Not every Hollywood movie makes it big. According to Statista, over 400 new movies come out each year, only in the U.S. and Canada. With so many films releasing on theaters and streaming platforms, it makes sense that not all of them become commercial hits. When a movie is destined to be a box office flop, actors can only do so much.
There are plenty of stars who have managed to get their careers back on track after a failed movie. For example, Academy Award-winning actress Emma Stone and Bradley Cooper, who’s also been nominated for an Oscar on several occasions, once starred in a 2000s rom-com that was a complete flop.
And, as it turns out, the producers new this movie was destined to fail almost since the beginning.
Emma Stone And Bradley Cooper Starred In A Very Bad Rom-Com Back In 2015
Aloha (2015) is a romantic comedy film written, directed, and produced by Cameron Crowe, who’s probably best known for movies like Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982), Jerry Maguire (1996), and Elizabethtown (2005).
The movie tells the story of a military contractor, Brian Gilcrest (Bradley Cooper), who returns to Hawaii to oversee the launch of a privately funded satellite that’s meant to be launched in the skies over the island.
Soon enough, Bradley Cooper’s character finds himself caught in the middle a love triangle with a idealistic Air Force pilot (Emma Stone) and his ex-girlffirend who is now married (Rachel McAdams).
In addition to these three A-list stars, Aloha features Bill Murray as a corrupt billionaire and Cooper’s boss, as well as a supporting cast consisting of Alec Baldwin, John Krasinski, and Danny McBride.
Aloha (2015) Was A Huge Commercial Flop
Despite having a cast full of well-known stars, including Emma Stone, Bradley Cooper, Rachel McAdams, and The Office’s John Krasinski, as well as a director who had worked in some rather successful movies before, Aloha was a huge commercial disaster.
According to Box Office Mojo, this romantic comedy only made a little over $26 million at box office worldwide, most of it in the U.S. This might not seem so bad. But the movie’s overall budget was of $37 million dollars, meaning that producers lost almost $10 millions by making this film.
Moreover, the critics and the general audience weren’t too fond of this movie. Aloha only has a 20% score on Rotten Tomatoes, based on reviews from 166 critics. And the critics’ overall consensus being that the movie lacked substance. Plus, the movie’s been bashed for whitewashing on many occasions, with Emma Stone almost being cancelled for taking the role of Allison Ng.
Producers At Sony Knew Aloha Was Going To Be A Box Office Flop Since The Beginning
In 2014, Sony Pictures was hacked by a that identified itself as the "Guardians of Peace". Among the many things hackers leaked to the public was a series of interesting emails concerning Cameron Crowe’s Aloha.
In a vert lengthy email, the then-Sony Pictures Entertainment president, Amy Pascal, spoke about this rom-com (via Daily Beast): “Cameron never really changed anything… People don’t like people in movies who flirt with married people or married people who flirt… I’m never starting a movie again when the script is ridiculous and we all know it… Scott [Rudin] didn’t once go to the set or help us in the editing room or fix the script”.
This was one of the last emails in a long thread about Aloha. At first, everything seemed to be going great with the movie, with only some small changes (like changing the title from Deep Tiki to Aloha) being made. But then, Pascal and Crowe’s relationship took a turn for the worst.
In late October 2014, Pascal was trying to schedule a friends and family screening with a team of Sony execs, but Crowe seemed to think the movie wasn’t quite ready yet.
“It just feels weird to me. After five months of waiting for you and SR [Scott Rudin] to get in the same room with me, it comes to this? I hate to be difficult, but I get a bad feeling,” the director wrote in a leaked email.
“The audience will not be prepared for the uniqueness of the film. There will be a destructive result if we aren’t super careful about how to proceed. I just can’t sit there and watch it happen.”
With all this drama behind the scenes, it’s a surprise that Aloha ever saw the light. Now, it’s clear that the producers made a bad call by not canceling this movie that was doomed to fail since the beginning.
