8 Giant Dramas Nobody Can Explain. Who Bought All Those Tickets?

Huge worldwide grosses. Middling scores at best. Somebody kept buying tickets, and today we go looking for the culprits. Check your own receipts first.

Number one made the most money here, and you probably loved it.

1. 8
   Hancock (2008)4.2

   A 4.2 superhero movie made $629 million. Will Smith carried it.

   $629.4 million worldwide on a reported $150M budget, 42% on Rotten Tomatoes. In 2008, Will Smith's name on a poster could sell tickets to a parking lot.
2. 7
   Detective Chinatown 1900 (2025)3.6

   Half a billion dollars, and almost none of it from here.

   $500.3 million worldwide, just $2,229,946 domestic. The movie.guru score is 3.6, the Guru's Take is 5.2. Chow Yun-fat in a period mystery? Fine, I get it.
3. 6
   Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)2.0

   The most-seen movie nobody admits they saw.

   $569.7 million worldwide, a 2.0 movie.guru score, a C+ CinemaScore. People paid, sat through it, then graded it like a soggy group project.
4. 5
   The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)3.0

   Brooding has never been this profitable.

   Reported $50M budget, $714 million worldwide, IMDb 4.8. That's a lot of money for a movie whose main event is staring out a window.
5. 4
   Maleficent (2014)6.1

   Angelina Jolie's horns did all the heavy lifting.

   $759.9 million worldwide, 54% on Rotten Tomatoes. Every scene without Jolie feels like waiting in line for the next scene with Jolie.
6. 3
   The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012)4.9

   The best Twilight here is a 4.9. Sit with that.

   $888.9 million worldwide, the saga's top gross on this list, 49% on Rotten Tomatoes. The A CinemaScore was mostly relief that it was the last one.
7. 2
   Michael (2026)6.2

   Critics shrugged. The world spent a billion dollars anyway.

   38% on Rotten Tomatoes, A− CinemaScore, $1.03 billion worldwide. Critics beat 20% of movies, audiences beat 83%. Biggest critic versus crowd gap on this list.
8. 1
   The Lion King (2019)6.7

   A $1.66 billion remake where nobody's face can emote.

   Reported $250 to 260M budget, $1.66 billion worldwide, 52% on Rotten Tomatoes, Guru's Take 4.9. Scar delivers villain speeches with the expression of a nature documentary.

$1,662 says the first comment defending The Lion King quotes the soundtrack, not the movie.

Share it: X | Facebook | Copy link

Current mood: ready to fight about it