Summer 2013's Biggest Box Office Flops

Despite this summer's movies outperforming summer 2012 by over 10%  and, according to BoxOffice.com, poised for a record $4.64 billion haul domestically, the season is still marred by a slew of big box office bombs.

The season's hits include major sequels (Iron Man 3, Despicable Me 2, Grown Ups 2, Fast & Furious 6, Monsters University) low budget horror (The Conjuring, The Purge), edgy comedies (This Is the End, The Heat, We're the Millers), as well as the sleeper hit Now You See Me and the Superman reboot Man of Steel.

Then there were preordained flops such as World War Z, The Great Gatsby and Epic that actually did quite well. The concert film Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain made back roughly six times its production budget.

Films such as Star Trek Into Darkness, The Hangover Part III, The Wolverine (the lowest grossing X-Men film to date), and Pacific Rim did better abroad than at at home, which helped numb whatever pain or disappointment their respective studios might have felt at their soft-to-downright poor domestic numbers.

While certainly not a bomb, The Smurfs 2 is doing considerably less business than its predecessor. The jury's still out on Elysium and Planes, though the latter cost a fraction of what its Pixar kin did. And while Kick-Ass 2 didn't fare well domestically, it won't be deemed a big bomb given its low budget.

No, this summer's biggest flops were star-driven tentpoles such as The Lone Ranger, White House Down, The Internship, and After Earth (although the Will Smith sci-fi film did better overseas at home). Ryan Reynolds, in particular, had two of the season's biggest disappointments in Turbo and R.I.P.D.

Here are summer 2013's biggest bombs based on their production budget vs. worldwide gross (please bear in mind the old rule of thumb that a movie needs to make back 2 1/2 times what it cost to produce to be deemed successful):

• R.I.P.D. -- production budget of $130 million, worldwide gross of $64.6 million.
• Tyler Perry Presents Peeples -- production budget of $15 million, worldwide gross of $9.2 million.
• White House Down -- production budget of $150 million, worldwide gross of $138.2 million.
• The Lone Ranger -- production budget of $215 million (although some reports peg it as much higher), worldwide gross of $239.1 million.
• The Internship -- production budget of $58 million, worldwide gross of $74 million.
• After Earth -- production budget of $130 million, worldwide gross of $243.6 million.
• Red 2 -- production budget of $84 million, worldwide gross of $114.1 million.
• Turbo -- production budget of $135 million, worldwide gross of $153.7 million.
• The Canyons -- production budget reportedly in hundreds of thousands of dollars, only made $50,165 worldwide. Oh, Lindsay Lohan.
• The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones -- this one only opened a couple of weeks ago, but with a production budget of $60 million and a worldwide gross of $31.8 million and counting, well, that's nobody's idea of a success.

Figures via Forbes, The Hollywood Reporter, and Box Office Mojo.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com