Sean Penn film is biggest dud

Sean Penn delivered "one of his greatest screen performances" in All the King's Men, according to The Hollywood Reporter's review of the 2006 film.

Nevertheless, the Sony Pictures release earned just $9 million (Dh33m) at the worldwide box office. Factor in its $55m production budget and it amounts to Hollywood's biggest flop of the past five years, Forbes magazine says.

After eliminating movies without star power, Forbes divided each movie's box office take by its production budget to figure out the shortfall.

All the King's Men failed to earn back 84 per cent of its production budget, bad enough to earn it first place among flops.

In second place was The Express, Universal's 2008 movie starring Dennis Quaid about late college football star Ernie Davis. It failed to earn back 75 per cent of its budget.

Fox's 2005 film Stay was third, a movie that failed to earn back 73 per cent of its budget despite the efforts of actors Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts.

Even Quentin Tarantino showed up on the list, courtesy of his co-direction of Grindhouse for the Weinstein Co. It lost 65 per cent of its budget

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