History Main / CreatorKiller

* After several years of one flop after another (''MortalKombat: Shaolin Monks'', ''LA Rush'', ''SpyHunter: Nowhere to Run'', ''Hour of Victory'', ''Blacksite Area 51'', etc.) {{Midway}} finally went into receivership in 2009. Their back catalog, except for the licensed sports titles (for obvious licensing reasons) and the ''Cruis'n'' trilogy ({{Nintendo}} owns the rights), was quickly picked up by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in bankruptcy court for cheap (about $40 million).

* After several years of one flop after another (''MortalKombat: Shaolin Monks'', ''LA Rush'', ''SpyHunter: Nowhere to Run'', ''Hour of Victory'', ''Blacksite Area 51'', etc.) {{Midway}} finally went into receivership in 2009.

*** That's because the studio ''didn't'' make a gross profit of nearly $200 million. Studios don't get back all of the ticket sales gross (about 40-45% of it stays with the theaters, with the percentage varying for foreign revenue), and then you have to add in horridly expensive marketing costs (and "Terminator: Salvation" was ''heavily'' marketed). The rule of thumb is that a movie like that (big budget action/sci-fi) has to make at least twice its production budget just to break even, and "Terminator: Salvation" failed to do so (although it likely made a profit on DVD sales).

* Losses from critically-panned ''{{APB}}'' seem to have killed ''{{Crackdown}}'' developer Realtime Worlds.

** Some would say it also brought down Ion Storm, but the RTS ''Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3'' is perhaps the bigger culprit. Not only was it an huge flop on its own, but the internal squabbling its development caused at Ion Storm was partially responsible for turning ''Daikatana'' into what it is, mostly thanks to how Ion Storm wanted to get the game out of the door as soon as possible so they could have some more cash for ''Daikatana''.

** And just to twist the knife, the game was handed to Gearbox Software by 2K Games. Gearbox proceeded to do more towards actually completing the game in one year than Broussard and 3D Realms did in 12.

* The hugely expensive but [[UnexpectedGenreChange poorly received]] ''{{Shadowrun}}'' game took out FASA Interactive in a matter of months, dashing hopes for a much-anticipated ''Mechwarrior'' sequel. Supposedly Microsoft sold the rights back to one of the founders for a ridiculously low price just to wash their hands of the matter.

* After the abysmal flop that was ''TombRaider: The Angel of Darkness'', [[YouHaveFailedMe Core Design couldn't do any more]] ''TombRaider'' games and sold out to Rebellion, then the even ''more'' [[SoBadItsHorrible horrible]] ''Rogue Warrior'' finally put them out of their misery in 2009.
* The piss poor EmpireEarth 3 led to not only the death of the franchise, but also Mad Doc studios.

* After struggling for years, Atari brought out the Atari Jaguar. You may still see the Atari name today. That's just for marketing purposes - Atari as we knew it died with the Jaguar.

** And just to twist the knife, the game was handed to Gearbox Software by 2K Games. Gearbox proceeded to do more in one year than Broussard and 3D Realms did in 12.

* ''{{North}}'' for Rob Reiner. That's Rob Reiner who made ''StandByMe'', ''ThePrincessBride'', ''AFewGoodMen'', ''WhenHarryMetSally'', ''{{Misery}}'' and ''ThisIsSpinalTap''! And all that was set to nought by ''{{North}}''.
** This is incorrect. He has made some good films after the movie: ''The American President'', "Ghosts of Mississippi", ''The Bucket List'', etc.

* ''BattlefieldEarth'' was such a terrible film that Franchise Pictures lost huge amounts of money. However, the final nail in the coffin was when Franchise was hit by a lawsuit from investors who accused the company of deliberately inflating the film's budget to pad their coffers. Franchise Pictures lost the lawsuit and declared bankruptcy. Also, on a related note, Travolta fired his manager at the time, allegedly for getting him invovled with the film in the first place. ''Battlefield Earth'' also killed moviegoers' chances of taking any Hubbard or Scientology film seriously.

** This is incorrect. He has made good films after the movie: "The American President", "Ghosts of Mississippi", ''The Bucket List'', etc.

** This is incorrect. He has made good films after the movie: "TheAmericanPresident", "GhostsofMississippi", "RumorHasIt", etc.

* Allan Carr, the producer and party-giver whose biggest hit was the movie adaptation of ''{{Grease}}'', was tapped to produce the 1989 {{Academy Award}}s telecast. He promised "the most beautiful Academy Awards of all time"; he delivered a show that opened with a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrLzdjKL4l4 garish ten-minute production number]] "highlighted" by Snow White and Rob Lowe performing a duet of "Proud Mary". Reviews were horrible, he was accused of disgracing Hollywood's good name, and he never lived this down.

** ''{{Waterworld}}'', Costner's previous film, was expected to be this, but wound up being an aversion. It was the most expensive movie made to date, got mostly bad reviews, and was seen as a vanity project for Costner, but in the end, it didn't do ''that'' bad -- it wasn't a huge financial success, but neither was it the box office bomb that everyone was predicting. According to {{IMDb}}, its worlwide net profit was $264 million, whereas its estimated budget was $175 million. Even if marketing costs weren't included in the budget, which is often the case with Hollywood movies, ''Waterworld'' was hardly a complete failure. However, the media narrative at the time was "''Waterworld'' is a spectacular flop", and that's probably the main thing people remember about the movie now.

* ''TerminatorSalvation'' bankrupted the company that financed it, leading the sequel rights to be sold in a bankruptcy auction (this seems to happen often with Terminator rights holders but this was the first time that a Terminator movie actually led directly to the company's downfall).

* Although there are a few candidates for JephLoeb, ''TheUltimates 3'' truly cemented him as a FallenCreator.
* ''TheDarkKnightStrikesAgain'' thoroughly damaged FrankMiller's credibility.
** His bizarre ''TheSpirit'' movie probably did more damage to his career than anything else. If in fact he somehow manages to make a comic again, this movie has at least ensured that Miller will ''never'' be a director of a major motion picture ever again.

A rather unpredictable phenomenon, this is when one or more works flop badly enough to take down or badly damage the publishers, the reputation of creative talents behind it, or both. Though there are usually many factors needed to cause the death of a publisher or a creator, some high-profile flops are linked (rightfully or not) to the death of the organization working on it.

Compare with GenreKiller and FranchiseKiller. [[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused]] with AuthorExistenceFailure, RageAgainstTheAuthor or TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou, where the creator can be ''literally'' killed by his or her work. See StarDerailingRole when it happens to the performers.

* The failure of ''[[TitanAE Titan: AE]]'' brought down both DonBluth's career and Fox Animation Studio.

* ''DukeNukemForever'' killed 3D Realms and destroyed George Broussard's reputation. The sad part about this is that the game spent twelve years in and out of development and had '''nothing''' to show for it except concept art and a convoy's worth of hype. Partially subverted in that 3D Realms' parent company, Apogee Games, survived and is still alive thanks to the distribution of its other ''DukeNukem'' properties. [[VaporWare DNF still isn't]], though.

* After the abysmal flop that was ''TombRaider: The Angel of Darkness'', Core Design couldn't do any more ''TombRaider'' games and then sold out to Rebellion, then the even ''more'' [[SoBadItsHorrible horrible]] ''Rogue Warrior'' finally put them out of their misery in 2009.

* ''TheDarkKnightStrikesAgain'' thoroughly damaged FrankMiller's credibility.

* Poor sales of both the ''{{Terminator}} Salvation'' [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames tie-in]] game and ''BionicCommando 2009'' killed [=GRIN=].

* With the increasing development length and budget requirements for modern high-end video games, CreatorKiller games are becoming a remarkably common phenomenon in video games today, more so than in previous gaming generations and even more so than in other entertainment industries. It's very possible that entire studios are killed off when a game that was meant to be a high-end seller gets "only" mediocre sales (even if said studios were well known with high-selling titles in the past). In previous console generations, games that didn't sell well when they were meant to only killed off developers in more extreme cases.

* After the [[SoBadItsHorrible abysmal flop]] that was ''TombRaider: The Angel of Darkness'', Core Design sold out to Rebellion, then the even ''more'' [[SoBadItsHorrible horrible]] ''Rogue Warrior'' finally put them out of their misery in 2009.