20 Movies So Bad They Killed The Studios That Made Them

The 1960s was a great decade for Hollywood epics, but not all of them performed as well as some from the previous 10 years, like «Ben-Hur» and «The Ten Commandments.» Still, the decade plowed on with several notable titles, including «The Fall of the Roman Empire,» starring Sophia Loren, Alec Guinness, James Mason, Stephen Boyd, Christopher Plummer, Omar Sharif, and Mel Ferrer.

The film’s title gives away the plot, as it’s a loose adaptation of Edward Gibbon’s «The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.» The one thing the film had going for it in the beginning was Charlton Heston, who was all but a requirement for an epic to work. Unfortunately, he backed out before production began, leaving Boyd to take the role of Livius in his stead. Like any epic, costs were high, amounting to $19 million, or about $187 million today.

Unfortunately, the box office wasn’t kind, totaling only around $4.75 million. Samuel Bronston produced «The Fall of the Roman Empire» via his company, Samuel Bronston Productions, which didn’t survive the massive loss. The company ceased business in 1964, the same year the film was released, and entered into bankruptcy. Bronston was convicted of perjury as a result of the proceedings and took it to the Supreme Court, which ultimately sided with Bronston.