Catastrophic Cinema: When Hollywood Dreams Become Nightmares

Studio executives watch helplessly as millions in film investment literally goes up in flames (1978)

Featured Disaster: Martian Love Story

The 1979 sci-fi romance that bankrupted Stellar Studios remains the most expensive box office bomb relative to its era. Costing $180 million (equivalent to nearly $1 billion today), the film earned back a mere $1.2 million. Critics particularly savaged the decision to cast Tommy "The Chin" Matthews as the lovestruck alien, noting his visible confusion throughout the film and his infamous line delivery of "Earth... is where the heart lives" while looking directly at the wrong camera.

Today's Featured Flops

• Neptune's Revenge (1965) - A waterlogged disaster featuring mechanical sharks that repeatedly sank and a lead actress who couldn't swim

• Cowboys vs. Dinosaurs (1972) - The $40 million western where clearly visible zippers on dinosaur costumes led to audience walkouts

• Dance of the Corporate Raiders (1984) - A misguided attempt to turn Wall Street drama into a musical, featuring the notorious "Hostile Takeover Tango"

A behind-the-scenes photo reveals the mechanical shark malfunctioning during the filming of Neptune's Revenge

Did You Know...

• The director of Time Bandits 1999 spent $15 million on a single scene that was ultimately cut because test audiences found it "physically nauseating"?

• Castle of Dreams (1968) went through 14 different endings, all of which tested poorly, before settling on one where all characters simply walk off screen in different directions?

• The entire cast of Jungle Warriors (1977) got food poisoning during filming, leading to the infamous "green-faced performance" scene that made it into the final cut?

Production Disasters

Read about the most catastrophic production issues in film history:

• The Great Studio Fire of 1973 - When practical effects went terribly wrong

• Method Acting Mishaps - When staying in character sent stars to the hospital

• Lost in Translation - Films that were accidentally released with placeholder subtitles

The $2 million castle set for "Medieval Times" (1975) collapses during filming

Recent Additions

• Space Station Zero (1988) - Where the entire space station set collapsed during the premiere

• The Last Dinosaur (1969) - Famous for its rubber T-Rex head falling off during the climactic scene

• Love in the Time of Robots (1982) - The romantic comedy where all the robots caught fire simultaneously