Movies

The two box office flops that opened almost back-to-back and sank the career of Taylor Kitsch, Hollywood’s next big star

Taylor Kitsch had everything he needed to succeed, but the films he starred in didn’t do as well as he expected.

Update: Feb 24th, 2025 23:19 CET

The world of the film industry is volatile and ever-changing. Actors can be the darling of the studio system until a big flop ends their careers. This is what happened to Taylor Kitsch, a Canadian who promised to be the next big star of the seventh art. His career took off in 2006 with the TV series ‘Friday Night Lights’, in which he participated in 76 episodes giving life to Tim Riggins. The success of the series, with Kitsch as the main character, foretold that the actor would be talked about for years to come.

In fact, his first opportunity after the end of the series was not long in coming, as he landed a starring role in the Disney film ‘John Carter’ (2012). Based on the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, it follows a Civil War veteran who is inexplicably teleported to Mars. Taylor Kitsch played John Carter and there were high hopes for the film, but nothing went as expected.

Farewell to Taylor Kitsch

Disney had blind faith in ‘John Carter’. So much so that they hoped it would be the start of a new MCU-style film saga, but that all came to nothing when they saw the box office results. With a budget of around 350 million, the highest for a Disney film up to that point, they couldn’t make more than 300 million, not counting campaign costs and so on. It became one of the biggest structural failures in the history of cinema and left Taylor Kitsch’s career in tatters. However, the Canadian would have a chance to redeem himself.

About 10 weeks later, ‘Battleship’ (2012) was released. Also starring Taylor Kitsch, the film was directed by Peter Berg (‘Hancock’) and based on the board game of the same name. It had a budget of 200 million and made just over 300 million at the box office, but again the structural costs were higher and doomed ‘Battleship’ to failure. From then on, although he had other film roles, Taylor Kitsch never appeared in a major Hollywood production again, although he was not to blame for the poor box office results.

Taylor Kitsch was sent into professional exile from Hollywood and his career, from then on, was limited to television. However, the Canadian has found a home there, as he has starred in series such as ‘Waco’, ‘Painkiller’ or the most recent, ‘American Primeval’. Produced by Netflix and directed by an old acquaintance of his, Peter Berg, the miniseries is being a critical success and has been positioned for several weeks as one of the most watched on the platform.