "Redeeming Love" — though both new releases struggled in a sea of franchise holdovers that included "The King's Man." It grossed $723,802, an average of $334 per theater. Worldwide, it went on to gross just $2.2 million against a devastating production budget of $40 million.

Clearly angling to pick up the slack of the waning "LEGO Movie" cinematic universe (which, despite solid box office numbers, never reached the heights of the original 2014 film), "Playmobil: The Movie" needed to convince audiences to show up for a property that was decidedly not as culturally relevant as those Danish blocks. Despite some admittedly interesting advertising alchemy, they weren't successful in building engagement with moviegoers.

Released on December 19, 2019, "Playmobil" was one of the last films to enjoy the full pre-COVID-19 theatrical release experience. Even so, it was completely ignored by moviegoers. Disney's "Frozen II" was entering its third week at the number one spot, keeping young audiences' attention with little effort. Elsewhere, adult dramas like "Knives Out," "Queen and Slim," and "Ford v Ferrari" ate up the remaining pool of potential ticket buyers. "Playmobil" made only $656,530 off of a comparatively ambitious 2,337-theater run, earning a per-theater average of $281. It ultimately bowed out at $16.3 million worldwide against a production budget of $40 million.

If you don't remember "Delgo," you're not alone. Despite the marketing posturing it as an epic animated franchise-launcher, the film (which features the voice talents of Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Burt Reynolds) looks, sounds, and paces itself like a made-for-DVD feature, even by early-2000s standards.

The release of "Delgo" on December 12, 2008, was such a disaster that it couldn't even be beat by the later, muted re-releases of "Saw" (put back in 2,000 theaters for its 10th anniversary on Halloween 2014) or "Dune: Part One" (returned to IMAX in 2024 ahead of "Dune: Part Two"). The final opening figure was $511,920 in 2,160 theaters for a per-theater average of $237, at the time setting the record for the worst wide release in film history. It debuted at number 19 domestically, sandwiched between new releases "Doubt" and "Gran Torino" (enjoying soft, limited releases in less than 20 theaters apiece).

Shockingly, that opening haul wound up representing the majority of "Delgo's" total financial success, as the film bowed globally to a grand total of $694,782 against a budget of $40 million. What did the creative team do next, you might ask? Why, they attempted to sue James Cameron, of course, alleging that "Avatar" had cribbed its character design.

One of the lowest-grossing movies overall of 2012, "The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure" was never going to be a mainstream hit. In the same way "Barney" and "Dora the Explorer" asked young viewers at home to interact with the story, "The Oogieloves" encouraged audiences to move, talk, and even sing in the theaters — which sounds, frankly, like a hellish time at the cinema.

Floating into 2,160 theaters on August 29, 2012, "The Oogieloves" immediately began to deflate to a jaw-droppingly low opening of only $443,901. Per theater, that's just $206. Sure, there were indeed a high number of solid family holdovers that maintained decent spots on the domestic box office charts that week; "Ice Age: Continental Drift," "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days," "The Odd Life of Timothy Green," and "ParaNorman" all topped "The Oogieloves."

But this movie is so bizarre that it arguably exists in its own space, needing to prove that moviegoers were interested in, basically, making a theatrical experience out of giving your toddler the iPad to watch "Cocomelon." Audiences rejected it unanimously (it only grossed $1 million worldwide), and it has since maintained the record for worst box office opening of all time for over a dozen years as of writing.