“The Worst Movie of Young Century.” The Movie Starring Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck Suffered Losses of $47 Million and Was Quickly Pulled from Theaters
The film, starring Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, was so bad that it was quickly pulled from theaters and its director never made anything again.
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck make up one of Hollywood's most popular couples. And like many other Hollywood relationships, theirs also began with a joint project they took part in more than 20 years ago. However, it's very likely that they would both prefer to forget about that film, given how much of a failure it turned out to be.
Gigli is a production directed by Martin Brest, who previously stood behind the camera of The Beverly Hills Cop and Scent of a Woman. So he had some real hits to his credit and it seemed that another one could be expected, but this time everything went wrong, causing his new movie to be crushed in reviews. The Wall Street Journal hailed it as “the worst movie of our admittedly young century.” Rotten Tomatoes notes that Gigli has only 6% positive reviews from critics and 13% from viewers.
That's not all, however, as the movie starring Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck reportedly had a budget of $54 million, but earned only $7.2 million, meaning losses of nearly $47 million. So they were huge. Gigli did so badly that it was pulled from theaters after three weeks.
The failure may have occurred because Brest wasn’t allowed to realize his vision for the film. In an interview with Playboy, producer Casey Silver revealed that while the director initially had full creative control, he lost it over time as the studio interfered, wanting to turn his work into a mainstream comedy. And so, according to Silver's reports, a failure crushed by critics emerged from a non-ideal film that received mixed reviews during test screenings.
Martin Brest didn’t make any more movies after Gigli. He decided to retire from the industry, as he said during an interview with Variety in 2023.
So, once [Gigli] happened, I thought I’ll never be invited back. Second, I would never be able to operate with the kind of control that a director, I feel, needs and deserves. So that felt like a clear signal it was time for me to back away.
I had a good run, and I enjoyed success and freedom, and that was fantastic. I would’ve liked it to go on longer, but everybody likes everything to go on longer. But I feel very grateful for what I experienced.
The director confessed that although he's done with “all that movie stuff,” he's still written two scripts, but doesn't think either of them will be filmed.
And if you're not familiar with Gigli, it's a film about a criminal who is tasked with kidnapping the brother of an important district attorney. While carrying it out, he is watched by a beautiful woman, known to him only as Ricki, who makes sure he doesn't fail.
