It has hard to believe that2016was seven years ago. The world seemed so different then, back then, that summer felt like the biggest phenomenon was Pokemon Go. Yet, while history does not repeat itself, it does sometimes rhyme. While summer 2016 had, some really big box office hits likeCaptain America: Civil War, Finding Dory, andSuicide Squad, it also had somenotable bombs. In fact, those movies did so well that they likely ate up a lot of the dollars that other movies might have done, resulting in a lot of notable box office bombs.
Updated August 15, 2025: If you like learning more about movies that flopped at the box office, then you’ll be glad to know this article was recently updated byAmanda Minchin.
Summer 2016 was notoriously one of the worst years for movies. While the year kicked off with a great deal of excitement, the summer movie season met with subpar movies. While some poorly made and reviewed movies may still manage to clean up at the box office, this clearly wasn’t the case in 2016. By the time September rolled around, audiences had had enough. Studios were forced to face the hard truth - spending $100 million to make a blockbuster movie doesn’t automatically mean people are going to see it. This is a lesson studios failed to learn, and in 2023, there is a repeat effect happening in the summerwhere movies with expensive budgets are bombing at the box office.
In the end, the summer of 2016’s biggest bombs didn’t discriminate. They ranged from failed, long-delayed sequels to massive comic book adaptations and even well-liked movies that simply couldn’t find their audience. As summer 2023 draws to a close, look back at summer 2016 and remember some movies you may have forgotten about or never bothered to see. Here are some of the biggest bombs at the box office in the summer of 2016.
13The Legend of Tarzan
It wasn’t until the trailer dropped forThe Legend of Tarzanthat most audiences even knew a new Tarzan film was in the works. While it would be hard to call this movie a total bomb, its massive budget and marketing campaign are what really sunk the ship. This David Yates movie reportedly cost $180 million to make and grossed just over $355 million worldwide. With a more modest budget, that would have been a success. Unfortunately, with its massive price tag, this is not what the studio was hoping for in return. Evena star-studded castcouldn’t save this one.
Related:The Legend of Tarzan: Why Margot Robbie’s Forgotten Movie Was a Box Office Bomb
So, what went wrong? For one, Warner Bros. put an awful lot of faith in Yates to hold down the fort alone for a major franchise. Prior to this, he had directed the last fourHarry Pottermovies, all of which raked it in at the box office and were well-liked to boot. So, why not let him do aTarzanmovie? Unfortunately, the critics just weren’t having it. The movie currently sits at a poor 35% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. All told,The Legend of Tarzancertainly wasn’t the biggest bomb of the summer, but it was most definitely an avoidable one. Perhaps the production should have been asking if the world truly needed yet another Tarzan remake.
Notably, The Legend of Tarzan was one of two high profile box office disappointments released over the 4th of July weekend in 2016. The other wasThe BFG.One would think that a collaboration between legendary director Steven Spielberg, based on IP by Roald Dahl, and with Disney’s backing would have resulted in one of the biggest movies of the year. Instead,The BFGwas one of the biggest bombs not just of the summer but of the entire year.
A bloated budget, low-key marketing, and unconventional structure spelled disaster for the film upon its release. Despite a cast that included Oscar winner Mark Rylance,The BFGcame in at $195 million worldwide. This was a modest toll for any Spielberg movie, one made all the more painful with the $140 million production budget factored in. Also, to show how much money was saved by worldwide audiences, it only brought in $55.5 million domestically, which was only 28% of its box office.
11The Nice Guys
The Nice Guyswas five years two late and more than a nickel short. Although its budget was fairly tight for an action-filled affair at a smooth $50 million, the movie barely scraped in $62.5 million worldwide for its efforts. The movie is a great film, received positive reviews, and, to this day, is considered anunderrated detective film. Why did it bomb?
Well, sadly, a movie bombing isn’t always based on quality. Sometimes great movies bomb. The audience is just not compelled to go out and see them.The Nice Guyswas an original concept, and it is hard to get audiences to turn out for an original movie. In 2016 that seemed even more apparent as many of the biggest movies were sequels, spin-offs, and reboots; with the only original film that was a box office hit wasThe Secret Life of Pets,and that had the benefit of being an animated movie. Audiences say they want original movies, butThe Nice Guysis proof they don’t always go out to support them.
10Ghostbusters
The all-female Paul Feig-directed reboot ofGhostbusterswill go down in history as being a first for many things with only the best of intentions. While the film did receive pretty positive reviews upon its release (it currently sits at 73% on Rotten Tomatoes), it also received a deluge of horrendously negative press leading up to its release. To say this certainly didn’t help.
Needless to say, a box office smash it was not.Ghostbustersmade just shy of $230 million worldwide, which is good for a comedy. Unfortunately, the high $144 million reported production budget made this a pretty big bomb for Sony, who had undoubtedly been hoping to revive the franchise. In the end, didn’t break even. The franchise returned with another installment, Ghostbuster: Afterlife, which was a direct sequel to the originals. Notably,Ghostbusters: Afterlifegrossed less than the 2016Ghostbusters, with $204 million worldwide, but even with the COVID-19 pandemic halting some of its gross, it had a smaller budget of $75 million, so it turned a profit.
9Free State of Jones
Free State of Jonesflew under the radar when it was released that summer. The film starred Matthew McConaughey, who had enjoyed a career resurgence in recent years. A civil war drama loosely based on an original story starring McConaughey and directed by Gary Ross, the director ofThe Hunger Games, must have seemed like a home run on paper. Unfortunately… it wasn’t.
While the movie was somewhat protected by its modest $50 million budget, it only made little over half that budget worldwide. What started off as potential Oscar-worthy buzz (it was, after all, based on the true story of Mississippian Newton Knight’s little-known revolt against the Confederacy) soon faded off into oblivion. That being said, the film does maintain a middle-of-the-road Tomatometer ranking. Those wanting to know more about this little-known history should give this film a watch.
8Kubo and the Two Strings
Kubo and the Two Stringsreceived some fairly high praise upon its release, and with good reason. The story followed a young boy on a quest to find a suit of armor worn by his late father. Unfortunately, this same praise failed to translate into box office dollars. The film earned a cool $76 million against a $60 million budget. While not an outright flop, it was a disappointment, and domestically only grossed $48 million.
Still, this stop-motion animated feature deserved far more than its two Oscar nominations. Stop-motion artistry aside, the film featured an all-star cast, from Charlize Theron and Matthew McConaughey to Ralph Fiennes, Rooney Mara, and even George Takei. It was behind-the-scenes cast and crew replacements and a minuscule marketing budget that spelled trouble for this production’s hopes of a box office hit. But, if the 97% Tomatometer reading is any indication, this film is 100% worth a watch.
7Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
Not everything Lonely Island touches turns to gold, andPop Star: Never Stop Never Stoppingis one example of just that in terms of the box office. Released nearly a decade after the spoofWalk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, the film seems to have been inspired by the music industry, though elements of it are eerily similar to the rise of Justin Bieber. The singer’s first film, titledNever Say Never, was released nearly half a decade earlier.
While this correlation has been vehemently denied by the creators, it’s hard not to see the resemblance. While arguably more in the styles of rap and hip hop, respectively,once the marketing team was throughwith the picture, it was hard not to think that the film was a straight up Bieber-parody.
With a popular music comedy act at the helm (with millions of views for their music videos) alongside dozens of celebrity cameos, it’s surprising that this film never quite came to fruition. In the end, it’s nearly $10 million in earnings made up for only half of its $20 million budget. Considered a vastly underseen and underrated comedy by some,this musical mockumentaryis still well worth a watch.
6Independence Day: Resurgence
While it may not be the most outrageous box office bomb of summer 2016,Independence Day: Resurgencevery well could be the single most disappointing movie of the season. It wasn’t that the long-awaited sequel to Roland Emmerich’s alien blockbuster came too late, though that certainly didn’t help. To put it simply, it just wasn’t that good. In fact, by many accounts, it was downright atrocious. While no one would ever accuse the originalIndependence Dayof being a cinematic masterpiece (outside its killer effects), it sure was a lot of fun. Unfortunately,Resurgencefailed to capture just a fraction of that magic.
Related:Why June Was Filled With Box Office Bombs
To be fair, it wasrewritten in two weeksafter Will Smith dropped out. Not surprisingly, the film was trashed by critics on arrival. The movie currently sits at a very poor 29% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and only has a 30% approval rating from audiences.Resurgencefailed to make anywhere near what the original made back in 1996, only grossing about $390 million from a $165 million budget. To give moviegoers an idea of just how far the film franchise had fallen, the original made $817 million worldwide from a $75 million budget… and that’s not adjusted for inflation.
2016 was the year of failed franchises. Unfortunately, the long-awaitedWarcraftproved no different. Based onWorld of Warcraftor WoW, the popular MMORPG has been romanticized and publicized all over TV, fromThe Big Bang TheorytoSouth Park. It was only a matter of time before the clout would make it to the big screen.
With a combined production and promotional budget of $270 million, the film needed to earn over $450 million to turn a profit. Its domestic opening of just over $24 million dashed any and all hopes of this. While its international earnings blew this figure out of the water, the combined $440 million in earnings failed to muster.
So,why did this film fail? While fans applauded the attempt, too much was shoved into too little a space. The result was too much attention to surface-level details. Were this film a TV series instead, the reaction might very well have been different. As a result of its heinous outing, diehards will have to wait just a little longerto see their favorite characters on screenonce more.
4Alice Through the Looking Glass
Back in 2010,Tim Burton delivereda truly massive hit for Disney with his live-action remake ofAlice in Wonderland. The film went on to gross more than $1 billion worldwide, which was a tremendous accomplishment back in the 2010 landscape. From there, it was only a matter of time until a sequel was made. That sequel, however, took its sweet time to make it to the screen. When it finally did arrive in the summer of 2016, it was not the repeated success that Disney was hoping for.
Alice Through the Looking Glasshad a similarly huge budget to its predecessor, at a reported $170 million, but it barely made a fraction of what the original raked in. All told,Alice Through the Looking Glassonly managed to make just shy of $300 million worldwide. To give fans an idea of just how mind-blowingly low this is, the original made more than that domestically.
It is hard to know who or what to blame here. Perhaps it was too little too late, and it had been six years since the original. Also, while the 2010 film was a box office hit, it also was not fondly remembered, and most of its success could be attributed to being the first film to cash in on the 3D craze afterAvatar,so the demand for a sequel was never there. Or, maybe it was just a bad movie (it does currently sit at 29% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an audience score of nearly double that). Either way, this is a rare flub for Disney in 2016 who dominated the year with films likeCaptain America: Civil War,Finding Dory,The Jungle Book, andRogue One: A Star Wars Story.
