Mars Needs Moms (2011)

With a budget of $150 million, 2011′s biggest flop earned $39 million worldwide. Mars Needs Moms tells the story of a boy who takes his mother for granted but then goes to great lengths to save her when she’s abducted by an alien race. Without any real star power attached, the motion-captured feature took a big risk putting all of its fate into a technology that has had a shaky history with moviegoers. As if losing $111 million weren’t bad enough, it must be terrible to admit having any participation in making this film.

Jonah Hex (2010)

Though $10.9 million on a $40 million production budget doesn’t seem like the hugest of losses, a lot was put behind publicity for this comic book adaptation. Planned to be a summer tentpole, the movie crashed in burned in America causing the studio to scrap a large rollout overseas. Word is that the studio lost as much as they typically earn from a Harry Potter film on Hex. But, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. I find the film delightful and hilarious. Just not for the reasons filmmakers would have liked me to.

Land of the Lost (2009)

It’s sad to see this one on the list. Budgeted at $100 million, the adaptation of the classic show earned only $35 million at the box office. The reason that it’s a shame for Land of the Lost to wind up on a flop list is because it really was an entertaining movie. Marketed COMPLETELY wrong as a goofy romp for kids that parents would enjoy too, it’s actually anything but that. In fact, it brought back the snarky vibe of an 80′s comedy that has been so missed in film. Give this one a shot. Unless you’re the type to have Will Ferrell fatigue. Then there’s no talking any reason into you.

We all know that Battlefield Earth is bad. Like, worse than stuff on Fox Family bad. In fact, it won the "Worst Movie of the Decade" Razzie this month. An award that screenwriter J.D. Shapiro showed up to pick up in person. In today’s New York Post, Shapiro wrote an apology that’s ten years overdue. Think of all the people who went to their graves without this much-needed mea culpa. He also provided some backstory to explain how the turd was squeezed onto screens. Naturally, his penis is to blame:

It started, as so many of my choices do, with my Willy Wonker. It was 1994, and I had read an article in Premiere magazine saying that the Celebrity Center, the Scientology epicenter in Los Angeles, was a great place to meet women.

So a grown man who refers to his penis as his Willy Wonker wanted to get some crazy tail and as a result was hired to write a $100 million movie. And that led to Forest Whitaker wearing dreadlocks and Travolta talking like a castmember of Zoobilee Zoo. Hooray for Hollywood.

You can read Shapiro’s full piece at the NY Post. But be warned, you’ll have to grit your teeth and suffer through his jokes. They’re worse than ours.