What is the biggest flop of all time?

The costly misfire of John Carter

Every now and then, Hollywood swings for the fences and ends up striking out—spectacularly. One of the most infamous misses? John Carter, a 2012 sci-fi epic that was supposed to launch a major new franchise. Instead, it became the poster child for box office disasters.

Produced by Disney at a staggering cost of $255 million—plus tens of millions more in marketing, the film was based on a century-old series of pulp novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Despite the pedigree and a seasoned director in Andrew Stanton (WALL-E, Finding Nemo), John Carter failed to connect with audiences. It earned just $77 million domestically and around $284 million worldwide. That chasm between investment and return made it the biggest financial flop in cinematic history.

So what went wrong? The title didn’t help, many assumed it was about a Civil War general. The marketing was confusing, failing to convey the film’s epic scope or its fantastical Martian setting. And by the time viewers realized it was a space adventure filled with sword fights, four-armed aliens, and heroic derring-do, it had already vanished from theaters.

It wasn’t just the budget that sank John Carter, it was the lost momentum. Disney had planned a trilogy; instead, the film was quietly buried. In the years since, it’s gained a quiet cult following, with fans mourning what might have been. But in the annals of box office history, it remains a cautionary tale: no matter how grand the vision, even the most ambitious stories can fall flat if audiences don’t know what they’re watching.