For all the romanticism surrounding important stories and the artistic endeavor of filmmaking, Hollywood is ultimately a business like any other, which is to say money is usually worth a hell of a lot more than good intentions. This cut-throat fact has seen a number of actors pitch in their own money to get a film they are passionate about up and running.
While this sometimes results in a huge success where the actor pockets millions of dollars as profit, it just as often backfires with disastrous consequences. From passion projects that audiences weren’t so passionate about to red-hot A-listers betting big on themselves and losing, there have been plenty of actors who helped fund their own movies and never saw their money again.
Updated on July 17, 2023, by Ryan Heffernan:
Despite the glamour and glitz, Hollywood can be a brutal and messy industry to work in, especially when it comes to movies that individuals have a sentimental drive to see to completion. While not all of these box office flops were bad movies, they do present cautionary tales about going all in on passion projects.
12 Dwayne Johnson – ‘Black Adam’ (2022)
With the casting of Dwayne Johnson, the brains trust behind the DCEU seemed convinced that Black Adam could represent the turning of a new leaf for the spluttering franchise. The superhero film follows the resurgence of an Egyptian slave bequeathed with great power from ancient Gods who dispels his unique brand of justice upon the modern world.
Throughout a tumultuous production marred by the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson served as a major spokesman for the film’s progression and even operated as one of its producers. Despite a bizarre occurrence where Johnson’s claims of the film’s positive financial projections were disproved, the film reportedly lost Warner Bros. as much as $100 million.
11 Jack Black – ‘Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny’ (2006)
Comprised of Jack Black and Kyle Gass, the comedy rock duo Tenacious D rose to cult status with HBO’s Tenacious D series running from 1997-2000, something the duo looked to capitalize on with 2006’s Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. To get the project running, both Black and Gass took a substantial pay cut in addition to serving as producers.
Sadly, the film went on to be a box office flop, grossing just $13.9 million against a budget of approximately $20 million. Despite the film going on to garner cult classic status as a musical-comedy, the poor reception devastated Black and Gass with neither of them writing a feature screenplay since.
10 John Wayne – ‘The Alamo’ (1960)
As John Wayne’s passion project, The Alamo had been conceived as early as 1945 but took years to get off the ground in the way that Wayne envisioned. He later concluded that he himself would direct the film and produce it through his production company, Batjac Productions, but was adamant he wouldn’t appear in it.
As Wayne tried to enlist financial support, however, it became evident that he would only get the money needed if he starred in the picture. Wayne eventually struck a deal with United Artists in which he contributed $1.5 million from his own pocket to the making of the movie. While The Alamo made just enough for United Artists to be reimbursed, Wayne’s investment failed to reap financial rewards.
9 Kevin Costner – ‘The Postman’ (1997)
Kevin Costner is no stranger to funding his own movies. This worked a treat when he put $3 million into Dances with Wolves which grossed almost twenty times its budget, and he managed to scrape away from financial disaster on Waterworld thanks to its post-theatrical revenue streams, but he wasn’t so lucky with The Postman.
Costner directed, starred in, and produced the three-hour-long, post-apocalyptic epic on a hefty budget of $80 million. Whatever luck he started the decade with had clearly run dry as The Postman made less than $20 million after being marred by a horrific opening weekend and disastrous critical reception.
8 John Travolta – ‘Battlefield Earth’ (2000)
Widely regarded to be one of the worst films ever made, Battlefield Earth – based on the novel Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 by Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard – became John Travolta’s passion project through the 1990s. A Scientologist himself, Travolta was gifted a signed copy of the book from Hubbard upon its publication in 1982 and used his career resurgence to try and have it adapted by a major Hollywood studio.
While it struggled to find studio interest due to its ties to Scientology, the film was eventually picked up with Travolta contributing millions of dollars of his own money, and sacrificing a significant portion of his own paycheck, to get the movie made. Against a budget of $73 million, Battlefield Earth earned a meager $29.7 million, and the planned sequel was never made.
7 Tommy Wiseau – ‘The Room’ (2003)
As far as cult films go, The Room is a monumental hit as a celebrated champion of so-bad-it’s-good cinema. Unfortunately for Tommy Wiseau, people didn’t view it as being quite the pop-culture phenomenon upon its theatrical release with the film grossing just $1,900 against a budget of $6 million.
While the exact nature of how he got his hands on such a sum of money remains somewhat mysterious, Wiseau contributed the entirety of the budget in order to maintain creative control. Despite its disastrous initial run, pop-culture influence has seen the film’s earnings rise to $4.9 million so, who knows, it may yet prove to turn a profit.
6 Matthew McConaughey – ‘Sahara’ (2005)
One of the more infamous and controversial production processes, Sahara’s budget started at a modest $80 million but ballooned out beyond $160 million by the time filming wrapped, with an additional $61 million being tied to distribution expenses. Based on Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt novels, the action-adventure film was planned as being the first of a series.
That obviously never came to be, as the film’s $119 million box office earnings accounted for just over half of its overall expenditure. Matthew McConaughey had even blogged a promotional road trip in a bid to market the movie that he had invested his own money in, but it proved to be to no avail.
5 Brad Pitt – ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’ (2007)
Solid proof that not all actor-funded box office flops are vanity projects and bad movies, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford star and producer Brad Pitt conceded that working on the film cost him money. A revisionist Western epic detailing James’ (Pitt) and the unraveling of his gang, the film won praise from fans and critics alike for its performances, depiction of 1880s America, and Roger Deakins‘ astounding cinematography.
However, the film flopped, becoming a box office bomb even with its restrictive budget of $30 million. Grossing less than $4 million through its theatrical release, it has since boosted that figure up to $15 million through DVD sales and amassed a large fan following.
4 George Clooney – ‘Leatherheads’ (2008)
After striking gold with 2005’s Good Night, and Good Luck, in which George Clooney mortgaged his house to help fund the $7 million budget (the film grossed $54.6 million), Clooney tried to replicate his success with Leatherheads. A sports comedy with a loose basis in history, it was far from a terrible movie, but it didn’t perform well at the box office.
Clooney was clearly passionate about the film, serving as the writer, director, star, and produced it through his own production house, Smokehouse Productions. It proved to be a costly gamble though, as Leatherheads made just $41.3 million, failing to break even by some margin.
3 Mel Gibson – ‘Get the Gringo’ (2012)
Up to 2012, Mel Gibson had a terrific record when it came to making financial contributions to films he was involved with. He helped fund his own directorial efforts of The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto with huge financial success, but the well ran dry when he produced and starred in Get the Gringo.
While the 2012 action movie played well with critics, it was released around the time Gibson came under fire for making antisemitic comments and was further impeded by a video-on-demand release strategy. It ended up making just $8.8 million against a budget of $20 million.
2 Will Smith – ‘After Earth’ (2013)
With ambitions of being a huge sci-fi adventure spectacle, After Earth saw Will Smith and his son Jaden Smith share the screen as a father-son duo who crash-land on Earth a millennium after humanity was forced to flee the planet. The film made $243.8 million through its theatrical release which sounds impressive, but against the $150 million budget and the extra $100 million poured into the marketing campaign, it fell short of expectations.
While Will Smith himself didn’t contribute any money to the film’s sizable production, his production company, Overbrook Entertainment, did. Off the back of the film’s critical and commercial failure, Smith described After Earth as “the most painful failure of [his] career” in an interview with Esquire and stated his regret at leading his son into the project.
1 Tina Fey – ‘Whiskey Tango Foxtrot’ (2016)
An audacious effort to mix comedy with war drama, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot couldn’t have been handled by anyone lacking the sensitive poise and comic prowess of Tina Fey. Based on Kim Barker’s memoir The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the comedy star set the pre-production process in motion in 2014 with her own production company, Little Stranger, in charge.
With a budget of $35 million and Margot Robbie and Martin Freeman among the film’s leading cast members, it seemed as though it would surpass that figure easily. Despite positive reviews, it was hamstrung by a poor opening weekend and never recovered, making just $24.9 million.
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