From an unexpectedly successful film “Everything Everywhere All at Once” to everyone’s favorite meme, “It’s Morbin time” from “Morbius,” 2022 was a rollercoaster ride for the movie industry.
Restarting the industry following the end of lockdowns, 2022 was sadly a failure for the movie industry as the earnings were still way below pre-pandemic times. Even though several movies were released during 2022, the total number was not even close to what the industry used to produce in past years.
The movie industry was still facing the effects of the pandemic in 2022. In hopes of reviving the industry, several movies were released but as is the case every year not all movies get to earn profits in the industry.
2022 was no exception. A number of new movies were released in 2022 with huge budgets and hopes of creating something special. While some did exceptionally well, others simply failed to stick to the audiences’ expectations.
Morbius
Yup, we are going straight to it. Morbius was one of the most talked about movies of 2022 and you might’ve guessed by now it was not for the reason film producers wanted it to be. Released on 10th March 2022, Morbius was another movie from Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Morbius was another movie released by Sony Pictures which was looking forward to creating its cinematic universe just like MCU containing Spiderman. Its release was filled with huge expectations from the fans. However, Sony did not plan it to be the joke it was portrayed as on the internet.
Shortly after its release, Morbius started receiving a lot of criticism and hate from both fans and film critics. The movie was regarded as a “lazy script topped with soulless filmmaking” film and the little humor in the film was also a failure. It did earn a good amount of money in the first weekend of its release which was around $39 million but experienced an almost 75% drop in revenue the next weekend which was the second worst superhero movie performance.
The role of Morbius in the movie was played by Jared Joseph Leto who received a huge backlash from the audiences and was made fun of on the internet. The movie was trending all over the internet but for the wrong reasons.
The meme “It’s Morbin Time” was used by a lot of people and was very famous. This resulted in people who hadn’t even watched the movie riding the bandwagon and hating the movie. Sony actually tried to capitalize on the internet trolls and did a rerelease just months after its initial release on 3rd June 2022. This decision was not a wise one as the movie flopped big time again.
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is a movie starring famous stars such as Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and even Taylor Swift– wait what? How can a movie with Taylor Swift ever be a flop come on?
Released on 7th October 2022, Amsterdam was another movie that was one of the worst-performing movies of 2022. It had a box office earning of just $31 Million while having a movie budget of more than twice it at $80 Million. It looks like just having a bunch of big stars in a movie does not guarantee any success at all.
The movie as the name suggests takes place in Amsterdam. The story takes place in the early 1900s around the time World War I was going on. It showcases the story of three main characters Burt Berendsen (played by Christian Bale), Harold Woodman (played by John David Washington), and Valerie Bandenberg (played by Margot Robbie).
With an average score of just 5.1/10, Amsterdam was regarded by most fans and critics as mid. In other words, it wasn’t bad enough to be turned into memes on the internet but at the same time, it had nothing unique to offer to the people that would pull the viewers to watch it. Some even blamed Disney’s inability to market the movie properly to the audiences.
The movie would cost the producing company a loss of almost $100 million. This amount of loss shows why is one of the worst film performances of 2022. It was planned to be created with a budget of just $50 million but due to the pandemic, the budget had to increase in order to ensure the movie’s shooting.
Devotion
Next up on the list is a war movie, “Devotion.” Released on 23rd November 2022, the movie had high expectations mainly because of the huge success of an earlier similar movie “Top Gun: Maverick” which grossed the billion mark at the box office.
However, Devotion couldn’t live up to its expectations. Not only the expectation was not satisfied, but the movie’s box office earnings also didn’t even level its budget. It starred actors such as Glen Powell, who was part of “Top Gun: Maverick”’s cast, and also had a huge budget of $90 million.
The movie was received positively by critics. Yet, the movie only grossed a total of $21.5 million in its release in comparison to its budget of $90 million.
Devotion was a biographical film that made use of the book called Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice by Adam Makos. It depicted the real-life events of two navy officers, Jesse LeRoy Brown, and Thomas Jerome Hudner Jr., that took place during the Korean War.
The movie was considered to be a good movie by the critics because it used the right amount of drama while staying true to its source materials. However, looks like the audiences were not ready for it despite the positive reviews. There could be many reasons behind its low performance but it could be that audiences are just sick of watching war movies since there are a lot of them coming out every year.
Most of their earnings were from the domestic market which made sense since it had no previously established international fanbase like the Top Gun franchise had and also there was little effort in marketing the movie.
Babylon
Another movie filled with big stars that performed very badly. Released on 23rd December 2022, Babylon was filled with expectations from the producers especially due to its release date being on holiday. Their expectation, however, went on to backstab them.
Their holiday release hurt them instead of helping them as the theatres were still occupied by the most awaited movie “Avatar: The Way of Water” which had been released just a week ago. Looks like having cast members such as Brad Pitt, Tobey Maguire, and Margot Robbie in the movie was not enough to pull in audiences.
The movie’s failure to market the movie properly affected them a lot which was evident when it earned only $5.3 million in the first week of its release. This might sound a lot but when you keep in mind that the movie had to earn around $160 million just to break even it isn’t even close to enough
Since the first week’s earnings make up for a major percentage of the total money earned by every movie, Babylon was doing very badly compared to its expectation. Just like Devotion, the critics had positive reviews on the movie with a score of 7.6 On IMDb and 56% on Rotten Tomatoes but it was not enough to attract the audiences.
The movie was about the people in Hollywood in the early 1900s with the development of sound films. It depicted the fall of many actors during the period. Many movie critics praised the cast and storytelling but were not impressed by its screenplay.
Babylon did better outside of US and Canada grossing $26.4 million worldwide compared to its earnings of just $15 million in the States and Canada.
Strange World
With a budget of about a whopping $180 million, the next movie in the worst performing film is the animated movie, Strange World, from Disney. Released on 23rd November 2022, Strange World, just like most Disney movies, is another family movie released around the start of the holiday season.
Their plan was simple it was to release the movie at the time of Thanksgiving when most families are having a vacation and have them as the audience but it did not go as planned and the movie did very badly at the box office earning it the title of the worst Thanksgiving release of Disney.
Strange World earned around $73 million at the box office which was certainly not a bad earning, but considering its huge budget of almost $180 million, the movie can be considered a flop.
The movie’s plot is pretty simple as it was made for younger audiences. Out of many other animated projects by Disney, Strange World was the worst one in 2022. The movie had big names on the cast list such as Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, and many more.
The movie was released on the same date as another movie in this list, Devotion, and by the first week of the release had made only around $18 million which was very low compared to Disney’s other titles.
The critics had fairly positive feedback on the movie but fans received the movie poorly which resulted in it becoming a box office bomb. The lack of proper marketing from Disney was also considered another factor that played into its failure.
Moonfall
The sci-fi disaster movie, Moonfall, was another movie that did poorly in the theaters. Released on 3rd February 2022, Moonfall was another movie getting in the disaster and space genre which has been working excellently for many movies but sadly Moonfall won’t be getting what it hoped for.
Releasing in early 2023 when the competition was pretty low in the market might’ve worked out for them but it didn’t. It grossed about $19 million in the first week after its release worldwide which was still a low number considering its budget was a whopping $145 million. Looking at the numbers makes you wonder where all this money is going.
Right when everything was going bad for them, the second week saw them experience a significant decrease of 70% in its earnings grossing only $3 million. It did badly in the international markets too excluding China where Moonlight was able to earn more than the worldwide earnings of the first weekend.
Things were very looking positive for them in China but everything went downhill after a new wave of Covid-19 hit the country and almost all theatres closed down. The critics rated the movie slightly low with 36% on Rotten Tomatoes and 5.1 on IMDb. Many deemed the movie to be just another disaster movie with nothing new to offer.
The movie ended its run with a theatrical earning of about $67 million which can be considered a flop due to the money it took to produce it. Rumors of its sequels were going around but with a loss of more than $70 million, I argue the producers will be willing to do so.
Three Thousand Years of Longing
Produced by the famous director George Miller, popular for his work in the Mad Max franchise, Three Thousand Years of Longing is another movie that was considered a box office disaster of 2022. Released on 26th August 2022, the movie is a romance movie with some supernatural parts to it.
Three Thousand Years of Longing is a movie about a British scholar who is believed to see supernatural beings. The movie also contains aspects of Muslim mythology with Djinn being a major character in the movie.
Based on the mythical short story called “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye”, the movie has a good amount of expectation prior to its release due to Miller working as the director. The film critics were quite satisfied with the movie as it received 72% on Rotten Tomatoes and 6.7 on IMDb but this was not the case with the average audience.
Despite receiving positive feedback on the movie’s visuals, the movie was considered by the fans to be a “boring movie”. It starred big stars such as Tilda Swinton as Alithea Binnie and Idris Elba as Djinn in the movie.
Three Thousand Years of Longing premiered with an earning of only $2.9 million in its first weekend and did not even touch the $20 million mark earning only $19 million worldwide. This was a huge disappointment since the movie had a budget of $60 million.
The movie cost the producers about $40 million earning it the title of the worst-performing movie of 2022.
The Northman
Bad performance at the box office does not always mean the movie was bad and the prime example of it is The Northman. Released on 22nd April 2022, The Northman was in no way a bad movie and deserved a much better performance at the box office.
The film critics felt no different on that subject with critics from Rotten Tomatoes giving the movie a rating of 89% and 7.1 from the IMDb ratings. Every aspect of the movie, from cinematography to cast members’ acting, received positive feedback from both fans and critics.
The Northman was regarded as a movie with an awesome story as well as immersive visuals but as we know film ratings always don’t guarantee success in the market. One of the major factors for its lack of earnings was, as is the case for most movies in this list, bad marketing.
In the release week, the movie earned around $12.3 million with a drop of around 50% in the second week grossing around $6 million. By the end of its run, the movie earned around $69 million which is quite a lot, but since it had a budget of around 90 million, it can be considered a bad performance at the box office.
The movie, later, did release on streaming platforms, and its blu-ray version was a commercial success. It was trending in the top charts of every streaming platform and also ranked top in the sales of Blu-ray.
She said
Another biographical movie that did not meet up to the producer’s expectations was the movie called “She Said.” Released on November 18, 2022, She said was the adaptation of the book released in 2019 with a similar title.
The story in the movie is of a sex scandal that took place recently with 2017 Harvey Weinstein. The story was first adapted in a book that concluded everything about the investigation that took place to prove Weinstein guilty of the charges. Weinstein was recently charged with more allegations in December of 2022.
The movie did not do as well as expected though as it did not even hit a million mark on the first day and ended the first week with just around $2 million. Many had already concluded the movie a flop by the first week and they were right as it barely crossed $10 million at $13 million.
You might be wondering when a movie with a name like this even released and I won’t blame you for it since this movie barely had any marketing backing it up and on top of the lack of marketing, the release of Marvel’s Black Panther sequel just days earlier meant it was gonna be shadowed by it.
Just like most movies here in the list, the critics had another take on the movie. It was a critically acclaimed movie and had a rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.2 on IMDb which is genuinely surprising as it was one of the worst-performing movies of 2022.
The 355
Last on the list is another movie that suffered delays and increases in the budget due to the pandemic. Released on 7th January 2022, The 355 is a spy movie filled with prominent actors such as Jessica Chastain, Fan Bingbing, Penélope Cruz, and many more.
The story revolves around 5 different female agents from different organizations. All of them are working together to avoid causing a World War. The plot sounds good and would’ve worked if it had been executed properly but the movie didn’t.
Critics were not fond of the movie as well. Many of the critics were impressed by the cast members but for them, the story felt cliche and lazy. It received a less-than-average score on both Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb earning a score of 24% and 4.5, respectively.
The negative responses were evident at the box office with it earning $4.6 million (which was pretty good with the pandemic looming and the Spiderman movie taking all the attention in the cinemas), but by the end of its theatrical run, the movie only earned around $28 million and did not even break-even to its budget of almost $70 million.
The movie was a huge box-office flop and did perform as planned, losing the production company anywhere around $15 to 40 million.
What is the lowest-rated movie of 2022?
The worst-rated movie of 2022 was 365 Days: This Day.
- 365 Days: This Day [IMDb: 2.6/10, Metacritics: 8%]
The sequel to the controversial movie 365 Days was the 2022’s Netflix movie #65 Days: This Day. The movie, just like its prequel, was not well received by the critics over at IMDb. It is the worst-rated movie in 2023 and 32nd lowest-rated out of all the movies followed shortly by its prequel at number 35 with a .1 rating more than that of itself. The movie was the worst rated of 2022 on both platforms.
What movies have the worst ratings?
The top 5 movies with the worst ratings according to IMDb are:
- Disaster Movie [2.1/10]
- Manos: The Hands of Fate [2.2/10]
- Birdemic: Shock and Terror [2.3/10]
- Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 [2.3/10]
- The Hottie & the Nottie [2.4/10]
What’s the worst-rated movie in the world?
The worst rated movie according to different platforms are:
- IMDb: Disaster Movie (2008)
- Rotten Tomatoes: Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever (2002)
- Metacritic: Chaos (2005)
