Adapted films—movies that borrow their storylines from best‑selling novels, comics, plays, TV shows, or even other movies—don’t always translate to box‑office gold. Sometimes the source material’s fame masks a cinematic disaster, and the flop can be so spectacular that the title never sees a sequel.

Why Adapted Films Flop

From endless rewrites to budget nightmares, a perfect storm of creative missteps can turn a promising project into a cautionary tale. Below are ten of the most infamous adapted movies that missed the mark in spectacular fashion.

10 Catwoman2004

Catwoman, the feline‑flavored burglar from DC Comics, made a cameo in 1992’s Batman Returns before getting her own solo outing in 2004. The result? A film widely condemned as the worst superhero movie ever made.

The production was a script‑writer’s nightmare: 28 different writers re‑wrote the story, turning the iconic Selina Kyle into a graphic designer named Patience Phillip. In the movie, Phillip is killed after uncovering a sinister anti‑aging cream, only to be resurrected by the breath of a cat belonging to an Egyptian goddess—leaving her with a literal cat‑like appetite and a penchant for rain‑dodging.

Box‑office numbers were bleak: the film earned less than its $100 million budget. It also swept the Golden Raspberry Awards, winning Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay, and Halle Berry took home Worst Actress. During her acceptance, Berry thanked Warner Bros. for casting her in “this piece‑of‑sh—, God‑awful film.”

9 BattlefieldEarth2000

Set in the year 3000, Battlefield Earth imagines an alien regime forcing humans to mine gold. The film is based on L. Ron Hubbard’s novel and quickly became a punchline, with critic Roger Ebert likening it to “a bus trip with someone who has needed a bath for a long time.”

Production woes began with a script penned by the founder of Scientology himself. Major studios balked at the $100 million price tag, so Franchise Pictures and Intertainment AG stepped in with a $55 million deal—only to later inflate the budget to $80 million through fraud.

Even with a shoestring lighting budget and John Travolta personally pitching $5 million, the movie flopped. It bankrupted Trendmaster, the toy maker that expected $50 million in sales. Scriptwriter J.D. Shapiro later apologized, calling it the “suckiest of all sucky films,” and revealed he’d been seeking women at a Scientology branch when he got involved.

8 MyraBreckinridge1970

Gore Vidal’s novel Myra Breckinridge was turned into a 1970 film about a transgender woman chasing stardom. The movie was labeled a “sexual freak show” and earned an X rating for its explicit content, including a notorious rape scene where the trans heroine assaults a male colleague.

Beyond the shocking material, the film lifted footage from several earlier movies, prompting legal threats from those casts. The resulting controversy nearly sank 20th Century Fox and derailed the careers of many involved.

7 TheWizardOfOz1939

While today’s audiences adore The Wizard of Oz, its 1939 debut was a modest flop, pulling in only $200 000 over its $2.8 million budget. Production was chaotic: five directors rotated through the project, twelve scriptwriters tinkered with the story, and at one point the film’s magic was stripped entirely.

Tragedy struck on set. Buddy Ebsen, the original Tin Man, nearly died when aluminum dust from his costume entered his lungs. Margaret Hamilton suffered two fire accidents as the Wicked Witch, and her stunt double, Betty Danko, was also burned. Even Toto the dog wasn’t spared—his jaw was broken when a crew member stepped on him.

The movie finally found commercial success two decades later when CBS aired it in 1959, cementing its place in pop culture.

6 SupermanIVTheQuestForPeace1987

The Superman franchise peaked with its first three films, but the fourth installment, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, is universally reviled. The Washington Post called it “more sluggish than a funeral barge.”

Budget constraints were glaring: the movie was made for $17 million, a fraction of the $55 million spent on the original. Cannon Films, known for low‑budget productions, took over the rights, and the UK shoot was peppered with red‑painted fire hydrants, hot‑dog vendors, and a prop bag proclaiming “I Love NY.”

The plot centers on Lex Luthor’s creation of Nuclear Man, a Superman clone who wrecks landmarks—including the Great Wall of China—before battling on the Moon. The film’s love‑interest, Lacy of the Daily Planet, survives space travel without any protective gear, a detail that raised eyebrows even among casual viewers.

5 Batman&Robin1997

The 1997 entry Batman & Robin attempted to cap off the Schumacher‑era Batman series but instead nearly killed the franchise. The film’s tone was off‑kilter, featuring Batman flaunting a themed credit card and gambling for a night with Poison Ivy.

Perhaps the most talked‑about misstep was the inclusion of rubber nipples on both Batman’s and Robin’s costumes—an odd design choice that many fans deemed “too sexy for Batman.” Director Joel Schumacher faced a wave of criticism, later joking that his gravestone would read “the man who put nipples on Batman’s suit.”

4 RaiseTheTitanic1980

Clive Cussler’s novel Raise the Titanic was adapted into a 1980 film about a fictional mission to lift the infamous ship. With a $30 million budget, the movie only recouped $7 million, prompting producer Lord Grade to quip, “It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic.”

After watching Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark the following year, Cussler reportedly wept, vowing never to allow another adaptation of his work without full creative control over casting and script.

3 HowardTheDuck1986

Marvel’s first comic‑book movie, Howard the Duck, introduced audiences to a rude, sexist alien duck. Production was rushed to meet a 1986 summer deadline, resulting in major deviations from the source material.

Howard’s human girlfriend, originally a nude model, was reimagined as a rock musician. The duck’s lips barely moved, and voice work was added after filming wrapped, creating a disjointed performance. The film earned $16 million against a $37 million budget.

Director George Lucas, who also helmed Indiana Jones and Star Wars, was forced to sell assets to cover debts, including a nascent computer‑animation studio that Steve Jobs later purchased and renamed Pixar.

2 TheGarbagePailKidsMovie1987

The Garbage Pail Kids trading cards—popular among 1980s boys for their grotesque humor—spawned a 1987 film. While the cards were a hit with kids, adults found them revolting, leading many schools to ban them.

The movie featured the characters as odd‑looking, doll‑like children and was a box‑office disaster, grossing only $1.5 million on a $30 million budget. A planned 13‑episode TV series was scrapped, eventually seeing a DVD release in 2006.

1 TheLastAirbender2010

Nickelodeon’s beloved animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender was reimagined as a live‑action film in 2010. The flop stemmed from a miscast ensemble and a script that stripped away the series’ signature humor and action.

Director M. Night Shyamalan assembled an all‑white cast for heroes originally depicted as Asian and Inuit, while casting Indian actors as the Fire Nation villains. This sparked the “Racebending” boycott movement, accusing the film of cultural erasure. Shyamalan defended his choices, claiming he couldn’t be racist because he wasn’t white, and insisted the movie was aimed at nine‑year‑olds, not adults.

The result was a critical and commercial disaster that left fans yearning for a faithful adaptation.

You’d think it’s safe to assume that some businesses aren’t going anywhere. From Coca-Cola and Nike to Apple and Microsoft, these businesses seem more like permanent structures than vulnerable companies right now. But take a picture and make a Xerox of it—or share it on your Myspace page—because these moments don’t last forever.

Many businesses grow and grow until they seem too big to fail. Here is a list of ten companies that thought they were too big to fail, but then they ended up doing just that. Many of the companies on our list have recognizable names, and all have made a major impact, but ultimately, they totally flopped!

Related: 10 Insanely Popular Companies That Nearly Went Bankrupt

10 Kodak

Kodak started back in the 19th century in 1888. Throughout the majority of the 1900s, Kodak was the dominant leader in the photography and film industry. Kodak became associated with photography and film of all kinds. Their slogan “Kodak moment” is still ingrained in our culture and sometimes heard today. A “Kodak moment” was something worth remembering by taking a picture, and Kodak was a giant in the photography industry until digital photography emerged.

Despite developing the first digital film camera back in 1975, Kodak never fully embraced digital photography. Kodak failed to innovate quickly enough and was outpaced by its competitors. Kodak created some innovative technologies but was unable to market them effectively to the public. Kodak acquired a photo-sharing website called Ofoto in 2001. However, Kodak was ineffective in using this technology to further its brand. Due to a general lack of adaptability, Many competitors caught Kodak off guard, notably Canon and Nikon, forcing the company to file for bankruptcy in 2012.

Though Kodak reformed in 2013, it will never again achieve the market dominance it attained in the 20th century. The newly formed Kodak is far smaller and now serves primarily commercial clients.

9 Xerox

When someone says “Xerox,” you know what they mean. A Xerox machine is just another word for a copy machine, like Kleenex is another word for a tissue. That’s how influential of a company Xerox was in their heyday. In 1959, Xerox launched the first commercially available photocopier.

The Xerox 914 photocopier was a truly revolutionary product. According to the National Museum of American History, the Xerox 914 was fast and economical, creating 100,000 copies per month. The National Museum of American History describes the Xerox 914 as one of the most successful Xerox products ever. The machine weighs a whopping 648 pounds. This just goes to show you how much copying technology has improved since this time.

The Xerox 914 earned Xerox over $500 million in revenue by 1965. However, Xerox didn’t stay at the top of the mountain forever. Xerox employees invented many early elements of personal computers, but the company wasn’t focused on computing. Some concepts designed by Xerox employees were given away to Apple and Microsoft. At no cost.

Apple and Microsoft developed these technologies and then marketed them to consumers. This strategic blunder left Xerox behind, while Apple and Microsoft have become the behemoths of the tech world that we know today.

8 Polaroid

Another film photography company that plummeted is Polaroid. Founded in 1937, this company is best known for its instant film and cameras. It’s easy—just point, shoot, and shake the photograph. At the time, this was a very cool invention since film took a significant amount of time to develop. However, an innovation came along that completely took away Polaroid’s major advantage: digital photography.

Unfortunately, Polaroid didn’t innovate its products effectively. Polaroid Corporation was declared bankrupt in 2001. Oddly, Polaroid was most popular in the early ’90s, hitting its peak revenue in 1991. Still, Polaroids are often referred to in popular culture, including by the group OutKast. Though not the giant it was, the brand has left its mark on popular culture.

7 Yahoo!

Yahoo! The company that’s so exciting, they added an exclamation point to their name. You can’t even read the name without hearing their famous “Yahooooooooo!”

Yahoo! was a powerhouse in the internet revolution. In 2016, Yahoo! was the sixth most visited website in the world. In 2011, Yahoo! was the third-largest email provider worldwide. Today…not so much.

Yahoo! is still holding on but has lost a lot of ground in the last decade. Google, Facebook, and others have pushed Yahoo! out of the market. Reportedly, Yahoo had a deal in place to buy both Google (in 2002) and Facebook (in 2006). Yahoo! didn’t follow through on either deal and continues to struggle in the wake of the two giants. Yahoo! may have been an early tech giant, but due to some poor strategy and mismanagement, its yodle has fizzled.

6 MySpace

If you were a teen in the mid to late 2000s, you know all about MySpace. MySpace launched in 2003 with a top friends list, custom homepages, and walls. These were all huge features at the time, and MySpace was the first truly major social networking site (sorry, Friendster).

MySpace excelled because it offered users customization and a chance to connect with their network of friends. It also allowed for bands, comedians, and other artists to use their pages to promote themselves. In 2006, MySpace was the most visited website in the world.

In case you have not checked your MySpace page lately, this is no longer the case. Thanks to Facebook and some other social media sites, MySpace was driven out. MySpace was purchased twice, first in 2005 by News Corporation, then by Time, Inc. in 2011. MySpace is still an active website but is used almost exclusively by bands and musical artists for promotion.

In 2007, it would have been laughable to suggest MySpace would totally flop. However, the first social media giant was not too big to fail after all. In 2019, MySpace embarrassingly lost 12 years of music and other uploaded content. That’s a good way to get moved off the top friend’s list.

5 Sears

Sears used to be synonymous with the retail industry. Founded in Illinois in the late 19th century, Sears began selling watches and developed to sell just about everything. From 1969 to 1989, Sears was the largest retailer in the United States. However, competition from the likes of Target, Wal-Mart, and eventually online retailers like Amazon, began to garner more market shares.

In 2005, Sears acquired K-Mart. But this acquisition seemed to do little to help the business get back on track.

With a general lack of innovation, particularly in the realm of e-commerce, Sears has been almost wiped off the map. Sears only had 182 stores in 2018, far less than the 3500 Sears stores nationwide in 2008. And in 1990, Sears and Walmart were generating similar amounts of revenue. However, Walmart took a more strategic approach (targeting discount shoppers) and eventually pushed Sears far out of the picture.

4 BlackBerry

A relatively young company for this list, BlackBerry was founded in 1984. BlackBerry was one of the first major smartphones, selling more than 50 million units at its peak in 2011. According to Business Insider, BlackBerry once controlled 50% of the smartphone market in the United States.

President Barack Obama even used a BlackBerry. Of course, five years after its peak in 2011, BlackBerry stopped manufacturing phones altogether.

The reasons for this flop are many. BlackBerry devices had a very small keyboard. In 2011, this was a usable and innovative technology. However, as smartphones have developed, all of them have adapted to use touch-screen technology. BlackBerry never made this adjustment. Despite the extreme popularity of their early models, BlackBerry was simply never able to keep up with the innovation of its competitors. Even Obama doesn’t use his BlackBerry anymore.

3 Blockbuster

Blockbuster was a staple if you grew up in the late ’80s or ’90s. An iconic brand, Blockbuster was the go-to for movie nights at home—the giant of video rental. At its peak, Blockbuster had over 9000 stores, but now it has only one.

See, Blockbuster made one huge strategic error.

In 2000, Netflix (a small, struggling streaming innovator at the time) offered to sell their company to Blockbuster for $50 million. Blockbuster refused the deal and instead invested their money elsewhere. Obviously, this was a devastating decision for Blockbuster.

The launch of Redbox in 2004 was just another nail in the coffin. Blockbuster went from the biggest name in rental to a punchline in movies in just a couple of short decades.

2 Borders

Borders was a book and music store founded in 1971. It was a juggernaut in the media industry for years. Unfortunately, due to a series of errors, this iconic bookstore went from “too big to fail” to “failed” in a Thanos-esque snap.

First, they were too slow to innovate e-commerce. This allowed companies like Amazon and Overstock.com to slowly take their market share. Borders also opened too many brick-and-mortar locations. According to Time, 70 percent of their stores were competing directly with a nearby Barnes and Noble.

Finally, Borders was taking on too much debt. At the time of the recession, Borders owed about $350 million. The company was never able to clear this debt and closed down its stores nationwide.

1 Toys “R” Us

Toys “R” Us was a toy store that was made for kids. In the late ’90s, Toys “R” Us was the largest toy retailer in the United States. It was every child’s wonderland, heralded by a lovable giraffe named Geoffrey. That is, they were until this iconic company was edged out by Walmart as the largest toy retailer.

Toys “R” Us pivoted to e-commerce through a partnership with Amazon, signing a ten-year deal to become their exclusive toy provider in 2000. At this time, toysrus.com would redirect to amazon.com.

Big mistake, Geoffrey.

Amazon became the top online destination for toys and sold toys of their own as well. Toys “R” Us eventually sued to get out of their contract, but at that point, it was too late. Toys “R” Us was a toy giant at one time. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned from fairy tales, it’s that giants usually fall down.