There are flops, and then there’s The Adventures of Pluto Nash, a movie that didn’t just crash and burn, it plummeted straight into cinematic oblivion like a meteor on fire. Imagine spending a hundred million dollars to make a film, only for it to rake in just over seven million at the box office. That’s not just a loss, that’s Hollywood’s equivalent of setting money on fire and roasting marshmallows over it.
It wasn’t just a box office bomb, it was a detonation so massive that it sent shockwaves through Hollywood’s accounting departments. People whispered about it in hushed tones, like some ancient curse that had befallen Warner Bros. Years later, it remains a benchmark for what not to do in filmmaking.
But let’s rewind for a second. It’s the early 2000s, and Eddie Murphy is still Hollywood royalty. The man gave us Coming to America, Beverly Hills Cop, and The Nutty Professor. So, when he decided to star in a sci-fi comedy set on the moon, it sounded like a win. Sci-fi? Comedy? Eddie Murphy? What could possibly go wrong? As it turns out… everything.
How bad was The Adventures of Pluto Nash?
Calling The Adventures of Pluto Nash bad is like calling the Titanic a minor boating accident. This movie didn’t just miss the mark; it completely ignored it and shot itself in the foot instead. Critics panned it, audiences avoided it like an ex, and even those who did watch it couldn’t figure out what they had just witnessed.
The plot? Something about a nightclub owner on the moon fighting off space gangsters. The execution? Painful. The jokes? Missing. The action? Meh. Even the CGI looked like it was rendered on a potato. The film had a stacked cast, Randy Quaid, Rosario Dawson, and even Pam Grier, but not even their talents could save this spaceship from crashing.
And let’s talk numbers. According to The Numbers, the movie had a production budget of over $100 million. Total box office earnings? A dismal $7,094,995. That’s a loss of $93 million, making it one of the biggest box office bombs in Hollywood history. It wasn’t just bad, it was catastrophically, historically, spectacularly bad.
It had everything working against it, a messy script, awkward pacing, and humor that didn’t land and when it did, it landed like a belly flop from the top diving board. By the time the credits rolled, audiences were left wondering, how did this even get made?
Why Eddie Murphy did The Adventures of Pluto Nash
Now, here’s where it gets interesting. Most actors would take one look at a script like this and run the other way, but Eddie Murphy? He had a bigger vision. In a recent Apple TV documentary, Number One On The Call Sheet, Murphy explained his reasoning.
In his own words, he wanted to do something no Black actor had ever done before. And you know what? That’s actually pretty awesome. Sure, the movie tanked harder than an anchor tied to an elephant, but Murphy’s heart was in the right place.
He wasn’t just making a sci-fi comedy, he was breaking barriers. He wanted to show that Black actors could lead a big-budget, futuristic space adventure, even if Hollywood wasn’t ready for it.
In the grand scheme of things, The Adventures of Pluto Nash may have flopped, but Eddie Murphy’s career survived. He bounced back with hits like Shrek, Dreamgirls, and Dolemite Is My Name. Meanwhile, The Adventures of Pluto Nash sits in Hollywood history as a cautionary tale, a financial disaster, and, strangely enough, a movie with a noble mission.
The Adventures of Pluto Nash can be streamed on Apple TV+.
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