It has hard to believe that 2016 was seven years ago. The world seemed so different then, back then, that summer felt like the biggest phenomenon was Pokemon Go. Yet, while history does not repeat itself, it does sometimes rhyme. While summer 2016 had, some really big box office hits like Captain America: Civil War, Finding Dory, and Suicide Squad, it also had some notable bombs. In fact, those movies did so well that they likely ate up a lot of the dollars that other movies might have done, resulting in a lot of notable box office bombs.

Updated August 14, 2023: If you like learning more about movies that flopped at the box office, then you'll be glad to know this article was recently updated by Amanda Minchin.

Summer 2016 was notoriously one of the worst years for movies. While the year kicked off with a great deal of excitement, the summer movie season met with subpar movies. While some poorly made and reviewed movies may still manage to clean up at the box office, this clearly wasn't the case in 2016. By the time September rolled around, audiences had had enough. Studios were forced to face the hard truth - spending $100 million to make a blockbuster movie doesn't automatically mean people are going to see it. This is a lesson studios failed to learn, and in 2023, there is a repeat effect happening in the summer where movies with expensive budgets are bombing at the box office.

In the end, the summer of 2016's biggest bombs didn't discriminate. They ranged from failed, long-delayed sequels to massive comic book adaptations and even well-liked movies that simply couldn't find their audience. As summer 2023 draws to a close, look back at summer 2016 and remember some movies you may have forgotten about or never bothered to see. Here are some of the biggest bombs at the box office in the summer of 2016.

13 The Legend of Tarzan

It wasn't until the trailer dropped for The Legend of Tarzan that most audiences even knew a new Tarzan film was in the works. While it would be hard to call this movie a total bomb, its massive budget and marketing campaign are what really sunk the ship. This David Yates movie reportedly cost $180 million to make and grossed just over $355 million worldwide. With a more modest budget, that would have been a success. Unfortunately, with its massive price tag, this is not what the studio was hoping for in return. Even a star-studded cast couldn't save this one.

Related: The Legend of Tarzan: Why Margot Robbie's Forgotten Movie Was a Box Office Bomb

So, what went wrong? For one, Warner Bros. put an awful lot of faith in Yates to hold down the fort alone for a major franchise. Prior to this, he had directed the last four Harry Potter movies, all of which raked it in at the box office and were well-liked to boot. So, why not let him do a Tarzan movie? Unfortunately, the critics just weren't having it. The movie currently sits at a poor 35% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. All told, The Legend of Tarzan certainly wasn't the biggest bomb of the summer, but it was most definitely an avoidable one. Perhaps the production should have been asking if the world truly needed yet another Tarzan remake.

12 The BFG

Notably, The Legend of Tarzan was one of two high profile box office disappointments released over the 4th of July weekend in 2016. The other was The BFG. One would think that a collaboration between legendary director Steven Spielberg, based on IP by Roald Dahl, and with Disney's backing would have resulted in one of the biggest movies of the year. Instead, The BFG was one of the biggest bombs not just of the summer but of the entire year.

A bloated budget, low-key marketing, and unconventional structure spelled disaster for the film upon its release. Despite a cast that included Oscar winner Mark Rylance, The BFG came in at $195 million worldwide. This was a modest toll for any Spielberg movie, one made all the more painful with the $140 million production budget factored in. Also, to show how much money was saved by worldwide audiences, it only brought in $55.5 million domestically, which was only 28% of its box office.

11 The Nice Guys

The Nice Guys was five years two late and more than a nickel short. Although its budget was fairly tight for an action-filled affair at a smooth $50 million, the movie barely scraped in $62.5 million worldwide for its efforts. The movie is a great film, received positive reviews, and, to this day, is considered an underrated detective film. Why did it bomb?

Well, sadly, a movie bombing isn't always based on quality. Sometimes great movies bomb. The audience is just not compelled to go out and see them. The Nice Guys was an original concept, and it is hard to get audiences to turn out for an original movie. In 2016 that seemed even more apparent as many of the biggest movies were sequels, spin-offs, and reboots; with the only original film that was a box office hit was The Secret Life of Pets, and that had the benefit of being an animated movie. Audiences say they want original movies, but The Nice Guys is proof they don't always go out to support them.

10 Ghostbusters

The all-female Paul Feig-directed reboot of Ghostbusters will go down in history as being a first for many things with only the best of intentions. While the film did receive pretty positive reviews upon its release (it currently sits at 73% on Rotten Tomatoes), it also received a deluge of horrendously negative press leading up to its release. To say this certainly didn't help.

Needless to say, a box office smash it was not. Ghostbusters made just shy of $230 million worldwide, which is good for a comedy. Unfortunately, the high $144 million reported production budget made this a pretty big bomb for Sony, who had undoubtedly been hoping to revive the franchise. In the end, didn't break even. The franchise returned with another installment, Ghostbuster: Afterlife, which was a direct sequel to the originals. Notably, Ghostbusters: Afterlife grossed less than the 2016 Ghostbusters, with $204 million worldwide, but even with the COVID-19 pandemic halting some of its gross, it had a smaller budget of $75 million, so it turned a profit.

9 Free State of Jones

Free State of Jones flew under the radar when it was released that summer. The film starred Matthew McConaughey, who had enjoyed a career resurgence in recent years. A civil war drama loosely based on an original story starring McConaughey and directed by Gary Ross, the director of The Hunger Games, must have seemed like a home run on paper. Unfortunately... it wasn't.

While the movie was somewhat protected by its modest $50 million budget, it only made little over half that budget worldwide. What started off as potential Oscar-worthy buzz (it was, after all, based on the true story of Mississippian Newton Knight's little-known revolt against the Confederacy) soon faded off into oblivion. That being said, the film does maintain a middle-of-the-road Tomatometer ranking. Those wanting to know more about this little-known history should give this film a watch.

8 Kubo and the Two Strings

Kubo and the Two Strings received some fairly high praise upon its release, and with good reason. The story followed a young boy on a quest to find a suit of armor worn by his late father. Unfortunately, this same praise failed to translate into box office dollars. The film earned a cool $76 million against a $60 million budget. While not an outright flop, it was a disappointment, and domestically only grossed $48 million.

Still, this stop-motion animated feature deserved far more than its two Oscar nominations. Stop-motion artistry aside, the film featured an all-star cast, from Charlize Theron and Matthew McConaughey to Ralph Fiennes, Rooney Mara, and even George Takei. It was behind-the-scenes cast and crew replacements and a minuscule marketing budget that spelled trouble for this production's hopes of a box office hit. But, if the 97% Tomatometer reading is any indication, this film is 100% worth a watch.

7 Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

Not everything Lonely Island touches turns to gold, and Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping is one example of just that in terms of the box office. Released nearly a decade after the spoof Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, the film seems to have been inspired by the music industry, though elements of it are eerily similar to the rise of Justin Bieber. The singer's first film, titled Never Say Never, was released nearly half a decade earlier.

While this correlation has been vehemently denied by the creators, it's hard not to see the resemblance. While arguably more in the styles of rap and hip hop, respectively, once the marketing team was through with the picture, it was hard not to think that the film was a straight up Bieber-parody.

With a popular music comedy act at the helm (with millions of views for their music videos) alongside dozens of celebrity cameos, it's surprising that this film never quite came to fruition. In the end, it's nearly $10 million in earnings made up for only half of its $20 million budget. Considered a vastly underseen and underrated comedy by some, this musical mockumentary is still well worth a watch.

6 Independence Day: Resurgence

While it may not be the most outrageous box office bomb of summer 2016, Independence Day: Resurgence very well could be the single most disappointing movie of the season. It wasn't that the long-awaited sequel to Roland Emmerich's alien blockbuster came too late, though that certainly didn't help. To put it simply, it just wasn't that good. In fact, by many accounts, it was downright atrocious. While no one would ever accuse the original Independence Day of being a cinematic masterpiece (outside its killer effects), it sure was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, Resurgence failed to capture just a fraction of that magic.

Related: Why June Was Filled With Box Office Bombs

To be fair, it was rewritten in two weeks after Will Smith dropped out. Not surprisingly, the film was trashed by critics on arrival. The movie currently sits at a very poor 29% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and only has a 30% approval rating from audiences. Resurgence failed to make anywhere near what the original made back in 1996, only grossing about $390 million from a $165 million budget. To give moviegoers an idea of just how far the film franchise had fallen, the original made $817 million worldwide from a $75 million budget... and that's not adjusted for inflation.

5 Warcraft

2016 was the year of failed franchises. Unfortunately, the long-awaited Warcraft proved no different. Based on World of Warcraft or WoW, the popular MMORPG has been romanticized and publicized all over TV, from The Big Bang Theory to South Park. It was only a matter of time before the clout would make it to the big screen.

With a combined production and promotional budget of $270 million, the film needed to earn over $450 million to turn a profit. Its domestic opening of just over $24 million dashed any and all hopes of this. While its international earnings blew this figure out of the water, the combined $440 million in earnings failed to muster.

So, why did this film fail? While fans applauded the attempt, too much was shoved into too little a space. The result was too much attention to surface-level details. Were this film a TV series instead, the reaction might very well have been different. As a result of its heinous outing, diehards will have to wait just a little longer to see their favorite characters on screen once more.

4 Alice Through the Looking Glass

Back in 2010, Tim Burton delivered a truly massive hit for Disney with his live-action remake of Alice in Wonderland. The film went on to gross more than $1 billion worldwide, which was a tremendous accomplishment back in the 2010 landscape. From there, it was only a matter of time until a sequel was made. That sequel, however, took its sweet time to make it to the screen. When it finally did arrive in the summer of 2016, it was not the repeated success that Disney was hoping for.

Alice Through the Looking Glass had a similarly huge budget to its predecessor, at a reported $170 million, but it barely made a fraction of what the original raked in. All told, Alice Through the Looking Glass only managed to make just shy of $300 million worldwide. To give fans an idea of just how mind-blowingly low this is, the original made more than that domestically.

It is hard to know who or what to blame here. Perhaps it was too little too late, and it had been six years since the original. Also, while the 2010 film was a box office hit, it also was not fondly remembered, and most of its success could be attributed to being the first film to cash in on the 3D craze after Avatar, so the demand for a sequel was never there. Or, maybe it was just a bad movie (it does currently sit at 29% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an audience score of nearly double that). Either way, this is a rare flub for Disney in 2016 who dominated the year with films like Captain America: Civil War, Finding Dory, The Jungle Book, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

3 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

The first of three high-profile bombs for Paramount in the summer of 2016. While the 2014 Michael Bay-produced reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may not have provided much fan service, it sure as anything made a whole heck of a lot of money. The film grossed just shy of $500 million worldwide on a $125 million budget. So, when the idea for a sequel was rolled around, it seemed like a pretty good idea.

Unfortunately, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows cost even more to make (an estimated $135 million) and brought in a lot less money. The movie finished its box office run at just $245 million worldwide. All in all, Paramount took a pretty big hit on this one.

The problem was that while the first film was a hit, the poor reaction rubbed off on the second movie, and audiences were not willing to return. Most fans do agree that the sequel is better than the first film, but that is not saying much. Paramount really needed a franchise to cling to, but it looks like the turtle power wore off pretty quickly. Thankfully, Seth Rogen's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem venture has had better luck. Turns out that sticking to the source material is actually a good thing!

2 Star Trek Beyond

Star Trek Beyond proved another crushing blow for Paramount in 2016, though you'd never know it from its 86% Rotten Tomatoes score. It maintains the distinction of being one of the best-reviewed movies of the year. This is due, perhaps in part, to the wave of good faith the previous two entries built up with audiences. Unfortunately, it just didn't make money as it should have. The film made just over $340 million worldwide compared to its high $185 million reported production budget. Factoring in a massive marketing campaign, Paramount will be lucky to break even on this franchise entry.

Did this film crash and burn on the wave of rehashed IP? Perhaps. In a year when a lot of bad movies made an awful lot of money, it's a shame to see Star Trek Beyond not making what it could. Other notable factors is Star Trek: Beyond opened the same weekend as Comic-Con 2016, and its target fanbase might not have been able to attend the opening weekend. The other unexpected thing was that a little series titled Stranger Things premiered a week prior and was taking the world by storm, so some audience members might have stayed home instead of paying to go to the movies.

While Paramount had high hopes, having already announced a fourth installment at the time, the poor performance of Beyond put this idea on the back burner, and they are still struggling to make Star Trek 4. Luckily, Paramount seems to have bounced back a bit with its reemergence into the TV space with the popular franchise.

1 Ben-Hur

Hollywood is obsessed with remakes, but there are some things that simply shouldn't be touched. The all-time cinematic classic Ben-Hur is one of them. The 1959 Ben-Hur is largely considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made. Those are some big shoes to fill, which the 2016 film did not live up to. Unfortunately, the 2016 version was trashed by critics. Ben-Hur raked in just $94 million worldwide on a reported $100 million budget, with most of its sales coming from the international market.

This epic flop was the last thing that Paramount needed. The studio behind Ben-Hur must have thought they had a new Gladiator on their hands. Instead, they wound up with one of the most tremendously awful box office flops of 2016. With Ben-Hur, Star Trek: Beyond, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, summer 2016 was terrible for Paramount and almost spelled doom for the studio. Thankfully they have rebounded in recent years but things looked really bleak there for a moment.