Yahoo News 10 actors who followed a huge smash with a massive flop
After starring in a mega hit, you would forgive an actor for being on top of the world.
But the public are fickle, and one box office smash does not guarantee that your next effort won't be completely ignored.
1. Johnny Depp
Hit: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides ($1,045,713,802)
Flop: The Rum Diary ($23,947,544)
Pirates of the Caribbean is the franchise that refuses to die, and even the fourth film cracked the billion-dollar mark.
Next up, Johnny Depp jumped from Disney to arty with his second Hunter S Thompson adaptation (after Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), The Rum Diary. It barely made back half its budget.
2. Tom Hanks
Hit: Toy Story 3 ($1,066,969,703)
Flop: Larry Crowne ($72,008,245)
It's no easy matter to pinpoint the most beloved Tom Hanks film of all time, but who is going to argue that Toy Story 3 isn't in the running? It also made over $1 billion.
Hanks hasn't had many notable flops in his time, but he sadly decided to star in and direct romantic comedy Larry Crowne (with Julia Roberts along for the ride). It struggled at the box office and was widely branded 'bland'.
3. Jennifer Lawrence
Hit: X-Men: Days of Future Past ($747,862,775)
Flop: Serena ($5,075,622)
Jennifer Lawrence cut her blockbuster teeth on the X-Men franchise, and Days of Future Past remains her high point in the series (it was also the highest grossing, until Deadpool came along).
Next up for Lawrence was Serena, in which she reunited with her Silver Linings Playbook co-star Bradley Cooper. The film had been on the shelf for two years, and when it finally came out people stopped wondering why. The $5 million it made at the box office was a fraction of its budget, and let's just say it didn't bag Lawrence a second Oscar.
4. Bradley Cooper
Hit: Guardians of the Galaxy ($773,328,629)
Flop: Serena ($5,075,622)
It's strange to think that the three-times-in-a-row Academy Award nominee's best film in recent years has been the one where he plays an animated space raccoon. But that's the way it goes, sometimes.
Guardians of the Galaxy was Marvel's surprise hit of 2014. As we've already learned, Serena wasn't anyone's surprise hit of anything.
5. Harrison Ford
Hit: Raiders of the Lost Ark ($389,925,971)
Flop: Blade Runner ($27,580,111)
Raiders of the Lost Ark is a stone-cold classic, and arguably one of Harrison Ford's best films.
Blade Runner is also a stone-cold classic, and arguably one of Harrison Ford's best films – but it struggled at the box office, and only achieved cult status after a few years, some alternate ends and a director's cut.
6. Will Smith
Hit: Suicide Squad ($745,600,054)
Flop: Collateral Beauty ($84,016,021)
Will Smith has had a hard time in the last few years, thanks to notorious stinkers like After Earth and A New York Winter's Tale. But whatever you thought about Suicide Squad (and we thought quite a lot), $745 million in box office takings is nothing to sniff at. He was also one of the better things about the DC movie.
His luck was fleeting, however, as his next film was Collateral Beauty, which the critics tore into tiny pieces that even an all-star cast including Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet and Naomie Harris couldn't put back together again. It didn't completely tank, but it struggled.
7. Chris Hemsworth
Hit: Thor: The Dark World ($644,571,402)
Flop: Blackhat ($19,652,057)
The second Thor film is unlikely to top anyone's 'best MCU films' list, but even Christopher Eccleston's Malekith the Accursed couldn't stop it from earning a very healthy $645 million.
Hemsworth's next movie, Michael Mann's cyber thriller Blackhat, was a notorious flop taking in less than $20 million on a $70 million budget. Rotten Tomatoes' consensus declared it "dramatically inert" and a "muddled misfire". Ouch.
8. Christian Bale
Hit: The Dark Knight Rises ($1,084,939,099)
Flop: Out of the Furnace ($15,660,668)
The Dark Knight was the most acclaimed of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, but, at $1,084 million, The Dark Knight Rises was the biggest financial success.
With Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Zoe Saldana, Forest Whitaker and Willem Dafoe joining Bale, Out of the Furnace had plentiful indie cred and wasn't badly received... except at the box office, where it fell over $6 million short of its $22 million budget.
9. Sigourney Weaver
Hit: Alien ($104,931,801)
Flop: Eyewitness ($6,400,000)
1979's Alien established Sigourney Weaver as the only person you've ever heard of called Sigourney... oh, and one of Hollywood's most bankable and beloved stars.
But her next movie – which cast her as a plucky young reporter opposite William Hurt – reviewed well but foundered at the box office, failing to recoup its $8.5 million budget.
10. Mark Ruffalo
Hit: The Avengers ($1,518,812,988)
Flop: Thanks for Sharing ($1,065,881)
Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner was one of the greatest surprises of Joss Whedon's Avengers, in a quiet and loveable way holding his own against his already established superhero co-stars.
We don't know the budget for his follow-up, Thanks for Sharing, in which he starred opposite Gwyneth Paltrow and Pink (yes, that Pink), but we doubt its tiny takings recouped the cost of the sexual addiction rom-com.
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