The Riskiest Box Office Bets of 2014

More than 200 movies received wide theatrical releases in 2014 - some (Ride Along: $154M) managed to surprise at the box office.

At the beginning of the year, we picked 13 big-budget films we thought had the greatest financial risk to cover their production and marketing costs. Now that the 2014 movie season is over, we're going to see how these films (and our predictions) turned out.

NOTE: All of the budget and box office information mentioned in this article is derived from Box Office Mojo and The Numbers. While there's no hard and fast rule to determine a film's marketing budget, it's a widely accepted that, on average, 50% of a film's production budget should be tacked on to cover marketing costs. (Ex: If a production budget is $100M, a marketing budget will be about $50M.)

Let's take a look back at the Riskiest Box Office Bets of 2014 and see what was and wasn't worth the risk.

The Legend of Hercules - Not Worth It

Budget: $70M

Domestic: $19M
Foreign: $43M
Worldwide: $62M
DVD: $12M

Ratings

IMDb: 4.2
RT: 3%
SR: 1.5 Stars

This confused excuse for a swords-and-sandals movie seemingly stood no chance of recouping the studio's costs back. Even with former Twilight beefcake Kellan Lutz playing the demi-god and action director Renny Harlin at the helm, the film just couldn't find an audience either domestically or overseas. The best part of the movie was Scott Adkins as the always angry King Amphitryon, but not even he could save this cinematic misstep.

I, Frankenstein - Not Worth It

Budget: $65M

Domestic: $19M
Foreign: $53M
Worldwide: $72M
DVD: $12M

Ratings

IMDb: 5.2
RT: 3%
SR: 2 Stars

I, Frankenstein started with an interesting concept - turn a classic monster icon into a superhero - but somewhere between the page and the screen the idea got lost (much like the audience in the third act). Originally, there were some discrepancies as to what the actual budget was for this film. Box Office Mojo and The Numbers - both industry standards in the movie financial world - list the film with a production budget of $65M, but director Stuart Beattie personally told us the budget was set at $36M. For the sake of consistency, we'll use data provided by BOM/TN - data that doesn't make things look good for the film. Even ing for the modest DVD sales, the film would fall woefully short of making back the studio's investment.

Robocop - Worth It

Robocop 2014 - Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman

Budget: $100M

Domestic: $59M
Foreign: $185M
Worldwide: $243M
DVD: $15M

Ratings

IMDb: 6.3
RT: 48%
SR: 2.5 Stars

There were many factors working against Robocop: It was a remake of a nostalgic '80s film , it was being released in early February, and it had a budget of $100M. Honestly, we had doubts the film could find box office success, and if its fate had been left in the hands of the domestic audience, it would've failed (miserably). However, the foreign audience made its approval heard by nearly tripling the movie's domestic receipts - turning what could have been an epic meltdown into a highly profitable film.

Pompeii - Not Worth It

Pompeii 2014 - Kit Harington, dewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

Budget: $100M

Domestic: $24M
Foreign: $85M
Worldwide: $108M
DVD: $7M

Ratings

IMDb: 5.6
RT: 29%
SR: 1.2 Stars

On the whole, disaster films generally perform well at the domestic box office. However, Paul W. S. Anderson's love story wrapped around a historic catastrophic event would ultimately crash and burn, both domestically and overseas. The special effects for Pompeii were quite good (they should be with a 9-figure budget), but audiences clearly decided that blockbuster films with more spectacle than substance belong in theaters during the summer - choosing to re-watch The Lego Movie and Robocop instead.

Need for Speed - Worth It

Budget: $66M

Domestic: $44M
Foreign: $143M
Worldwide: $187M
DVD: $12M

Ratings

IMDb: 6.6
RT: 22%
SR: 2.5 Stars

Typically, video game movies have a hard time finding financial success at the box office (the Resident Evil series notwithstanding). By all s, Need for Speed should have crashed and burned - it was longer than it needed to be, had paper-thin characters, and a ridiculous storyline - but thanks to its modest budget and a (super-charged) boost from the foreign markets, it was able to turn quite a nice profit for the studio. Hopefully, the sequel, if it happens, will correct the aforementioned problems.

Noah - Worth It

Budget: $130M

Domestic: $101M
Foreign: $255M
Worldwide: $356M
DVD: $21M

Ratings

IMDb: 6.0
RT: 77%
SR: 4 Stars

Noah was one of two Biblical epics released in 2014 and was our personal long shot to be the financial winner of the two - we were incredibly wrong. Darren Aronofsky's unique take on the millennia-old Bible story (which included fallen angel rock monsters) wasn't a hit within religious circles, but audiences across the globe flooded theaters two-by-two to watch it.

Godzilla - Worth It

Budget: $160M

Domestic: $200M
Foreign: $308M
Worldwide: $508M
DVD: $35M

Ratings

IMDb: 6.6
RT: 73%
SR: 4 Stars

Godzilla was on top of our Top Movie Moments of 2014 with Godzilla's atomic breath kill scene.

X-Men: Days of Future Past - Worth It

X-Men Days of Future Past - Patrick Stewart, Bingbing Fan, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman

Budget: $200M

Domestic: $234M
Foreign: $510M
Worldwide:$744M
DVD: $41M

Ratings

IMDb: 8.1
RT: 92%
SR: 4.5 Stars

Director Bryan Singer had a whole lot of obstacles to overcome in order to right the X-Men franchise ship. Many thought the franchise's storyline was in such disarray that it would be near impossible for him to correct everything in one movie. But according to most viewers, he pulled it off. Not only did the movie re-energize the franchise (leaving the door open for the return of characters lost in X-Men 3), it did so in an impressive and entertaining fashion. On top off all that, X-Men: Days of Future Past gave audiences one of the greatest movie moments in 2014 - the Quicksilver kitchen scene.