One Actor Connects Some Of The Biggest Box Office Flops Of The 2020s So Far
by Ryan Scott · /FilmJared Leto is many things. He's a musician and frontman for the band 30 Seconds to Mars. He's an Oscar-winning actor for his work in "Dallas Buyers Club." He's also developing a pretty lousy track record at the box office, particularly in the 2020s. So much so that several of the biggest flops of the last handful of years have one actor in common — him.
It's honestly tough to find an actor with such a high profile with a worse commercial track record over the last handful of years than Leto. 2021 is tough to count against him as Warner Bros. premiered its entire 2021 slate on HBO Max and in theaters, meaning "The Little Things" never got a fair shake. There's also Ridley Scott's "House of Gucci," which did so-so business ($153 million worldwide/$75 million budget). That aside? Leto's output as an actor, from a commercial standpoint, has been nothing shy of a catastrophe.
Starting in 2022, Leto headlined "Morbius," which was Sony's attempt to expand the scope of its "Spider-Man" spin-off universe following the success of "Venom." It didn't go as planned. It made just $167 million worldwide, a terribly low sum for a superhero movie with the Marvel logo in front of it. Its only saving grace was its $75 million budget. Sony claims that "Morbius" was profitable, which is conceivable once VOD, streaming, DVD, etc., are factored in. But at the box office alone? It was a big flop. Not to mention, it was also a critical disaster.
In 2023, he was part of another high-profile misfire when Disney's "Haunted Mansion" flopped at the box office. Against a $150 million budget, it made just $117 million worldwide. Leto was part of a larger ensemble, playing Hatbox Ghost.
Jared Leto has no real appeal to mainstream audiences
In 2025, "Tron: Ares" flopped at the box office in epic fashion. Despite fans waiting years for a sequel to "Tron: Legacy," against a massive budget north of $200 million, it finished its run with just $142 million worldwide. It was one of the biggest bombs of the year. Unlike "Haunted Mansion," and more like "Morbius," it was another example of Jared Leto being front and center as the movie's key star.
More recently, Jared Leto was a key part of another big-budget ensemble piece, Amazon's live-action "Masters of the Universe" movie, which also flopped at the box office. Leto played the villainous Skeletor in the movie, which carried a huge budget of at least $170 million. To date, it has made just $112 million worldwide. When all's said and done, it will probably go down as one of the biggest bombs of 2026.
Taken together, it's a truly epic run of bad, outlandish proportions. Collectively, these movies have lost a fortune for their respective studios. While the ensemble pieces couldn't be placed entirely on Leto's shoulders, it's clear that he doesn't help matters any. That may explain why Leto was absent from the "Masters of the Universe" marketing campaign, despite Amazon paying him millions of dollars to be in it.
Several of these movies were Leto star vehicles though, and those have to be owned by the star in question. What's becoming clear is that he doesn't have a meaningful appeal to mainstream audiences. There's a data-driven argument to be made that Leto being in a movie has the opposite effect.
Jared Leto hasn't had an outright theatrical hit in a decade
"Tron: Ares" proved that Jared Leto is box office poison, but it's actually a trend that has been proving itself for some time. The fact of the matter is that Leto hasn't been part of an outright theatrical hit since 2016's "Suicide Squad" ($749 million worldwide), though it's worth noting that the movie was certainly not a hit with critics, with many DC fans vocalizing a strong distaste for Leto's take on the Joker.
Even before 2020, Leto's spotty track record was coming into focus. His misses vastly outweigh his hits and, frankly, the misses are far bigger than his hits. "Blade Runner 2049" was a box office flop bad enough to become a cautionary tale, earning just $259 million worldwide on a budget of at least $150 million, if not as high as $185 million. The movie is beloved critically, but it was yet another disaster with Leto's name on it.
This is also to say nothing of Zack Snyder's "Justice League," a movie with reshoots that reportedly cost $70 million, in part to add Leto's Joker at the very end. "Justice League" was already a financial disaster during its theatrical run, and Leto was, in some small way, associated with making the endeavor even more expensive. His commercial track record is undeniably atrocious. Let's also not forget that Leto was accused by multiple women of impropriety in an Air Mail article published in June 2025. Hollywood has a history of overlooking bad behavior if the juice is worth the squeeze.
In other words, if there's money to be made. In Leto's case, based purely on the numbers, it's frankly amazing he's remained employed in high-profile projects for this long.