Box office success and critical success don’t always go hand-in-hand, proving that these two metrics measure vastly different things. There’s no shortage of movies that achieve immense financial success despite a slew of negative reviews. Audiences will usually turn up in huge numbers for franchise blockbusters, crowdpleasing comedies and word-of-mouth horror movies, even if critics do everything they can to warn people to stay away.
While audiences have their own parameters when evaluating a movie, these don’t always line up with the types of things that most people want to see. Some movies have found the perfect formula to maximize their box office gross without paying any mind to the opinions of critics. In some cases, this means that the critics simply don’t get the appeal of a certain movie, but there are other movies that turn into big hits even when critics and audiences agree that they aren’t worth watching.
10
Transformers: Age Of Extinction (2014)
Box Office: $1.104 Billion
Anyone familiar with Michael Bay’s movies will know that he hasn’t ever been popular among critics. He doesn’t seem to care, and the studios he works with won’t care either, because his movies are almost all guaranteed money-makers. Bay has struck on a formula for success that turns critics away but keeps audiences coming back for more. His Transformers movies are the most obvious examples of this phenomenon, regularly raking in hundreds of millions of dollars with rotten reviews.
Transformers: Age of Extinction introduces an entirely new human cast, which can often spell disaster for big franchises. This sort-of reboot turned out to be an enormous success, led by Mark Wahlberg as the star. Age of Extinction also introduces some new Transformers, including the Dinobots. Ultimately, this is probably more important to the movie’s commercial success than the humans.
9
Jurᴀssic World Dominion (2022)
Box Office: $1 Billion
The Jurᴀssic World franchise has been getting harsher reviews with each new entry, but it still hasn’t had a movie that has dipped below the billion-dollar mark at the global box office. Jurᴀssic World Dominion is probably the franchise’s worst outing so far, with a focus on explosive action and scarier dinosaurs, even if this comes at the detriment of the story. The blockbuster action doesn’t deliver on the franchise’s potential for thoughtful, compelling sci-fi.
The Jurᴀssic World franchise has been getting harsher reviews with each new entry.
Jurᴀssic World Dominion was criticized for its jumbled mess of characters and its lack of a compelling story. It’s emblematic of the problem many legacy sequels face when trying to mix new characters with returning icons. The upcoming Jurᴀssic World Rebirth – aptly тιтled – offers a new dawn for the franchise, with a fresh story that doesn’t rely on any of the old characters. It will likely be another box office hit, but whether it’s an improvement on Dominion remains to be seen.
8
The Smurfs (2011)
Box Office: $564 Million
The Smurfs began life in comic book form, created by Belgian cartoonist Peyo, but they have since appeared in TV shows, video games and an endless stream of merchandise. The 2011 movie was a low point for the characters in many ways, receiving scathing reviews from critics across the board, culminating in a dismal Rotten Tomatoes score of just 21%. The 2013 sequel was arguably even worse.
The Smurfs was Sony Pictures Animation’s highest-grossing movie of all time until 2023’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Despite its poor reviews, The Smurfs became the surprise hit of the summer in 2011, surpᴀssing all expectations to gross over half a billion dollars on a budget of $110 million. This made The Smurfs Sony Pictures Animation’s highest-grossing movie of all time until 2023’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The Smurfs are set for a return to theaters in 2025, with a new animated movie starring Rihanna as Smurfette.
7
The Flintstones (1994)
Box Office: $341.6 Million
The Flintstones was one of the best Hanna-Barbera cartoons back in the 1960s, so there was a lot of excitement for the 1994 movie adaptation, even though it was an entirely different prospect. The live-action adaptation strips the sitcom style away, and it features a new brand of humor that is often extremely self-referential. John Goodman plays Fred Flintstone, with Rick Moranis, Elizabeth Perkins and Rosie O’Donnell rounding out the main cast.
The Flintstones ultimately wasted its potential, using its beloved characters and interesting set design to tell a strangely adult story about office politics, embezzlement and marital strife that critics suggested wasn’t appealing to children. The poor reviews didn’t stop The Flintstones from becoming a box office hit on a budget of $46 million, however. The following prequel, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, was a critical and commercial flop, with none of the original cast returning.
6
The Nun (2018)
Box Office: $366 Million
The Nun is a spinoff in the Conjuring franchise, but it doesn’t enjoy the same critical reputation as the original movie that started it all. While The Conjuring is rated at 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, The Nun is the franchise’s least popular effort with just 24%. Critics derided The Nun‘s derivative plot and predictable jump scares, with many claiming that it brings nothing new to the familiar horror trope of Christian imagery.
Horror is one genre that critics don’t seem to have the biggest impact on. The Nun is far from the only critically reviled horror movie that has performed well at the box office. Horror fans generally have different priorities to most film critics, and good word-of-mouth or strong reviews within horror fandom circles is usually a better indicator of a movie’s success than something like a Rotten Tomatoes score. The Nun is one of the highest-grossing horror movies ever made, and its budget was just $22 million.
5
Grown Ups 2 (2013)
Box Office: $247 Million
Adam Sandler’s movies have never been critical darlings, but Grown Ups 2 is particularly unpopular, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 8% that sums up the shellacking it got from reviews back in 2013. Even by Sandler’s standards, this is terrible, so it’s a little surprising to see that Grown Ups 2 is one of Sandler’s highest-grossing movies, beneath only the first Grown Ups movie and the H๏τel Transylvania franchise.
Adam Sandler’s movies have never been critical darlings, but Grown Ups 2 is particularly unpopular.
Grown Ups 2, like many of Adam Sandler’s movies, is considerably more popular with audiences. Its handsome box office haul is evidence of that, as are the fan-submitted reviews online. The added star power of Chris Rock and Kevin James undoubtedly helped boost the movie’s commercial success, even if it has been dismissed by many critics as brainless toilet humor with no discernible plot.
4
Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2019)
Box Office: $1.077 Billion
As the final entry in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker was always poised to break the billion-dollar barrier at the global box office. The only commercial failure in the Star Wars franchise so far has been Solo: A Star Wars Story, but the spinoff faced unique challenges. The Rise of Skywalker‘s financial success doesn’t hide the fact that it received some awful reviews in the process.
Critical opinion was divided, with the harshest reviews accusing the franchise of bowing to its fans.
After the controversial direction of The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker seems like an attempt to backtrack on some of Rian Johnson’s ideas and return the franchise to more familiar territory. This went down well with some fans, while others were infuriated. Critical opinion was just as divided, with the harshest reviews accusing the franchise of bowing to its fans instead of telling an original and interesting story with courage. The slate of upcoming Star Wars movies will finally return the franchise to the big screen, but fan opinion is still fractured.
3
Venom (2018)
Box Office: $856.1 Million
Each movie in the Venom trilogy follows the same trend, with dreadful reviews from critics, great reviews from audiences, and an immense box office total. This started with the first movie, which has a 50-point gap between its critical score and audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Fans have learned to ignore the critics when it comes to Venom, which resulted in an $856.1 million gross on a budget of $100 million.
Each movie in the Venom trilogy follows the same trend, with dreadful reviews from critics and an immense box office total.
Sony’s Spider-Man universe movies have been a mixed bag, with movies like Morbius and Madame Web sinking to underwhelming box office totals that reflect their critical reputations. The Venom movies are an exception to this rule, with Tom Hardy’s charming performances and some crowdpleasing action making the entire trilogy successful. Some movies are simply immune to bad press.
2
The Da Vinci Code (2006)
Box Office: $760 Million
Before it was a hit movie, The Da Vinci Code was a hit book written by Dan Brown. While the novel was an international bestseller, some critics looked down on its unlikely plot and poor writing. The movie adaptation seems to take this element of the book to the next level, and it’s something that critics couldn’t ignore. The Da Vinci Code has been lambasted as a nonsensical fantasy masquerading as a complex thriller, but its financial success speaks volumes.
At a time when Tom Hanks was incapable of making a flop, The Da Vinci Code combined his movie-star charisma with the popularity of one of the most widely-read books in the world. In this context, its success is unsurprising, and its $125 budget was a shrewd investment. As well as being critically panned, The Da Vinci Code has also been banned or heavily censored in some countries for its perceived anti-Catholic conspiracy theories.
1
Fifty Shades Of Grey (2015)
Box Office: $569.7 Million
Much like The Da Vinci Code, Fifty Shades of Grey is based on a controversial best-selling novel, so it always stood a good chance at commercial success. Critics condemned the movie’s flimsy characters, weak dialogue and slow pacing, which echoes the same problems that literary critics found with the book. Movie reviews had the added criticism that the performances were uninspired.
Critics condemned the movie’s flimsy characters, weak dialogue and slow pacing, which echoes the same problems that literary critics found with the book.
The two sequels performed slightly worse than Fifty Shades of Grey, but they did more than enough to carry the trilogy’s total box office gross over $1 billion, which is a remarkable achievement for a franchise with such dreadful reviews. Of course, the majority of Fifty Shades of Grey‘s audience aren’t looking for the same things that most movie critics are. Despite its consistently rotten reviews, the Fifty Shades trilogy can be considered a hit.
