directors whose careers their box office bombs ruined?

[Zauriel]

A lot of directors have had some box office bombs, but they did make a successful come back after the bombs.

Michael Cimino did make a few movies after the box office disaster of a film Heaven's Gate which ruined his reputation and nearly bankrupted the studio that financed the film, but they all were nowhere near as successful as Deer Hunter. He never again directed a film after the Sunchaser until his death.

How could one box office bomb ruin this brilliant and Oscar-winning director's career?


Francis Ford Coppola made a few amazing movies but One from the Heart is one film that bombed and nearly bankrupted his production company. It took him years to repay the debts brought on him by the film One from the Heart.

Are there other directors whose careers ruined by their movies, that I do not know about?

[Mister Mets]

There are some directors who only made one film.
The actor Charles Laughton (also a stage director) only made The Night of the Hunter, which was excellent but ahead of its time.
Kerry Conran only made Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
Andrew Stanton waited a decade to make another live-action film after John Carter.

Sometimes, directors are given multiple shots. So Cimino never recovered after Heaven's Gate, but he did make three more films. If any of them had been a hit, it would have restored his reputation.

In these cases, it's more that a film shows a downward trajectory, even if the director is given other movies after. Though it could also be that they're not getting the best scripts, and get stuck with limitations in terms of cast and budget.

Ridley Scott seems to recover pretty well. He does GI Jane which was notoriously bad, and then his next film is Gladiator. He follows A Good Year with American Gangster, and a string of flops with The Martian. The Last Duel was an acclaimed box office failure, but in the same year, House of Gucci does okay (in the context of post-Covid theater reopenings)

Looking at major examples of directors who never recovered from big flops...
The Reverend Moon supported military drama Inchon seemed to destroy director Terence Young (Wait Until Dark, From Russia With Love)
Elaine May's third film was Ishtar. She didn't make another.
Kevin Costner only directed one more movie in the 25 years since The Postman. He seems to have new plans, but he had to do Yellowstone for a few years to get the money for that.
John McTiernan (Die Hard, The Predator, Hunt for Red October) made two more movies after The 13th Warrior flopped, although his career was also hurt by a conviction for perjury in a case about wiretapping former associates.
Gore Verbinski made one more film after The Lone Ranger, but it was also a flop.

[Zauriel]

Mister Mets, I see. Thanks for the list.

I just learned on the Wikipedia that there is another director whose reputation was ruined by his last work. His name is Frédéric Auburtin. In 2014, he became widely known for directing the infamous movie United Passions. He never found any directorial work again after that. Because of the 2015 FIFA corruption case, the film grossed very badly in the box-office (a mere $918 in its opening weekend).

[Gaastra]

Joshua Benjamin Trank. Hit with chronicle. Then he did fantastic four. Then he went nuts and smashed a hotel room. Yeah.

He has done a direct to video movie in 2020 and some tv stuff but no big movie.

Next time don't go crazy and smash hotel rooms. That's for 80s rockers.

[Kirby101]

I don't know about Terence Young, he made two more movies and then retired. He was already in his 70s.

Jan de Bont, director of Speed and Twister, was so turned off by interference doing Laura Croft, from both the Studio and the Game company (the game company once asked for a scene to be reshot because they did not like the buttons on Jolie's shirt) that he gave up directing.

[Emperor-of-Dragons]

Kerry Conran

[Jim Kelly]

I think when you see a successful director who loses funding after one of his or her movies fails to make a tidy profit, there's probably more to the story. That director probably has made enemies in the business and the money people were just waiting for a failure so they wouldn't have to do business with that person. With female directors, it's hard enough for them to get one movie, so the patriarchy is just waiting for them to fail and confirm their bias.

[Robotman]

Renny Harlin with Cutthroat Island.

[Alan2099]

Harold P. Warren, insurance and fertilizer salesman made a movie to win a bit with a screenwriter he knew. The movie was Manos: The Hands of Fate. He never made another movie.

[JBatmanFan05]

I have to second or third Michael Cimino. It's one thing to bomb, it's another thing to bomb when you have a relatively high budget (for those times), when you incur a lot of costs above your originally planned budget. Studios feel especially burned then. Being a costly needy director and then failing badly, that can spell the end for you, your ruination.

[Zauriel]

I think when you see a successful director who loses funding after one of his or her movies fails to make a tidy profit, there's probably more to the story. That director probably has made enemies in the business and the money people were just waiting for a failure so they wouldn't have to do business with that person. With female directors, it's hard enough for them to get one movie, so the patriarchy is just waiting for them to fail and confirm their bias.

I see what you meant. There are some people in the studio who disliked Cimino for his arrogance and narcissistic personality. Once Heaven's Gate bombed, the studio execs quickly blamed the loss of money on him and threw him under the bus.

He continued to direct a few films, but he was unable to increase the movie's budget to his liking, because the studios refused to listen to his requests to increase the budget since he was the one who requested the studio to increase the budget for Heaven's Gate.

[Mister Mets]

The nastiest example might be Herbert Selpin, of the 1943 film Titanic.

It was the most expensive German production ever.
After some members of the Kriegsmarine used as consultants kept harassing the actresses, Selpin made some unflattering comments about the German military.
He was arrested and questioned by Goebbels.
He was found hanged in a prison cell. Photos were shown to the rest of the cast and crew as an indication of why they shouldn't give the new director any problems.

Despite its cost, the film was not given a wide release because Goebbels figured the scenes of panic might dispirit their German people as the Axis was losing the war.

[JBatmanFan05]

The nastiest example might be Herbert Selpin, of the 1943 film Titanic.

It was the most expensive German production ever.
After some members of the Kriegsmarine used as consultants kept harassing the actresses, Selpin made some unflattering comments about the German military.
He was arrested and questioned by Goebbels.
He was found hanged in a prison cell. Photos were shown to the rest of the cast and crew as an indication of why they shouldn't give the new director any problems.

Despite its cost, the film was not given a wide release because Goebbels figured the scenes of panic might dispirit their German people as the Axis was losing the war.

All this is true of Selpin, but it's not so clear, from what I can find, that the film was a "box office bomb." See below. Selpin I'd say died due to his remarks, not his film. A screenwriter for the film was thought to be doubling as a regime spy keeping tabs on Selpin.

"Goebbels initially banned the film but relented the following year to allow it to be shown *outside Germany, where it became a smash hit.

Still, following those limited runs, he ordered the film locked away. Other than a brief release in West Germany in 1955, it was forgotten until 2005, when it was *rediscovered, restored and *re-released."

https://nypost.com/2016/04/24/hitler...as-a-disaster/

[Bruce Wayne]

Joshua Benjamin Trank. Hit with chronicle. Then he did fantastic four. Then he went nuts and smashed a hotel room. Yeah.

It wasn't a hotel. It was a rented house/mansion that Fox had rented for him during the filming of FF. He and the dogs wrecked the entire place. Apparently a Fox VP had to personally come to Louisiana where they were filming to apologize to the owners.

https://screenrant.com/fantastic-fou...-house-damage/

The rumors about Trank inflicting damage on the production house, according to THR's latest sources, were very true. The director allegedly caused more than $100,000 worth of damage and, after the landlord attempted to evict him, defaced photos of the landlord's family that were in the house. The landlord then filed a complaint with the local law enforcement and filed a civil suit, the contents of which have been sealed. Trank declined to comment on this situation.

[Mister Mets]

All this is true of Selpin, but it's not so clear, from what I can find, that the film was a "box office bomb." See below. Selpin I'd say died due to his remarks, not his film. A screenwriter for the film was thought to be doubling as a regime spy keeping tabs on Selpin.


https://nypost.com/2016/04/24/hitler...as-a-disaster/

Technically, it probably did not recoup costs if they couldn't release it within Germany, and afterwards it was tainted as a Nazi production.

Apparently an edited version was popular in the Soviet Union because it suggested very loudly (the term "implied" is not accurate) that the Titanic disaster was caused by capitalism and British corruption.