Summary

• Despite his massive success, Tom Hanks has also had his fair share of box office disappointments and flops throughout his career.
• Movies like Cloud Atlas, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and Joe Versus the Volcano were major disappointments in of box office performance.
• Even acclaimed director Brian de Palma's film The Bonfire of the Vanities, starring Hanks, was a massive box office bomb and received negative reviews.

Acclaimed actor Hanks long-standing partnership with director Robert Zemeckis.

However, despite the box office success Hanks has had over the years, he has also been part of several major box office disappointments and flops. Going back to his earliest roles in the 1980s, there are plenty of movies that failed to meet box office expectations, such as the abysmal earnings of Every Time We Say Goodbye from 1986. Hanks has also been involved in dramatic missteps, like the controversial reception and disappointing performance of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. There are also big-budget Hanks movies that just did not do as well as the studios expected, such as Cloud Atlas.

10 Cloud Atlas (2012)

Made 130.5m on a budget of between $100 – 146.7m

The ambitious sci-fi adaptation of the mega-successful novel of the same name by David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas was directed by the Wachowskis and featured Tom Hanks in six different roles across multiple timelines. Cloud Atlas was a noble failure as its complex structure and interwoven storylines must be commended, but from a box office perspective the movie underperformed and failed to meet expectations (via Music.) Cloud Atlas opened to $9.6 million across 2,008 theatres, grossed just $27.1 million in the United States, and $130.5 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo), which by all s was a disappointment considering the hype around the book and the movie’s star power.

9 Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close (2011)

Made $55.2m on a budget of $40m

The story of a nine-year-old autistic boy whose father died in 9/11, Tom Hanks played a ing role as the father in the divisive drama Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Unfortunately, the movie did not connect with audiences and contemporary reviews categorized it as Oscar bait, with Andrea Peyser of the New York Post stating its use of the national tragedy of September 11th was “emotional blackmail” and felt “incredibly exploitative.” While Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, its nomination was controversial with some publications calling it the worst nominee of all time (via The Guardian.)

8 Joe Versus The Volcano (1990)

Made $39.4m on a budget of $25m

Despite the recent success of the Joe Versus the Volcano stars Tom Hanks, in Turner and Hooch, and Meg Ryan, in When Harry Met Sally, this romantic comedy, which was the first in Hanks and Ryan’s three movies together, flopped at the box office. Featuring a bizarre plot about a man told he has a terminal illness planning to throw himself into a volcano, the screwball nature of the movie does not always work and while Joe Versus the Volcano did not lose money, it certainly was unable to reach the kind of box office success that Hanks was beginning to become known for.

7 The Bonfire Of The Vanities (1990)

Made $15.6m on a budget of $47m

The story of a down-and-out reporter played by Bruce Willis taking down a hot-shot Wall Street bond trader played by Tom Hanks, The Bonfire of the Vanities was a massive box office bomb and a low point for acclaimed director Brian de Palma. Upon release, The Bonfire of the Vanities was a commercial and critical failure whose controversial production is outlined in the book The Devil's Candy: The Anatomy of a Hollywood Fiasco by Julie Salamon. Making just $15.6 million, the film grossed less than a third of its $47 million budget and was a major disappointment for Hanks who just two years before starred in the mega-successful fantasy comedy Big.

6 Punchline (1988)

Made $15m on a budget of $21m

The story of a housewife, played by Sally Fields, who is helped by a young comic, played by Tom Hanks, to break into the world of comedy, Punchline was a disappointment at the box office that the Washington Post said committed the unforgivable sin of making “a movie about comedy that’s not funny.” The reviews were bad and the viewers who did turn out were mostly there due to the success Hanks had found with Big just a few months before. Punchline is a forgotten 1980s comedy for good reason and it grossed just $15 million on a budget of $21 million.

5 News Of The World (2020)

Made $12.7m on a budget of $38m

While the Civil War Western News of the World was released on Netflix Internationally, it failed to break even with its United States theatrical release by Universal Pictures. The film was directed by Paul Greengrass and based on a novel by Paulette Jiles. It told the story of Captain Kidd, played by Tom Hanks, delivering a young girl, who had been abducted, to her aunt and uncle. News of the World was well-received critically and Hanks’ performance was acclaimed, however, the film failed to compete against other others released the same weekend including Wonder Woman 1984, Promising Young Woman, and Pinocchio.

4 A Hologram For The King (2016)

Made $11.8m on a budget of $35m

A Hologram for the King featured Tom Hanks as American salesman Alan Clay dealing with a cultural clash on a business trip in Saudi Arabia. Directed by Tom Tykwer and based on a novel by David Eggers, Tom Hanks puts on a great performance and does the best he can with a slow and disappointing script. It appeared audiences just were not interested, and A Hologram for the King came and went without much notice being taken of it. A Hologram for the King was a rare misstep for the later period of Hanks’ career and was his biggest top-billing box office flop since Every Time We Say Goodbye in 1986.

3 The Man With One Red Shoe (1985)

Made $8.6 on a budget of $16m

The Man with One Red Shoe tells the convoluted story of a man, played by Tom Hanks, who was randomly made the target of intense CIA surveillance. A disappointing comedy and a box office flop, The Man with One Red Shoe under-utilized the talent of Hanks and co-stars Jim Belushi and Carrie Fisher. As one of the earliest roles in Hanks’ long and varied career, The Man with One Red Shoe is one of the most forgettable entries in his entire career.

2 Radio Flyer (1992)

Made $4.6m on a budget of $35m

Radio Flyer was narrated by Tom Hanks and tells the story of two brothers who wish to escape their troubled home by building their own imaginary flying machine. Radio Flyer features a young Elijah Wood and was a strange movie whose whimsical concept of imagination was too childlike for adults and whose harrowing story of domestic abuse was too dark for kids. Radio Flyer was a major disappointment at the box office, making $4.6 million on a budget of $35 million.

1 Every Time We Say Goodbye

Made $278,623 on a budget of $3.7m

The biggest box office failure in Tom Hanks’ entire career is Every Time We Say Goodbye. Telling the story of a protestant World War II pilot in love with a Jewish girl in Jerusalem, the film is partly in the Ladino language and explores cultural and religious differences as well as forbidden love. At the time of its release, Every Time We Say Goodbye was the most expensive Israeli film ever made and to this day is Tom Hanks’ lowest-grossing theatrical release.

Sources: Music, Box Office Mojo, Washington Post