Money doesn't always buy quality! Join us as we count down the films that somehow raked in billions despite their questionable merits. From unnecessary sequels to lackluster remakes, these blockbusters left audiences wondering how they managed to break the bank. Which billion-dollar disappointment surprised you the most?
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the movies whose billion-dollar
00:11box office hauls left us scratching our heads.
00:14We're not necessarily saying all of these movies are terrible, but we are saying that
00:19their limited quality did merit such enormous success.
00:2410.
00:28The Fate of the Furious There's nothing inherently wrong with giving
00:32audiences exactly what they want.
00:35Nevertheless, one can point to The Fast and Furious Saga's eighth chapter as the moment
00:40where Dom Toretto's platitudes about family finally started losing their touch.
00:50The Fate of the Furious doesn't skimp on what makes these movies easy to enjoy, but
00:54as the first film to be released after Paul Walker's passing, it frequently struggles
00:59to carve out an identity for itself.
01:16The movie tribute paid to the actor in Furious 7 was justifiably cause for celebration, but
01:21without an everyman like Brian O'Connor to keep things grounded, the tonal inconsistencies
01:27and implausible logic become far more noticeable.
01:42Fate allowed this movie to coast off its built-up fanbase rather than its own merits.
01:489.
01:49The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy
02:01took in nearly $3 billion and a collective 17 Academy Awards, so it was only a matter
02:08of time before filmgoers would get to return to Middle Earth once more.
02:12While the first Hobbit film's billion-dollar haul made it clear that love still remained,
02:17the decision to split a relatively slim novel into three films quickly showed signs of weakness.
02:37While the characters, both old and new, are all mostly likable, the sense of adventure
02:42is hampered by endless exposition and a misguided use of CGI to bring certain creatures to life.
02:49The action would pick up in later installments, but notably reduced box office receipts indicates
02:54that An Unexpected Journey did not make the greatest first impression.
03:018.
03:07Aladdin – Aladdin Like most of the live-action remakes Disney
03:23has tackled, Aladdin flies a magic carpet for nostalgia in its best moments, but is
03:28egregiously miscalculated in its worst.
03:31It deserved credit for trying something new with the story we all know and love, but the
03:35changes it opts for cause it to lose the very magic that made the originals so beloved.
03:46Despite having everything from an energetic Will Smith to immortal music at its disposal,
03:52Aladdin never fully wishes itself free from the shadow of its predecessor.
03:56It's more than a little frustrating when something with promise settles for being average
04:01and squanders its chance to find its place in our hearts.
04:04But you know what they say, Phenomenal cosmic powers, but itty bitty living space.
04:107.
04:11Minions – Love em or hate em?
04:13The Minions were a phenomenon in the early 2010s, but they are animated proof that you
04:19can have too much of a good thing.
04:32Their hilarious slapstick made them an endearing aspect of the first two Despicable Me movies,
04:37but their best qualities only emerge when they have a villain to follow.
04:41This origin story, which sees the little yellow guys search throughout history to find the
04:45perfect master, is ultimately a harmless and occasionally wholesome adventure.
05:01But the comedy isn't as fresh as it once was, with the Minions' indecipherable gibberish
05:07quickly wearing thin on even the most patient viewer.
05:11When your target audience is kids and they're paying families, sometimes simplicity is the
05:16name of the game.
05:246.
05:28The Lion King It's no surprise that goodwill toward The
05:45Lion King propelled this live-action reimagining to a staggering $1.6 billion in revenue.
05:52But that number should be taken with a grain of salt, as it's likely a reflection of
05:56how many people saw the movie, and not how many times they saw it.
06:01Once you remove your nostalgia-tinted glasses, this Lion King has little to offer on the
06:05first watch, let alone multiple watches.
06:20A beat-for-beat recreation, its startling lack of originality is worsened by its pursuit
06:25of realism.
06:26While not lacking in technical prowess, its phoned-in performances and CGI-ed cast of
06:31animals leave it deprived of the soul that makes the original such a timeless classic.
06:36We can't feel the love with this one.
06:525.
06:54Star Wars Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker
07:02Star Wars is always going to do good business, yet it's hard to know who is most responsible
07:08for taking the saga to such an egregious low.
07:11Regardless of where you stand on The Last Jedi and its bold choices, The Rise of Skywalker
07:16did virtually nothing to rectify its predecessor's reputation.
07:32If the question was whether Episode IX would finish the established story, or give in to
07:37viewer demands, the answer was a deafening, neither.
07:41Entire plot threads were wiped off the slate, while characters we were just getting invested
07:46in were practically exiled so that the series could pointlessly resurrect its biggest antagonist.
08:01It was an illogical attempt to salvage credibility, and it amounted to one of the least satisfying
08:06finales in recent memory.
08:094.
08:10Alice in Wonderland It was the wrong movie at exactly the right
08:27time.
08:28Alice in Wonderland represented just the kind of mind-expanding 3D adventure people were
08:32craving in a post-Avatar landscape.
08:35On top of that, it made the idea of re-experiencing a Disney classic in live-action a rather fresh
08:41concept.
08:42Unfortunately, despite turning a huge profit, its biggest selling points turned out to be
08:47temporary novelties.
08:59Although the film's visuals were fitting for director Tim Burton, the over-indulgence
09:03in style left much of the story struggling to keep up.
09:06In fact, the movie thoroughly misunderstands Lewis Carroll's original text by casting
09:11its eccentric characters aside to make way for an out-of-touch story of warricked factions.
09:17Suffice it to say, Disney didn't learn many lessons from this one.
09:253.
09:27Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides Considering this was once the most expensive
09:46movie ever made, the executives at Disney probably breathed a sigh of relief when it
09:50crossed the billion-dollar threshold.
09:52And it's a good thing, too, as this unnecessary Pirates of the Caribbean continuation hasn't
09:58inspired many re-watches since.
10:00On Stranger Tides has an intriguing premise on paper, as Captain Jack Sparrow squaring
10:05off against Blackbeard on a hunt for the Fountain of Youth sounds like an adventure for the
10:10ages.
10:22But the welcome return of Jack and Hector Barbosa were done dirty by the confusing plot
10:27and uninteresting new characters.
10:29What should have been a back-to-basics quest is instead padded with poorly written humor,
10:34underdeveloped action, and enough superfluous side-plots to fill a treasure-chest.
10:392.
10:50Jurassic World Dominion To paraphrase Ian Malcolm, the producers of
11:04the Jurassic World series were so preoccupied with whether or not they could resurrect this
11:09franchise that they didn't stop to think if they should.
11:13While not without state-of-the-art CGI, Universal's wild overestimation of the saga's critical
11:18capabilities reached a fever pitch with this sixth and sadly not final chapter.
11:40Dominion already does fans a disservice due to the lack of chemistry between its old and
11:44new school characters.
11:46But in fashioning a plot around a locust plague, it does the unthinkable by making
11:50the dinosaurs almost completely irrelevant.
11:53Throw in action sequences that really belong in other franchises and Dominion ironically
11:58evolves into one of the power-mad, money-hungry beasts the Spielberg original tried to warn
12:04us about.
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12:391.
12:42Transformers Age of Extinction In hindsight, nothing was going to stop Michael
12:55Bay from finding new ways to enrage Transformers fans as long as his movies kept making money.
13:022011's Dark of the Moon should have been all the proof we needed that a billion dollars
13:06could make up for obnoxious characters and incoherent action.
13:11And yet Age of Extinction took the franchise to an all-time low three years later.
13:21Quadrupling down on the franchise's biggest flaws, it not only serves up a story more
13:26convoluted than the first three films combined, but also overhauls its human cast to disastrous
13:33effects.
13:34The worst part is that Bay lifelessly directs the movie as if box office success is a guarantee.
13:40He makes all of the wrong choices simply because he can.
13:54Is there a movie you were surprised made a billion dollars?
13:58Let us know down in the comments.