Fiasco

The only thing moviegoers love more than car crashes and explosions is watching a high-profile film go up in flames. Every season brings a number of financial disappointments, but it takes extraordinary circumstances for a screen project to become a truly iconic disaster like Ishtar or Waterworld. In the highly entertaining Fiasco, James Robert Parish goes behind the scenes to tell the in-depth backstory of the 15 top flops in Hollywood movie history, from Cleopatra and The Cotton Club to Battlefield Earth, Showgirls, and The Postman. Parish delivers all the gossip, the grosses, and the egregious ego battles behind each of these classic benchmark big-screen disasters.

Acknowledgments.Introduction.
1 Cleopatra (1963).
2 The Chase (1966).
3 Paint Your Wagon (1969).
4 The Wild Party (1975).
5 Popeye (1980).
6 The Cotton Club (1984).
7 Shanghai Surprise (1986).
8 Ishtar (1987).
9 Last Action Hero (1993).
10 Cutthroat Island (1995).
11 Showgirls (1995).
12 Waterworld (1995) and The Postman (1997).
13 Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (2000).
14 Town&Countr y (2001).
Afterword.
Appendix A: Filmography.
Appendix B: Hollywood Feature Films That Were Box-Office Disappointments in Domestic Theatrical Release (1960-2004).
Bibliography
Index.