Here’s a list the “10 Biggest Flops of 2011 So Far” as chosen by The Hollywood Reporter.  Two of the films, Green Lantern and Priest were based on comic book material.

 

1. Mars Needs Moms--Robert Zemeckis’ motion-capture animated adaptation of the children’s book by Berkeley Breathed (Bloom County) cost over $150 million to make and earned just $39 million worldwide.  Mars Needs Moms has put the entire category of mo-cap animated feature films on life-support. The question is--can Steven Spielberg’s Tintin movie salvage the format?

 

2. Your Highness—This raunchy comedy set in the Middle Ages (but filled with anachronistic dialogue) cost $50 million to produce, though it has earned less than $25 million.  It wasn’t based on comic, but Dark Horse did produce a comic book adaptation.

 

3. Arthur—Russell Brand’s idiosyncratic comedy stylings couldn’t salvage this remake of the Dudley Moore 1980s comedy, which earned just $45.7 million worldwide versus its $40 million price tag.

 

4. Prom—This “PG” Disney movie is the low-grossing widely released movie of the year so far with a domestic take of just $10.1 million, but at least it only cost $8 million to produce.

 

5. Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer—YA novels are all the rage in Hollywood, but no one will mistake this turkey, which has just earned $13.4 million (against a cost of $20 million) for Harry Potter (or even The Wimpy Kid).

 

6. Green Lantern—With a production cost that went well over $200 million, this film would have to earn half a billion to break even, and it will be lucky to end up with half of that total.  Still such is the lure of establishing a new comic book franchise that a sequel remains a possibility (see “Green Lantern Sequel Still in Doubt”).

 

7. Priest—The genre-melding vampire/western based on a popular manhwa series was the most expensive film ever produced by Sony’s genre arm Screen Gems with a budget of over $60 million.  Unfortunately it has earned only $75.1 million worldwide.

 

8. Sucker Punch—Overseas audiences reacted more favorably to Zack Snyder’s stylish film, which earned 60% of its $90 million total outside of North America.  Unfortunately it cost $82 million to produce and the rule of thumb is that a film has to earn twice its cost to break even (the studio’s share of the box office is roughly 50%).

 

9. Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil—The first Hoodwinked movie was a modestly budgeted computer animated film that performed well above its pay grade and earned more than $100 million, but the sequel didn’t fare nearly as well.  The sequel brought in just $13.6 million versus a cost of $30 million.

 

10. The Beaver—This high concept dramedy starring Mel Gibson and directed by Jody Foster got a lot of ink in the press, but never performed well enough to merit a wide release.  As a result the $20 production ended up earning less than a million dollars.