Milennium Films The arrival of A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas means Hollywood is in the holiday way—and finally done with its flop-filled fall.
Movies starring Robert De Niro (Killer Elite), Steve Martin (The Big Year) and Daniel Craig (Dream House) were among the past season's high-profile losers.
And then there were the box-office nonstarters that you may never heard of, much less seen. The ones that starred Nicole Kidman, Gerard Butler and even Sarah Palin:
1. Trespass: This A-list home-invasion thriller starring Kidman, Nicolas Cage and Cam Gigandet, and directed by Joel Schumacher, was released on home video this past Tuesday, two weeks after being dumped in 10 theaters, and grossing, if that's the word, $16,816.
2. Machine Gun Preacher: Compared to the other movies in this roundup, this Gerard Butler-led biopic had a strong opening on four screens. But it was all downhill from there, even as the film broke wider (but never wide). To date, according to BoxOffice.com, the reputedly $30 million movie has grossed just about $500,000 domestically.
3. The Double: To be fair, this spy thriller with Richard Gere and Topher Grace only opened last weekend (and in only 11 theaters), so maybe it's only just begun. Or maybe its weak opening-weekend per-screen average indicates it's already over.
4. Restless: For the follow-up to his Oscar-winning hit Milk, director Gus Van Sant offered up his version of Love Story. But since opening in mid-September, the reportedly $8 million tale of tragic young love hasn't caused a run on Kleenex, grossing just about $150,000 here.
5. Sarah Palin: You Betcha! The Palin-worshiping documentary, The Undefeated, which made about $115,000 in theaters over the summer, was a blockbuster compared to this Palin-challenging doc from Kurt & Courtney director Nick Broomfield. The latter came away with just $10,935 during a two-week run that, as bad timing would have it, coincided with its subject formally bowing out of the 2012 White House race.