CinemaScore is a Las Vegas market research firm that specializes in polling average moviegoers as they exit the latest theatrical releases. It doesn’t correlate to the quality of a particular release, but it does give studios and marketing teams an indication of how satisfied they were with a given film. An A+ CinemaScore rating is a rare feat, but an F is even more scarce. Only 19 other movies have received such an honor, and the recently released, pseudo-reboot of The Grudge is now the 20th. In honor of this massive achievement, here are 10 other terrible movies with an F CinemaScore.
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10 Movies With An F Cinemascore
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‘Dr. T & the Women’
While one would think that legendary director Robert Altman teaming up with Richard Gere at the height of his Hollywood prowess would yield impressive results, the exact opposite is true. Although Dr. T & the Women features an impressive supporting cast that includes Helen Hunt, Farrah Fawcett, and Kate Hudson, this story about a wealthy Texas gynecologist is an utterly forgettable romantic comedy that also feels like a relic by today’s standards.
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‘Solaris’ (2002)
Although Tarkovsky’s 1972 adaptation of the same name is undoubtedly a science fiction classic, audiences largely hated Steven Soderbergh’s 2002 remake of Solaris. Unfortunately, the movie was marketed as some sort of psychological thriller when it’s really a tragic love story. While we're more partial to the movie than most viewers seem to be, there’s no denying that bad marketing for the remake burned audiences who went into the theater with higher expectations.
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‘Wolf Creek’
Considering that 2005’s Wolf Creek was ambiguously marketed as a story that was “based on true events,” it’s no surprise that the obviously fictitious movie was disappointing to audiences. Combine these mixed expectations with a film that consists of terrible acting, brutal torture porn, and a moral compass that is highly questionable, and you get a movie that is neither rewatchable nor appealing in the first place.
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‘The Wicker Man’
Although 1973’s The Wicker Man is widely considered to be a folk horror classic, the infamous 2006 remake starring Nicholas Cage is exactly the inverse. Aside from giving the world footage of Cage screaming about bees and punching a woman in a bear costume, there’s a “so bad it’s good” quality to the film that makes it deserving of an ‘F’ CinemaScore.
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‘I Know Who Killed Me’
As Lindsay Lohan’s acting opus, 2007’s I Know Who Killed Me was not only able to achieve the coveted moniker of having an ‘F’ Cinemascore, but it also earned Lohan Worst Actress and Worst Screen Couple (with herself) honors at that year’s Golden Raspberry Awards. I Know Who Killed Me is so ridiculous that it’s almost not worth mentioning on this list. Almost.
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‘Mother!’
As the most divisive movie of 2017, it’s no wonder why Darren Aronofsky's Mother! isn’t necessarily a crowd-pleaser. Any movie where (spoilers?) a baby is unceremoniously killed and then promptly eaten is bound to receive a negative audience reaction. Even Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem couldn’t save this movie from an ‘F’ CinemaScore.
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‘Lucky Numbers’
As the first John Travolta film to be released after the cinematic atrocity known as Battlefield Earth, Lucky Numbers represents the beginning of Travolta’s decline in Hollywood. Although Nora Ephron’s career largely speaks for itself, Lucky Numbers is also the rare misfire from the legendary writer-director. The CinemaScore attributed to this movie comes not from the mediocre quality of the film itself, but the fact that pretty much every single character is completely detestable and wholly unlikable.
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‘Alone in the Dark’
As the master of low-budget video game schlock, it’s honestly surprising that Uwe Boll doesn’t dominate this list. Nevertheless, Alone in the Dark is arguably Boll’s most inept work. It’s honestly a miracle that the movie was even released, let alone by a major studio like Lionsgate. It’s apparent once you watch the film why audiences disliked the movie – it’s absolute trash.
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‘Disaster Movie’
It’s no coincidence that a movie some consider to be the worst film ever made would also achieve an ‘F’ CinemaScore. While writers-directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer are known for scraping the bottom of the barrel in their various parody movies, this monstrosity is undoubtedly the worst thing they’ve ever made. In other words, Disaster Movie totally deserved the audience rating.
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‘The Box’
The Box is the type of movie that is far better in concept than it is in execution. Even though Richard Kelly created perhaps the most infamous cult movie of all time in Donnie Darko, his most recent effort also effectively landed him in director jail. That was 2009, and Kelly hasn’t made another movie since. Yikes. Ultimately, it’s probably the film’s divisive ending that earned the coveted ‘F’ Cinemascore rating.
