The Breakdown of Box Office Flops - 'Drive Angry', 'Speed Racer', 'Jupiter Ascending', 'Treasure Planet', 'The Legend of Hercules' and 'Doctor Dolittle'

The box office flop is almost always assumed to be a bad movie, because if it was good, then otherwise people would have flocked to see it. Except that theory puts too much faith in the general public that made Transformers a massive franchise. Big box office hits or failures do not mean anything about a movie's quality. The ignored does not always mean the unworthy. This week it is The Breakdown of the Box Office Flops where we look at several films that did not achieve financial greatness, but we hope to discover are loaded with high quality. One of the favourite things of The Breakdown is to discover those hidden gems, and a collection of films passed over by the majority is a great place to start. We have a pretty diverse slate from a Nicholas Cage grindhouse homage in Drive Angry to two Wachowski flicks to a family musical in Doctor Dolittle to Renny Harlin's The Legend of Hercules to a rare Disney misfire in Treasure Planet. I will spoil things right now, and let you know we praise a few of these movies. As always if you love the show then please spread the word to other movie fans.

Remember you can now subscribe either to The Movie Breakdown feed (a subscription link is at the top right hand of this site) or on iTunes.



The Breakdown Outline:

Drive Angry review 1:14
Speed Racer review 17:59
Jupiter Ascending review 38:10
Treasure Planet review 52:53
The Legend of Hercules review 1:04:10
Doctor Dolittle review 1:18:02
Review Rundown 1:34:26

Rating Rundown:

Drive Angry *** (CS & SM)
Speed Racer ***½ (CS) & ** (SM)
Jupiter Ascending ** (CS) & **½ (SM)
Treasure Planet *** (CS & SM)
The Legend of Hercules ½* (CS) & * (SM)
Doctor Dolittle **½ (CS) & ** (SM)

Summer Box Office Challenge:

Christopher's Picks:

1. Guardian of the Galaxy Vol. 2: $145 049 000 
2. Spider-Man: Homecoming $117 015 000
3. Wonder Woman $100, 505 000
4. Transformers: The First Knight $45 300 000
5. War of the Planet of the Apes $56 50 000
6. Baywatch: $18 100 000
7. The Mummy: $32 246 120
8. The House: $9 000 000
9. Atomic Blonde $18 286 420
10. Captain Underpants $23 500 000
Total: $564 937 540

Scott's Picks:

1. The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: $62 179 000
2. Despicable Me 3: $75 410 275
3. Alien: Covenant $36 000 000
4. Cars 3 $53 547 000
5. Dunkirk $50 500 000
6. Annabelle: Creation
7. Snatched $17 500 000
8. All Eyez on Me $27 050 000
9. The Emoji Movie $24 531 923
10. The Hitman's Bodyguard
Total: $346 718 198