9 legendary box office flops that bankrupted Hollywood studios

This movie made history for all the wrong reasons when it was named the biggest box office bomb of all time in the Guinness Book of World Records. Released in 1995, the pirate movie received poor reviews and brought in just $16million worldwide - a fraction of the almost $100million of production costs spent making it.

Despite previously having huge success with the likes of Terminator 2 and the Rambo franchise, the movie's production company Carolco Pictures filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy just one month later, and its film library was bought by Fox.

With stars including Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig among its cast and an epic $200million budget - more than all three Lord of The Rings movies - the bosses at New Line Cinema clearly had high hopes for The Golden Compass.

However, the film didn't meet expectations and only brought in $70 million at the domestic box office. It also didn't make any money overseas because the production company had to sell off the foreign rights to support the production budget. The failure meant the independent company had to merge with Warner Bros. and the majority of its staff lost their jobs.

It may be a Christmas classic now, but It's a Wonderful Life wasn't met with such a rapturous response when it was released in 1946, largely due to its downbeat themes. Although it received a positive response from critics with five Academy Award nominations, audiences weren't as keen and the movie only recouped $3.3million against its $3.7million budget.

The losses meant that its production company Liberty Films couldn't survive, and was bought by Paramount.

Following his success with Oscar-winning movie The Deer Hunter, Michael Cimino earned the trust of production company United Artists to make the Western drama Heaven's Gate. But after going nearly four times over the budget and falling a year behind schedule, it wasn't nearly as promising.

The lengthy film was badly reviewed and recouped only $3.5 million at the box office against a budget of $44 million. The losses caused United Artists to go bankrupt. It was later acquired by MGM.

Titan A.E was Fox Animation's second animated movie, aiming to follow up the success of Anastasia. With the likes of Matt Damon and Drew Barrymore among its voice cast and unique combination of CGI and hand-drawn animation, it was expected to be a huge success.

However, it received mixed reviews for its sci-fi plot and lost $100 million for its studio, which shut down a week after the movie's release.

Warner Bros. Feature Animation was created to bring their popular characters like Bugs Bunny to the big screen, and while Space Jam did well, the studio's other five animated movies weren't as successful.

The company's final movie, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, may have starred Brendan Frasier, but despite an $80million budget, it only made $68million worldwide. The production company later merged with Warner Bros. Animation.

Square Pictures created the most expensive video game adaptation of all time with Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which cost $177 million and took four years to make.

However, while its incredible visuals earned praise, the film ultimately didn't win over viewers and made $85 million worldwide, bringing its production company to an end.

Battlefield Earth was a passion project from John Travolta, based on Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's novel of the same name. However, it has gone down in history as one of the worst films ever made, and brought in $29million at the box office against production costs of $73million.

The movie's production company, Franchise Pictures, was shut down in 2007 after losing a lawsuit from Intertainment, who partly financed the film, and accused them of inflating the budget.

Superman IV was almost destined to fail even before it hit cinemas after the film's backer The Cannon Group slashed its budget from $30 million to $17 million due to financial issues. It meant the Christopher Reeve movie was panned for its story plot holes and poor special effects, and ultimately made $30million worldwide.

The losses caused even bigger money troubles for Cannon Films, and it was purchased by Pathé Communications in 1989.