Turkey Day comes once a year, but in a year that's been short on big motion-picture success stories, it seems like a fresh bird has landed at the box office every weekend.
In honor of the biggest film-going holiday on the calendar, TheWrap has assembled a list of 2011's biggest duds so far:
THE RUM DIARY
With Johnny Depp movies having amassed an astronomical $7.67 billion across the globe over the course of his career, this film stands out like a bad batch of hooch. Grossing just $19.1 million worldwide on a $45 million budget, it was Depp's least successful film since 1999's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," another movie based on the actor's close friend, the late Hunter S. Thompson. It was perhaps an even greater disappointment for director Bruce Robinson, who battled with alcohol and writer's block while penning the screenplay, and who hadn't directed a film since 1992 ("Jennifer 8").
Also read: 'Rum Diary' One of Johnny Depp's Biggest Career Flops
MARS NEEDS MOMS
Disney's 3D animated comedy performed so badly at the box office, it not only convinced the studio to shutter producer Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers Digital company, it also made the film industry second-guess the entire motion-capture filmmaking technique.
(Steven Spielberg's "Tintin" has since pulled everyone back from the edge on that.)
"Mars Need Moms" grossed a poultry ... er, paltry $39 million of its $190 million production budget in a huge blow to Disney's bottom line. Critics didn't like it, either. The film scored only 36 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and the Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips called it "one of the least visually appealing films ever to go out under the Disney banner."
Also read: Can Steven Spielberg's 'Tintin' Save Motion-Capture Animation?
LARRY CROWNE
With Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in the leading roles, this romantic comedy seemed like a sure-fire hit ... if it had been released in, say, 1995.
The film, which was also directed by Hanks, wasn't a huge money-loser for producer Vendome Pictures, grossing $52.4 million worldwide on a production budget of $30 million. But the rom-com -- not so affectionately known as the "Scooter Movie" because its ubiquitous key art featuring its stars on a Vespa -- didn't exactly juice the careers of Hanks, 55, or Roberts, 44.
"Larry Crowne" drew an audience that was 81 percent above the age of 35 its opening weekend. There were "Murder She Wrote" episodes that didn't skew that old.
Also read: 'Larry Crowne': So Flaccid It Seems Written by a Q-Tip
COWBOYS & ALIENS
The graphic novel from which it was adapted was a New York Times best-seller; director Jon Favreau had a proven sci-fi/action pedigree with "Iron Man" and campaigned his heart out for the movie; Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig provided plenty of star power; and it had the executive-producer stamp of approval from none other than Steven Spielberg.
