* AllStarCast: In Japan, many of the actors in the film are very recognizable to moviegoing audiences.
* BoxOfficeBomb: Its budget was around $200 million (and that's just for the movie itself, doesn't cover things like advertising) but it flopped badly, only making around 150 million dollars in the box office. This resulted in [[http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/24/us-comcast-writedown-idUSBRE9BN0HR20131224 Universal Studios to take a write down]]. It's even worse that it didn't do well in the Japanese box office despite the Japanese AllStarCast and being loosely based on a famous Japanese folk tale. According to Website/TheOtherWiki, adjusted for inflation, it's the second-biggest bomb in history, behind only ''Film/TheThirteenthWarrior''.
* ColbertBump: The movie received [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity a renewed awareness]] in the wake of director [[https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/22/business/carl-rinsch-netflix-conquest.html Carl Rinsch's expensive legal troubles with]] Creator/{{Netflix}} in 2023.
* CompletelyDifferentTitle: Released in Spain as "The Legend of the Samurai," the last word in singular (what samurai?). Bizarrely, this seems to have been a last minute change, because the first marketing pieces on the country sported the original title and none other.
* DyeingForYourArt: All of the movie's scenes were done twice, first in Japanese to familiarize the cast before reshooting in English. This helped greatly according to Creator/TadanobuAsano.
* ExecutiveMeddling: The film was supposed to come out in November 2012, but ''after'' primary shooting was complete and just prior to the release, the studio demanded more scenes for Keanu Reeves' character to capitalize on his star nature, ''and'' insert a love story involving Reeves' character as well as add in more fantasy battle scenes in the style of ''Film/TheHobbit'' or ''Film/HarryPotter''. This delayed the film by just over a year, and one can only wonder if they were the only changes.
* FakeNationality: Canadian (of English, Chinese, Portuguese and Native Hawaiian descent) Keanu Reeves plays the Anglo-Japanese Kai.
* MultipleLanguagesSameVoiceActor: This trope is taken to his logical extreme in the Japanese dub, as basically all the Japanese actors in the film dubbed themselves in the dub. The only exceptions, outside minor roles, are Creator/ToshiyukiMorikawa dubbing Kai, Creator/TakayukiSugo dubbing the Shogun, and Creator/HirokiTochi as the narrator.
* ScrewedByTheNetwork: After the Japanese box office results came in, Universal wrote down the initial budget costs for their quarterly results. Mind you, this happened ''before the film got released in the US.'' The fact that the film faced [[Film/Anchorman2TheLegendContinues fierce]] [[Film/TheHobbitTheDesolationOfSmaug competition]] [[Film/TheHungerGamesCatchingFire during]] [[Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet the]] [[Film/AmericanHustle holiday]] [[WesternAnimation/Frozen2013 period]] did not help either.
* StarDerailingRole: This film ended Keanu Reeve's streak as a blockbuster leading man and took a hit to his career. Luckily, he has rather distinctive tastes when it comes to choosing roles, so he kept on working on smaller projects and within a year earned back his stripes in the SleeperHit ''Film/JohnWick''.
* TroubledProduction: This film was beset by continuous production woes, as evidenced by [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/%20john-carter-taylor-kitsch-47-ronin-keanu-reeves-mission-impossible-283347 these]] [[http://variety.com/2013/film/news/47-ronin-box-office-bomb-1201012170/ articles]]. Director Carl Erik Rinsch had never made a feature film before, and furthermore, he and the studio, Creator/{{Universal}}, clashed on the final vision of the film. Universal wanted to make an effects-driven fantasy blockbuster akin to ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' or ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'', while Rinsch envisioned the film as more of a drama such as ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'' or ''Film/KingdomOfHeaven''. As such, the film was subject to [[http://screenrant.com/47-ronin-movie-release-date-kofi-167304/ numerous]] [[http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/15/entertainment/la-et-ct-47-ronin-delay-20120815 delays]], [[http://screencrush.com/47-ronin-delayed/ reshoots]], and a budget running from $175 million to a [[http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/universal-pulls-47-ronin-director-budget-swells-225m-exclusive-57111 whopping $225 million]]. Finally, despite denials from the studio, there are rumors that Rinsch was kicked off the project due to the numerous production woes.\\
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Roughly speaking, between the costs of production and advertising, it needed to gross $500 million to break even... a figure that it did not even come close to. Before it even came out in the US[[note]]It had been released in Japan -- to an acidic reception -- three weeks prior.[[/note]], Universal, taking one look at the hurricane of bad buzz surrounding the project, took an unspecified writedown on it. It was met with scathing reviews upon release, and audiences largely agreed with the critics and ignored the film.
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