11 Movie Risks That Failed Miserably, And 11 That Are Legendary

Welp...can't say they didn't try.

People online complain about Hollywood not taking enough risks today. Agree to disagree. Risks are being taken, even if they are not good ones. History has shown we will get more flops than blockbusters. Something, something, can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs, yeah?

Rob Tilley / Getty Images

Here are 11 films that took risks that paid off in a major way and 11 that fell flat on their faces:

1. SUCCESS: Les Miserables recorded all the songs live, and it captured all the emotions perfectly.

Universal Pictures

Musicals are a risk, generally, but that didn't stop director Tom Hooper from taking on one of the biggest musicals to hit Broadway. Hooper was adamant about recording the voices on set. It easily could have backfired, but it allowed all the songs to shine.

That said, Hooper wasn't done taking risks with musicals...

2. MISFIRE: Cats made the actors into CGI felines but ended up scaring movie-goers.

Universal Pictures

Never was there ever a film so creepy as Cats. Audiences loved the songs but agreed the decision to animate the actors into cats with human-like features was not the way to go. It was a major risk and had good intentions, but having all the actors wear cat ears instead might have been better.

3. SUCCESS: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs delivers the first full-length animated film.

Walt Disney Productions

As the first-ever full-length animated feature, Snow White was the OG risk-taker who paved the way for the entire animated film category. In its first year of release, it grossed $8M, which would have been around $180M today. At the end of 2022, Disney released its 61st animated film and is now one of the "Big Five" film production companies.

4. MISFIRE: John Carter spent at least $250M but failed to capture audiences on a national scale.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

It made its money back internationally, but I remember at the time that Disney wanted this to be their big sci-fi action success like Star Wars. Like Tron: Legacy, it has its fanbase, but it goes to show you that you can't just pour a bunch of cash into a film and expect it to succeed with audiences.

5. SUCCESS: Iron Man launches the entire MCU on the backs of Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau.

Paramount Pictures

The movie that launched an entire universe had no business being so successful. Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films dominated the superhero genre, and Iron Man was not really a mainstream name. Neither was Jon Favreau or a returning RDJ. Every piece of this not seemingly fit puzzle worked together perfectly.

6. MISFIRE: The Mummy (2017) tried to create a cinematic universe for the Universal Monsters, and it was dead on arrival.

Universal Pictures

Some risks go beyond the story of a film, and in the case of the 2017 version of The Mummy, the risk was all in setting up a cinematic universe before allowing the film to succeed. Spoiler: It didn't.

7. SUCCESS: Avatar created big blue aliens with motion capture and made one of the highest-grossing films ever.

20th Century Fox

There was a lot of risk in developing a story centered around heavily used CGI effects, backgrounds, and people. Right place. Right time. This film exploded onto the scene, and director James Cameron broke his own box-office record set by Titanic. 

Cameron has done this twice, so he has clearly earned the right to take risks.

8. MISFIRE: After Earth spent a lot of cash on a father-son project that lost money.

Sony Pictures Releasing

It only made $60M domestically but made up for it internationally. That said, it has an audience score of 36% on Rotten Tomatoes, with a critics score of 12%.

A petty but honest complaint was the accents the Smiths chose for their characters. A lot of movie-goers claimed it made the film unwatchable.

9. SUCCESS: Batman took a known-to-be campy superhero and turned him into the gritty dark knight we know today.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Gone were the days of Adam West dancing in a bat suit with drawn-on eyebrows. Credit to the graphic novel Batman: Year One for giving Batman a darker tone, but two years later, Tim Burton made it mainstream with Batman (1989). It could have flopped, but Burton created a compelling story and a sinister Joker.

10. MISFIRE: Black Adam turns a villain into an anti-hero and is just another Dwayne Johnson flick.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Shazam! was pretty popular, so to take its main villain and give him a movie where he was the star...was a choice. In Dwayne Johnson's world, he needs to be the main character, but it backfired with a superhero film that felt 20 years too late and tripped up its own potentially connected universe.

11. SUCCESS: The Lord of the Rings trilogy got the green light for all three movies without knowing if it would succeed.

New Line Cinema

To think that any studio today would green-light three films for a trilogy to be shot in three years would be wild. For example, I loved Dune, but it took time for Part II to see the green. New Line Cinema made the right call because we got the greatest fantasy saga thanks to Peter Jackson, tremendous world-building, and compelling character acting.

12. MISFIRE: Waterworld cost a fortune (at the time) and sunk in theaters.

Universal Pictures

Waterworld can be considered one of the first major box-office busts, despite its losses seeming like not much today. The movie itself has some amazing, jaw-dropping stunts, but audiences never connected with the movie like other major action films.

13. SUCCESS: Die Hard traded out the potential for a big, muscle-y lead and instead cast the charismatic Bruce Willis.

20th Century Fox

But it's true that Die Hard, in a way, was a major risk having a guy who looked like Willis in the leading role. The result was a character getting the hell beat out of him, which made it seem more like an underdog story and less of a badass easily taking out bad guys.

Besides, I couldn't imagine Arnold Schwarzenegger saying, "Yi-pee-ki-yay, mother******."

14. MISFIRE: Wonder Woman 1984 ditched everything that worked in the first film and potentially cost fans a trilogy.

Warner Bros. Pictures

It's almost unanimous that the third act of Wonder Woman didn't work well, but that lesson wasn't learned in its sequel. It took a lot of risks making the script goofier and some questionable decisions with Diana Prince's character, which fans ultimately hated.

15. SUCCESS: Titanic went from being treated as a joke to one of the most-watched movies ever.

Paramount Pictures

Director James Cameron had created action films like The Terminator and Aliens, so the idea of someone with that track record doing a historical fiction piece about a romance on the Titanic was pretty laughable. Then it was released in theaters and became a record-breaking film by being the second film at the time to break $2B ($2.256B total, the highest at the time).

16. MISFIRE: Exodus: Gods and Kings was a major bust...of biblical proportions.

20th Century Fox

Oof. Where does one begin with Exodus? Darkened faces of white cast members? The overall silliness of making this story into some great war film? The real risk was at the jump: having director Ridley Scott take on a project like this. The director who brought you films like Alien and The Martian was a daring choice for a biblical epic that seemed to offend everyone across the board.

17. SUCCESS: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl does the impossible and makes an extremely compelling adaptation of a theme park ride.

Walt Disney Productions

I feel like people undersell how risky this film was at the time. Other than Mission to Mars and Country Bear Jamboree (both were unsuccessful), creating a movie based on a ride was a waste of time and money. Pirates had no business being so good, and based on how many other ride adaptations have been made since (very few), it shows how special its success was.

18. MISFIRE: Pan offered a chance at a potentially interesting origin story of a beloved fictional character but delivered a cover of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

Warner Bros. Pictures

Not much to say about this one. Audiences didn't like it. Critics didn't like it. It cost 150M to make, and it didn't earn it back at the box office. They also took the risk of having Hugh Jackman randomly sing "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and it stands as one of the most out-of-place movie scenes ever.

19. SUCCESS: Get Out gives comedian Jordan Peele a shot at a horror thriller, and he makes arguably the greatest directorial debut of all time.

Universal Pictures

Jordan Peele might be a household name now, but no one really talks about the huge risk of letting that comedian from MadTV and Key & Peele write and direct a horror film. He gave the world Get Out, which might be one of this century's most imaginative, thrilling films.

20. MISFIRE: The BFG was a Big Flop, Guys.

Walt Disney StudiosMotion Pictures

So many children's stories have excelled on the big screen (see films like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda). The idea of Spielberg taking on another Dahl classic seemed like a can't-miss project, but the elephant in the room was the big risk of a Big Friendly CGI Giant.

In short, CGI wasn't the only problem.

21. SUCCESS: Mad Max: Fury Road revived a franchise by making one of the best action films of all time.

Warner Bros. Pictures

George Miller did the unthinkable and revived his own franchise with a bold new vision. Every step of world-building in this film was its own risk, but everything landed a perfect 10. It won six Academy Awards.

22. MISFIRE: The Phantom Menace tried to explain the Force in Star Wars, and it just didn't work with the fan base.

20th Century Fox

Hey, Phantom Menace is my favorite prequel. It's the epitome of risk and the perfect film to end on. That said...the CGI wasn't fully cooked. The story needed fixing, but it seemed like George Lucas had full control and a lot of "yes men" around him. The big one was that the film tried to explain the Force's existence, which, decades later, seems to be the withstanding problem with the film. Instead of delivering an interesting origin story that felt similar to the original films, it flipped Star Wars into just another "chosen one" tale by telling us Anakin is essentially Force Jesus.

Can you think of any films that took major risks, whether they paid off or not? Comment below!