Expensive flops: the biggest box-office failures in cinema
'West Side Story' tanks at box office with US$10 million debut
MOVIES Box office
Big budgets do not necessarily mean good films. Pleasing the critics and the public is a difficult job, which requires a good director, cast, script, and a little bit of luck as well. Even the best actors and directors have had a few failures during their careers. Sometimes it doesn't matter how much funding a film has, it still ends up being a bust anyway.
Even in the case of Steven Spielberg's remake of the famed musical 'West Side Story,' nothing is a sure success. The Shakespearean classic has been historically beloved, but it tanked in its box office debut, collecting just US$10.5 million from 2,820 theaters—which is particularly concerning when you know that Disney and 20th Century Studios spent US$100 million on it. It could earn more throughout the holidays, but it's a terrible start for what was supposed to be one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year, which also opened exclusively in theaters during yet another wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
Check out the other big budget films that ended up being box-office disasters!