No one sets out to make a bad movie. The amount of work, blood, sweat, and tears in movie-making is immense. As such, when a film finds excellent commercial success, it's easy to be happy for the filmmakers as their hard work pays off. Even if viewers aren't fond of the film personally, to see someone's hard work find success is usually great.
While the list of the highest-grossing movies is full of some of the most well-received films of all time, it's not hard to find other films which have made a ridiculous amount of money that are arguably worse quality. How much someone enjoys a movie is subjective, but sometimes even the most positive filmgoer can find some head-stretching entries on the list of box office hits.
10 Alice In Wonderland Was The Kind of Movie No Studio Would Make Anymore
$1,025,468,216 Worldwide Gross
With hits like Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and Batman, Tim Burton made a name for himself with his unique fantastical stories and distinct directing style in the 1990s. The early to mid-2000s, however, proved to be a difficult era for Burton — at least in terms of critical reception. One of Burton's last big projects was 2010's Alice in Wonderland.
Starring regular collaborator Johnny Depp, Alice in Wonderland might be one of the most surprising entries on the list of movies that have made over a billion dollars worldwide. While the movie was a no-doubt commercial success, it was heavily criticized for its visuals, performances, direction, and messy screenplay.
9 The Lion King (2019) Added Another Soulless Entry Into Disney's Collection Of Live-Action Remakes
$1,663,075,401 Worldwide Gross
Since Disney began buying more film studios, many Disney fans felt the studios' animated ventures needed to match the quality of some of their earlier classics. With these criticisms in mind, Disney decided to do live-action remakes of its beloved animated movies. While all their live-action retellings fail compared to their animated originals, The Lion King remake might be the worst.
Directed by Jon Favreau, 2019's The Lion King is a shot-for-shot "remake" of the original that lacks any of the charms of the animated Lion King classic. The Lion King (2019) feels the most artistically shallow of Disney's live-action productions, with all the creative and beautiful animation replaced with impressive CGI that doesn't convey the same level of emotion as the original.
8 Minions Is A Dreadfully Annoying Film That Lacks Artistic Purpose
$1,159,444,662 Worldwide Gross
Illumination has quickly grown from obscure animation studios to on par with Dreamworks or even Pixar. Following the first Despicable Me released in 2010, the studio has made some of the highest-grossing animated features of the decade. One of their most commercially successful yet inferior films was 2016's Minions.
A spin-off of the popular Despicable Me characters, Minions was a movie made for a particular audience: very young kids. This good business strategy doesn't make for the kind of film that is well-received, primarily when other animated features are aimed towards both kids and adults. Despite not going over well critically, Minions was a massive box office hit.
7 Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise Of Skywalker Managed To Be Even More Poorly Received
$1,074,149,279 Worldwide Gross
It's fair to say the Star Wars sequel trilogy has been nothing short of a colossal failure for Lucas Films, at least in terms of critical response. While many of the six ladder Star Wars films could be considered the worst, it's Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker that might be the lowest point of a franchise with plenty of low points.
Following the highly polarizing yet disastrous Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Disney needed a miracle for The Rise of Skywalker to end the trilogy with at least a moderately satisfying conclusion. Unfortunately, such a task proved too tricky for J.J. Abrams and company. Star Wars fans view the Rise of Skywalker as a disappointing entry in the multi-billion dollar franchise.
6 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom's Script Is A Jumbled Mess
$1,310,466,296 Worldwide Gross
2015's Jurassic World was nothing short of an immense success for Universal and Legendary Pictures, even if the film didn't blow away critics. Riding the nostalgia wave of the original films along with the star power of Chris Pratt, Jurassic World opened a wide range of directions for the franchise. Unfortunately, the next film in the franchise wasn't as well received as Universal hoped.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, released in 2018, was once again a massive financial success but was heavily criticized by critics and audiences. Even with Chris Pratt again giving a solid performance, critics found fault with the film's pacing and screenplay. While these criticisms did little to stop the movie from being a huge commercial hit, it was viewed as a critical low point.
5 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 Was The Final Entry In A Franchise That Broke Box Offices For Years
$848,853,382 Worldwide Gross
Before actor Robert Pattinson took up the mantle of the caped crusader in the universally praised 2022 film The Batman, he delivered dreadful dialogue in the vampire romance Twilight Saga movies. The Twilight Saga franchise is a series of poorly written novels by Stephanie Meyer that turned into poorly received films.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 is viewed by many as the most flawed film in the series. Much like the books, the Twilight Saga of movies was met with a highly negative reception but managed to be an immensely successful financial venture. Grossing over $3.3 billion altogether, the Twilight Saga is one of the most commercially successful film series in history.
4 Suicide Squad Remains The Worst Of DC's Poorly Made Early Movies
$746,846,894 Worldwide Gross
It's fair to label any Zack Snyder-led DC Cinematic Universe movies as swing-and-misses from DC's early attempts at building their universe. The slate of movies released by the polarizing director was so disastrous that DC was forced to go with a James Gunn-led reset in 2022. However, 2016's Suicide Squad might be the low point of DC's early offerings to copy Marvel's winning formula.
While many people found Suicide Squad to be an enjoyable flick, the consensus among critics was that the movie was underwhelming. Many fans point to the reported heavy studio inference and claim director David Ayer's original cut would be an improvement. Despite that, the movie's poor reception resulted in Gunn being given the reins for a sequel.
3 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Killed Sony's Hope Of Spider-Man Solo Film Universe
$708,982,323 Worldwide Gross
Before Tom Holland took over the neighborhood-friendly Spider-Man as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sony was desperately clinging onto the IP in hopes of creating a new trilogy that replicated the success of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films. After The Amazing Spider-Man's release, Sony doubled on creating a massive Spider-Man universe to rival Marvel.
Unfortunately, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was horribly panned by critics and audiences. While many superhero movies can still be classified as successful if they gross a lot of money, The Amazing Spider-Man 2's reception was so poor it ended any hopes for Sony. Luckily for Andrew Garfield, his portrayal of Peter Parker shined in 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home.
2 Transformers: Age Of Extinction Was The Worst Film Of Michael Bay's Transformers Franchise
$1,104,054,072 Worldwide Gross
Michael Bay's series of Transformers films might be the number one example when people think of terrible movies that are only made because of their high box office numbers. While all Michael Bay-directed Transformers films generally have unfavorable reviews and audience scores, Transformers: Age of Extinction is considered by many fans as the worst of the five movies.
Age of Extinction was a semi-reboot for a new trilogy and was coming off of what might've been the high point of the trilogy with Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon. Unfortunately, all the problematic elements of Michael Bay's previous movies were dialed up to eleven, effectively marking the beginning of the end for Michael Bay as the director of this franchise.
1 Fifty Shades Of Grey Was The Beginning Of The Critically Panned Trilogy
$569,651,467 Worldwide Gross
Beginning as Twilight fan fiction written by E.L. James, the consensus around Fifty Shades of Grey was that if it turned into a film, it would likely be met with negative critical reviews. Yet, it still might be a surprise to the filmmakers just how many critics and audiences ravaged the movie.
Despite the terrible reception, the movie was a box office hit thanks to its particular focus on middle-aged women. People pointed towards a messy screenplay, terrible dialogue, wooden acting, and unlikeable characters as why the first Fifty Shades of Grey was one of 2015's worst films. The first movie's success eventually spawned two equally bad sequels that were also box-office hits