Hollywood gets it wrong more often than it gets it right and those missteps are what this list is all about: our ranking takes you from the outright cinematic disasters, excruciatingly or amusingly awful, to follow-up fails which misjudged and consequently jeopardised the legacy of a beloved original.
These aren't simply 20 bad movies. They're 20 stories of how studios, stars and filmmakers managed to squander a winning formula.
20) Moana 2 (2024)
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There’s little jeopardy, less Moana and Maui, an oddly absent villain, and an abbreviated role for promising new character Matangi. The songs, which had been the heart and soul of the original, are underwhelming, with the experienced Lin-Manuel Miranda replaced by newcomers Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, who won fame on TikTok with their Bridgerton-inspired ballads.
With the first two films regarded as amongst the finest in film history, the concluding chapter of Francis Ford Coppola’s epic gangster trilogy had a lot to live up to. It commenced shooting in late 1989, 15 years after the release of the second film due to Coppola’s reluctance to return, and studio Paramount’s inability to get the project off the ground without him. Robert Duvall dropped out, citing the huge pay difference between him and lead Al Pacino, removing one of the franchise’s most compelling remaining characters.
Despite the sense that it had brought one of the great cinematic stories to a chaotic and disappointing close, the film was nominated for seven Oscars. Unlike the first two films which bagged nine between them, it came away with none.
18) Grease 2 (1982)
New director Patricia Birch, who had worked as choreographer on the stage and screen versions of the original, was unable to inject it with the requisite energy, or identity, with its financial underperformance and poor critical reception putting paid to further planned projects.
Although Pfeiffer would go on to be one of the biggest stars of the era, Caulfield’s career stalled, with the actor telling Fox News Digital last year, "When the film didn’t take off, I went down with the ship. But [Michelle] rose like a fabulous phoenix."
17) Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
Gone are the likes of garrulous sidekick Michael Peña, as the film drags its principals into the Quantum Realm where it drowns them in CGI and saddles them with a confusing story. The 31st film in the MCU is symptomatic of Marvel’s recent wobbles; it lost money during its theatrical run but, as Forbes reported in 2024, eventually turned a small profit of $88,236. Playing Kang the Conqueror, Jonathan Majors made a decent villain but his real-life wrongdoing tanked his ongoing involvement in the MCU, tainting this unfortunate entry further.
Impressive effects aside, the film suffers from an uninteresting plot and bizarrely stilted performances from the usually reliable likes of Natalie Portman and Liam Neeson, which may have been the result of a torturous production process. Playing the young Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ewan McGregor told The Express at the time that he found the experience to be, "the epitome of tedium," adding, "I was frowning a lot. It just became a frowning exercise."
15) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)
2021’s affable and entertaining Ghostbusters: Afterlife wasn’t universally adored but it was a hit that did a great job of reinvigorating a franchise which had attracted toxic adulation, with the 2016 all-female reboot becoming a magnet for fan frustrations. Afterlife introduced a compelling new set of characters, who would become the Grooberson-Spengler clan, played by Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Mckenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard, whilst keeping the likes of Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd in the mix.
In late 2024 Kenan told The Direct, "Stay tuned. There'll be more." However, since then, things have gone a little too quiet...
Helmed by first-time director Simon Kinberg (a writer and producer on previous franchise entries), Dark Phoenix tells the story of how Grey (played by Sophie Turner, hot off Game of Thrones) becomes the all-powerful Phoenix in deeply unsatisfying style, despite the best efforts of Turner, who is flanked by an obscenely talented yet often lacklustre and underemployed supporting cast.
13) Zoolander 2 (2016)
Although only a modest success at the time, 2001’s Zoolander confirmed its creator Ben Stiller as a reliably funny force and the film eventually built up a lot of affection over the years. It’s a riot of satirical silliness, that pricks the pomposity of the fashion business with aplomb and is the kind of comedy that enters the cultural lexicon, with its "Blue Steel" pout and "derelicte" chic. Yet it also felt like a bit of a one-off, as its 2016 flop follow-up proved, with the sequel taking just $56.7 million globally on a budget of $50-55 million, and the critical verdict similarly withering.
There’s a desperation rather than clear direction to the enterprise this time round, with endless unfunny cameos and location shifts, and Stiller’s simpleton routine feeling overstretched. The film attracted controversy over Benedict Cumberbatch’s cartoonish portrayal of a non-binary model, which the actor himself has expressed regret for. Stiller moved away from comedy in the aftermath; in an interview with David Duchovny for his Fail Better podcast, he described his shock at the film’s failure, saying, "I thought everybody wanted this. And then it’s like: Wow, I must have really f**ked this up."
12) Alien 3 (1992)
View Green Video on the source websiteDebut director David Fincher (known then for his trailblazing music videos, including for Madonna’s ‘Vogue’) was hired after numerous scripts had already been discarded, replacing Vincent Ward. Sigourney Weaver’s protagonist Ripley returned, but the characters of Newt and Hicks were killed off unceremoniously at the outset, while filming started without a finished screenplay, and cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth was replaced by Alex Thomson two weeks into the shoot, due to ill health. Fincher tangled with the studio, 20th Century Fox, constantly; he later disowned the finished product, going on to become one of Hollywood’s most dynamic and dependable directors, the man behind the likes of Seven, Fight Club and The Social Network.
The sequel to 1980’s cult favourite The Blues Brothers (originally a Saturday Night Live sketch) should probably have never got off the ground, following the death of co-lead John Belushi in 1982, but that was far from its only issue.
Speaking to AV Club about what went wrong, Landis commented, "We wrote what I thought was a terrific script. Then Universal Studios eviscerated it… the first thing they said was that it had to be a PG, which meant they couldn't use profanities, which is basically cutting the Blues Brothers' nuts off."
10) Hannibal (2001)
One of the strengths of the original film was the interplay between Hopkins and co-star Jodie Foster as Clarice, yet Foster, like original director Jonathan Demme, didn’t want anything to do with it, telling Total Film that, “Clarice meant so much to Jonathan and I… there was no way that either of us could really trample on her.” Foster did well to give it a swerve, with Julianne Moore stepping in, but unable to leave her own stamp on the role.
If 1977’s Saturday Night Fever combined its disco dancing with an appealing edginess, its sanitised 1983 sequel Staying Alive is pure cringe. John Travolta returns as strutting chauvinist Tony Manero, who is working as a dance instructor and waiter and trying to get his big break as a dancer on Broadway, whilst messing around his loyal girlfriend, played by Cynthia Rhodes.
The film was a hit at the box office, making $127 million on a $22 million budget, but it sold its soul to get there, and was berated by critics for doing so.
8) Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)
Bringing the charismatic Lady Gaga onboard as love interest Harleen Quinzel seemed like canny casting and the sequel’s status as a jukebox musical could have taken things in an interesting and more fun direction, after the gripping but grim original which tapped into male anger and frustration for better or worse.
The original Sex and the City TV series (1998-2004) was a bona fide phenomenon and 2008’s big screen spin-off was a fun and fitting enough popcorn flick, that really cleaned up financially. Sex and the City 2, on the other hand, is like watching a car crash over two-and-a-half agonising hours, featuring the death of everyone’s dignity.
Fans still turned up to watch en masse and a third film was planned, before morphing into the so-so series And Just Like That… Disliking the plans for her character Samantha, Kim Cattrall sensibly opted for the exit (a cameo in season two aside). When asked by Variety how she felt following the second movie she replied, "Everything in me went: I’m done."
6) Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)
Instead, Bullock was joined on this inexplicably brisk cruise by a majorly meh Jason Patric, with an uninhibited Willem Dafoe as the dastardly villain, and Jan de Bont back at the helm. Winner of the worst remake or sequel at the 1997 Golden Raspberry Awards, Speed 2 flopped at the box office, was lambasted by critics and has been parodied on everything from The Simpsons and The Family Guy to Father Ted.
5) Basic Instinct 2 (2006)
Original director Paul Verhoeven and Michael Douglas didn’t return, with Rob Roy’s Michael Caton-Jones eventually taking up the reins. He later told The Scotsman he was, "completely broke and had to take anything that came in. Basic Instinct 2 was this poisoned chalice that had been passed around and eventually it arrived at my door," characterising it as, "a painful, painful experience."
With an approach that’s a world away from Tim Burton’s gorgeously gothic take on the comic book staple, director Joel Schumacher returned to the Batman franchise in 1997 following his financially successful and moderately entertaining Batman Forever, catastrophically turning the cartoony antics up to 11 for its successor, Batman & Robin.
In the intervening years, a number of those involved in the film have spoken scathingly about their experience, including Schumacher who told Vice in 2017, "I was scum. It was like I had murdered a baby."
3) Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)
Beheading is no obstacle to bringing Sean Connery back as improbable Spaniard Ramírez and, despite sharing the same director and one of the writers (Russell Mulcahy and Peter Bellwood), the film embarrassingly contradicts the original, recasting the immortals as aliens in its desperate attempt to continue the story. The budget ballooned due to hyperinflation in the country of production, Argentina, and Mulcahy, who admits he was signed on by his agent without his knowledge, would later state, "It’s like they say in the film: There can only be one."
With Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss sensibly declining to participate, Michael Caine is drafted in to struggle in their stead. In 2021, he told Australian talk show host Andrew Denton: "Someone said to me I saw that Jaws 4 and it stinks. I said I haven’t seen it, but I’ve seen the house it bought my mother and it’s marvellous." Featuring a slung together script from Michael de Guzman and enduring a problem-fuelled, hasty production, the resulting film is amusingly abysmal and it barely broke even, killing the franchise off.
1) Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)
Topping our list in all its ghastly glory is the follow-up to one of the greatest horror films of all time. With John Boorman (Point Blank, Deliverance) at the helm and a cast that pairs Richard Burton and Louise Fletcher with original Exorcist stars Max von Sydow and Linda Blair, playing a now 16-year-old Regan, Exorcist II: The Heretic had plenty of potential. However, due to legal disputes over its 1973 predecessor, neither director William Friedkin nor screenwriter William Peter Blatty returned, with Ellen Burstyn also disinterested.
Speaking to The Movies That Made Me podcast, Friedkin doesn’t mince his words, describing what little he has watched as, "the worse piece of s**t I’ve ever seen." Burton certainly looks baffled as he attempts to get to grips with a nonsensical story involving weird consciousness experiments that delve into Regan’s demonic possession. Meanwhile, unintentional humour devastatingly replaces the terror of the trailblazing original.
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