History Main / CreatorKiller

* '' {{Batman and Robin}} '' did this to Joel Schumacher, despite the bad script from Akiva Goldsman, rushed time, and good box office. Schumacher is completely blamed for killing the franchise until the reboot. Yes the same Schumacher who directed '' The Lost Boys '', St Elmo's Fire '', and ''Falling Down ''. The financially successful ''PhantomOfTheOpera'' is also well remembered for being mediocre and it seems to be the only other movie remembered other than, of course, Batman and Robin.

* His films have been steadily declining in critical acclaim since ''The Village'', but ''TheLastAirbender'' appears to be the point where MNightShyamalan's name became permanently soiled. So much so that even seeing his name associated in any way is enough to doom a film, as seen with the TrappedInARoom horror ''Devil''. He didn't direct, but simply being a producer and having the marketing imply that he had a part in any way was enough to detract viewers.

* ''ThePostman'' basically ended Kevin Costner's run as being star, director, and producer of his own films. He's had steady work as an actor in plenty of movies since then, but he has yet to recover his "A-list" star power.
** ''Waterworld'' didn't help him either.

* ''{{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}}''. He has made some good films after the movie: ''The American President'', "Ghosts of Mississippi", ''The Bucket List'', etc., but his reputation is too far soiled.
* '' {{Batman and Robin}} '' did this to Joel Schumacher, despite the bad script from Akiva Goldsman and rushed time, Schumacher is completely blamed for it. Yes the same Schumacher who directed '' The Lost Boys '', St Elmo's Fire '', and ''Falling Down ''. '' PhantomOfTheOpera is also well remembered for being terrible and it seems to be the only other movie remembered other than, of course, Batman and Robin
* His films have been steadily declining in critical acclaim, but ''TheLastAirbender'' appears to be the point where MNightShyamalan's name became permanently soiled. So much so that even seeing his name associated in any way is enough to doom a film, as seen with the TrappedInARoom horror ''Devil''. He didn't direct, but simply being a producer and having the marketing imply that he had a part in any way was enough to detract viewers.

* Famously in the UK (thanks to coverage from TheBBC), in 1983 the development of the "[[{{Vaporware}} mega-games]]" ''Psyclapse'' and ''Bandersnatch'' brought down Imagine Software, one of the biggest and most successful software companies of the day.
** Those were probably a factor, but not the only one - Imagine were spending silly money on advertising, bad investments and badly-thought-out attempts to outwit their rivals by buying up all available duplicating capacity.

* After the abysmal flop that was ''TombRaider: The Angel of Darkness'', [[YouHaveFailedMe Core Design couldn't do any more]] ''TombRaider'' games and struggled with a few mediocre handheld games before being sold off to Rebellion and rebande as "Rebellion Derby". They were promptly were taken down by the critically savaged RogueWarrior.

* The failure of ''Tabula Rasa'' pretty much ended the video game career of Richard Garriott.

* FrankMiller's bizarre ''TheSpirit'' movie probably did more damage to his career than anything else, this movie has at least ensured that Miller will ''never'' be a director of a major motion picture ever again.

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]
* 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 [[NeverLiveItDown never lived this down]].

* '' {{ Batman and Robin }} '' did this to Joel Schumacher,despite the bad script from Akiva Goldsman and rushed time,Schumacher is completely blamed for it.Yes the same Schumacher in who directed '' The Lost Boys '',St Elmo's Fire '',and ''Falling Down ''. '' Phantom of the Opera '' is also well remembered for being terrible and it seems to be the only other movie remembered other than of course Batman and Robin

** ''Waterworld'' did not helped him too.

** And pressured the guy who came up withe the idea for Final Fantasy - probably saving SquareSoft from shutting down entirely - into resigning from the company, since the film was his 20-million-dollar-losing project.

** And pressured the guy who came up withe the idea for Final Fantasy - probably saving SquareSoft (now SquareEnix) from shutting down entirely - into resigning from the company entirely, since the film was his 20-million-dollar-losing project.

* After several years of one flop after another (''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 the abysmal flop that was ''TombRaider: The Angel of Darkness'', [[YouHaveFailedMe Core Design couldn't do any more]] ''TombRaider'' games and struggled with a few medicore handheld games before being sold off to Rebellion and rebande as "Rebellion Derby". They were promptly were taken down by the critically savaged RogueWarrior.

* His films have been steadily declining in critical acclaim, but ''TheLastAirbender'' appears to be the point where MNightShyamalan's name became permanently soiled.
** So much so that even seeing his name assocated in any way is enough to doom a film, as seen with the TrappedInARoom horror ''Devil''. He didn't direct, but simply being a producer and having the marketing imply that he had a part in any way was enough to detract viewers.

* After the abysmal flop that was ''TombRaider: The Angel of Darkness'', [[YouHaveFailedMe Core Design couldn't do any more]] ''TombRaider'' games and was sold off to Rebellion, who promptly were taken down by the critically savaged RogueWarrior.

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

** Considering [[RockADoodle all]] [[{{Thumbelina}} the]] [[ATrollInCentralPark other]] [[ThePebbleAndThePenguin films]] that Bluth somehow waltzed through unharmed, that's quite an accomplishment. Especially considering that Titan AE was [[YourMileageMayVary arguably not even that bad]].

* Just ''barely'' averted by ''Film/{{Cleopatra}}'', which nearly bankrupted [=~20th Century Fox~=] with its bloated production.

** Which goes to show how bizarre the film industry can be; any industry in which a gross profit of almost $200 million is so catastrophic a loss it can cause bankruptcy is a strange one indeed.
*** 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).

* The huge failure of ''{{Supertrain}}'' and the US boycott of the [[OlympicGames 1980 Summer Olympics]] nearly bankrupted {{NBC}}.

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

* The VirtualBoy did this to GunpeiYokoi, whose failure resulted into him being KickedUpstairs and resigning from the compagny before his death.

** Considering [[RockADoodle all]] [[{{Thumbelina}} the]] [[ATrollInCentralPark other]] [[ThePebbleAndThePenguin films]] that Bluth somehow waltzed through unharmed, that's quite an accomplishment.

* Fred Dekker (director of the cult classics ''NightOfTheCreeps'' and TheMonsterSquad'') was brought on by Orion Pictures to write the screenplay for and direct ''{{Robocop}} 3''. Given the...[[Understatement mixed]] [[FranchiseKiller reaction]] to the film, it's not exactly surprising that he hasn't directed anything since then. Aside from a gig as a consulting producer on ''StarTrekEnterprise'' (and that was way back in 2001), he hasn't helmed anything for the last twenty years. Better yet, it was delayed for two years as its production company, Orion Pictures, went bankrupt (although it wasn't the sole reason).

** ''{{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 worldwide gross was $264 million, whereas its estimated budget was $175 million. Depending on its marketing costs, the movie probably broke even or made a small profit. 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.
*** In terms of box office success, the film was definitely a flop. Aside from marketing costs, studios only get a percentage of the domestic and foreign box office gross revenue back (and the percentage of the foreign gross is often smaller than that of the domestic gross). At the time when ''Waterworld'' was made, that was 90% of the opening weekend, with the percentage shrinking over following weekends. Since ''Waterworld'' had a weak opening weekend (bringing in only $21 million), the studio's percentage of the worldwide gross was considerably less than $264 million.

*** In terms of box office success, the film was definitely a flop. Aside from marketing costs, studios only get a percentage of the domestic and foreign box office gross revenue back (and the percentage of the foreign gross is often smaller than that of the domestic gross). At the time when ''Waterworld'' was made, that was 80% of the opening weekend, with the percentage shrinking over following weekends. Since ''Waterworld'' had a weak opening weekend (bringing in only $21 million), the studio's percentage of the worldwide gross was considerably less than $264 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. 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).