- 3 minutes ago
Sometimes, even the hottest actors hit a roadblock with one bad movie that derails their streak of success. From Tom Cruise’s misfired monster universe to Joaquin Phoenix’s baffling musical sequel, we’re diving into some seriously surprising Hollywood flops that stalled careers and disappointed fans. Get ready to see which stars faced their toughest box office blows and critical misses.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Welcome to Miss Mojo and today we're looking at actors who were on a roll until one bad
00:11movie derailed their hot streak.
00:21Joaquin Phoenix might be the best actor of his generation, even after a period where
00:39he went a little too method, Phoenix came back better than ever with The Master, Her and
00:44You Were Never Really Here.
00:55His hot streak culminated in Phoenix winning a Best Actor Oscar for Joker. Funny how that
00:59film's sequel would bring Phoenix his first Golden Raspberry nominations. While Phoenix's
01:04acting in Joker Foliadou was honestly solid, his singing is another story.
01:09The Joker is me, the Joker is me.
01:16Apparently the bad singing was intentional, but Todd Phillips' decision to make a musical
01:20that wasn't a musical baffled fans and critics of the 2019 film, satisfying no one aside
01:25from the people who made it. Now Arthur Fleck is an Oscar and Razzie winning role.
01:30Cameron Diaz, The Box
01:32This model turned actress hit the ground running with her debut in The Mask, going on to star in
01:47My Best Friend's Wedding, There's Something About Mary and Being John Malkovich. Even when a film
01:51didn't get the best reviews, Diaz was a bankable star. 2009's The Box would have been better left
01:57unopened, however.
02:02It's just a box.
02:03Not only was it a rare financial letdown in Diaz's filmography, barely making back its modest
02:0930 million dollar production budget, it received an almost unheard of F cinema score, the ending
02:14in particular leaving a bad taste in audiences' mouths. Diaz seemingly rebounded two years later,
02:19collecting a 42 million dollar paycheck for 2011's Bad Teacher.
02:23I thought the teachers were supposed to get the apples.
02:26Well, I think the students teach me at least as much as I teach them.
02:31That's just something I say sometimes.
02:33Stupid.
02:34This was followed by several more disappointments though,
02:37segueing into an 11-year hiatus that Diaz recently came out of. Mike Myers, The Cat in the Hat.
02:43Me-line. Key-line. Turpentine. I got nothing. I'm not so good with the rhyming.
02:53Most comedians would give anything for a hit franchise. By the early 2000's,
02:57Mike Myers had three, with Wayne's World, Austin Powers and Shrek.
03:01That'll do, Donkey. That'll do.
03:09Cool.
03:09The live-action Cat in the Hat seemed destined to launch another cinematic franchise with Myers at
03:14the forefront. A sequel based on The Cat in the Hat Comes Back even entered development before the
03:192003 film's release. Audrey Geisel, Dr. Seuss's widow, shot down any sequel possibilities when the film
03:25opened to abysmal reviews and disappointing box office returns.
03:28S-L-O-W?
03:30Yeah, slow. It's better than the last name we had. Super Hydraulic Instantaneous Transporter.
03:37Oh, you mean-
03:38No! Quick, to the slow!
03:41While some kids from that era have a nostalgic attachment to the film, it became clear that
03:45maybe Myers wasn't a bona fide hitmaker. Myers' hot streak was over, but it wasn't enough to end his
03:49career. The love guru did that.
03:51Cate Blanchett. Borderlands.
03:53You know, it's quite a menagerie you've got here. You could start your own Pandoran Zoo.
04:01Winning two Oscars for The Aviator and Blue Jasmine, Cate Blanchett is synonymous with prestige.
04:07On the rare occasion she does a more commercial studio picture, it's usually one of high quality,
04:11like Thor Ragnarok. When it was announced that she would be headlining a Borderlands movie,
04:15people found it strange. But we told ourselves, it's Cate Blanchett. There must have been something of
04:20value that drew her to this project. Maybe there was when Blanchett signed on,
04:24but it wouldn't be present in the final project.
04:26You stole her for yourself. Now, do you know how many people have died
04:30looking for that hole in the dirt? Well, I do. My mother was one of them.
04:34After various delays, Borderlands was dumped in theatres. Whatever advertising went into the release
04:39was overshadowed by negative reviews, with the consensus being, oh yeah,
04:43video game movies can still suck, even with a star of Blanchett's calibre.
04:47Have you broken the beacon I gave you?
04:52Ah, this thing was junk the whole time.
04:56Jennifer Lawrence, Passengers
04:58Jim was so looking forward to meeting you.
05:02What? How could he be looking forward to it?
05:05Jennifer Lawrence accomplished more before turning 30 than most actors achieve in a lifetime. Following
05:09her Oscar-nominated breakthrough, Winter's Bone, she landed two major franchises with X-Men and The
05:14Hunger Games. The same year, the latter topped box office charts. She starred in Silver Linings
05:18Playbook, which won her a Best Actress Oscar.
05:25After scoring two more nominations for American Hustle and Joy, Lawrence starred in Passengers,
05:29opposite Chris Pratt, who was also on a hot streak with the MCU, The Lego Movie and Jurassic World.
05:34Their combined star power seemed unstoppable. But by the end of this sci-fi romance, audiences
05:39didn't want to see their characters end up together. Lacklustre word of mouth spread,
05:56with even Lawrence later citing it as a misfire. Will Smith, Wild Wild West.
06:01Ah, how about this? You can come as my manservant. Oh, why yes sir, Master Gordon. Oh, I swear
06:07as I'd be delighted. I sang, I'll dance for you sir. Will Smith had a natural progression from music
06:13artist to sitcom actor to movie star with the original Bad Boys, between the back-to-back releases
06:18of Independence Day and Men in Black. Smith was starting to gain a reputation as the king of summer
06:23blockbusters. You know what the difference is between you and me? I make this look good.
06:31His crown was exchanged for a cowboy hat in Wild Wild West, easily the biggest mistake of his career
06:36up to that point. In addition to getting torn apart by critics, the box office returns failed
06:40to justify an obscene $170 million budget. We'd never recast Keanu Reeves as Neo, but we would like
06:58to see the alternate reality where Smith decided to do the Matrix instead. Nobody wants to visit that
07:03universe more than Smith. Tom Hanks, The Lady Killers.
07:06Allow me to present myself formally. Goldthwaite Higginson Doher, PhD.
07:14Throughout the 90s and early 2000s, Tom Hanks could do no wrong. His movies didn't just routinely
07:19rake in the big bucks, they were known for picking up at least a few Oscar nominations. Hanks himself won
07:24two consecutively with Philadelphia and Forrest Gump.
07:27My mom always said, life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.
07:36Where Hanks' exaggerated southern accent as Forrest was a big swing that paid off,
07:40the same can't be said for his cringe-worthy performance as Goldthwaite Higginson Doher
07:45in The Lady Killers. Everyone in this dark comedy tried way too hard, while somehow not trying hard
07:50enough. A disappointment from Hanks was one thing, but even the biggest Coen Brothers fans would
08:05single this out as their worst film. Thankfully, it wouldn't take the Coens or Hanks long to get
08:10back on track. Scarlett Johansson, Ghost in the Shell.
08:13Listen to me. I was never in a terrorist bombing. My parents, everything was data they installed in
08:22my mind. Scarlett Johansson's career couldn't be going better now, becoming the highest grossing
08:26lead actor of all time. Between her tenure as Black Widow and recent success with Jurassic World,
08:31there was a huge outlier in an otherwise mostly spotless record. The 2017 adaptation of Ghost in the
08:36Shell wasn't another case of great actor starring in a doomed project. Johansson was the main issue,
08:41being cast as a Caucasian cyborg who was originally a young Japanese woman.
08:45You wouldn't be here. You wouldn't exist if it weren't for those experiments.
08:49Experiments? Is that what I am to you?
08:54The mentality might have been that the film needed a star of Johansson's magnitude to be profitable.
08:58Well, the movie didn't make much money anyway. Whether or not it would have been more lucrative
09:02with an Asian star, it was the first time we wished Johansson had declined a role.
09:07She was... fearless.
09:13And wild. You remind me over her.
09:17Robert Downey Jr. Doolittle.
09:19That's a piece of celery. Forceps dropped out.
09:21Oh, sorry. Here you go.
09:24Still celery.
09:24Forceps?
09:25Carrot, that is.
09:27Forceps?
09:28That's a different piece of celery.
09:29Like Johansson, Robert Downey Jr. became one of Hollywood's top grossing actors,
09:33largely thanks to the MCU.
09:34Amid playing Iron Man for over a decade, RDJ also found time for acclaimed performances
09:39in Tropic Thunder and Sherlock Holmes.
09:41There's one odor I can't quite put my finger on.
09:44Is it candy floss?
09:45No, that is.
09:47Maple syrup.
09:48Barley sugar.
09:49After taking a final bow as Tony Stark in Avengers Endgame,
09:53we all wondered how he'd follow up the biggest hit of his career.
09:55By playing proctologist with a dragon, of course.
09:58Doolittle was another lofty payday for Downey, who got $20 million.
10:02The studio didn't see much of a return on their investment, however.
10:05Downey may be in the middle of a new hot streak with his Oscar win for Oppenheimer
10:09and MCU comeback, but his talking animal blunder remains a
10:13what-were-you-thinking facepalm.
10:15Look at the state of you.
10:16You're sick as a dog.
10:18Actually, I have my medicine.
10:20See?
10:20This liquid suit is working a treat.
10:23Sit down, John.
10:25Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
10:29about our latest videos.
10:31You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
10:35If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
10:39Tom Cruise, The Mummy
10:42What's happening?
10:44You know what's happening.
10:49Am I dead?
10:51For almost 40 years, Tom Cruise had been the definition of a movie star.
10:56From original projects like Jerry Maguire, to adaptations of classic stories like War of
11:00the Worlds, to iconic franchises like Mission Impossible,
11:02Cruise is known for selecting projects that create a communal, theater-going experience.
11:07Not many people showed up to the theaters for The Mummy,
11:09but it did unite the internet in collectively dumping on his certified bomb.
11:13It hurts. I know. Let me take pain away.
11:20The Mummy tried to jumpstart a cinematic monster universe, while also trying to play to Cruise's
11:25strengths as an action star. It didn't mesh in a film that strove to check every box,
11:29yet pleased nobody. Least of all audiences who expected better from Cruise after numerous hits.
11:35You're welcome, by the way. How's that? Because I saved your... whatever it is.
11:40That was safely hidden for 5,000 years before you dropped a hellfire missile on it.
11:44And you might never have found it otherwise. Again, you're welcome.
11:48Which actor's hot streak were you sad to see end? Let us know in the comments.
Comments