Is an A-list name still a guarantee anymore? Modern stardom looks less like a straight climb and more like a long series of swerves especially when a familiar face steps outside the one franchise, tone, or screen persona that reliably works. Some stars remain magnetic, wildly famous, and constantly booked, yet still carry a handful of projects that turned into shorthand for “what were they thinking?”
Below are headliners whose careers include enough widely panned, high-profile misfires to stick sometimes because the movie was a pricey swing, sometimes because it was the wrong vehicle at the wrong time, and sometimes because it simply would not land with critics.
1. Vin Diesel
When Diesel is driving the machine, the machine tends to drive back. His biggest wins are anchored to the “Fast & Furious” engine, while many solo attempts have struggled to create similar momentum. “The Last Witch Hunter” arrived with franchise ambition and left without a clear runway, and “Bloodshot” became an emblem of how hard it is to launch a new tentpole around an actor rather than an already-beloved brand. One box office read on the situation framed it as bankable mostly inside marquee franchises, a reality that keeps following him.
2. Will Smith
Few stars have a public image as durable as Smith’s, which makes the misses feel louder. “After Earth” became a recurring reference point for ill-fated prestige sci-fi, and “Gemini Man” tried to sell audiences on tech novelty without giving them a story strong enough to stay. Even “Bright” managed to be huge in visibility while still getting flattened in reviews. One sharp critical summary of “After Earth” reads, “After Earth is a dull, ploddingly paced exercise in sentimental sci-fi” (Critics Consensus), which captures why that title still shadows any conversation about his riskier choices.
3. Eddie Murphy
Murphy’s resume contains both all-timer comedy peaks and some of the most notorious “how did this happen?” lows. “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” is still treated like a cautionary tale about runaway costs meeting audience indifference, while “Norbit” became the kind of hit that feels like a loss commercially alive, culturally punishing. Even when he pivots, the narrative has been sticky enough that a strong performance can get framed as a “comeback” rather than simply the next good role.
4. Dwayne Johnson
Johnson’s brand is clarity: big concept, big smile, big set pieces. Yet several would-be franchise starters didn’t stick, including “Baywatch” and “Skyscraper,” both of which played like dependable popcorn on paper and then struggled to generate lasting heat. “Black Adam” arrived with long-teased plans and left with stalled momentum, a reminder that star power alone cannot glue together a cinematic universe.
5. Kevin Hart
Hart can open a comedy, but the critical conversation around his vehicles has been rough. “Get Hard” and “Night School” drew loud complaints about formula and thin character work, and more recent projects that shifted to streaming often felt like they landed with a thud culturally. The pattern is less about one catastrophic bomb than a cluster of similarly engineered premises that struggled to feel distinct.
6. Tiffany Haddish
Haddish’s jump from scene-stealer to headline name came with high expectations and uneven results. “The Kitchen” underperformed and failed to translate its tough-girl promise into broad appeal, while “Nobody’s Fool” started strong and then dropped sharply. Several subsequent releases went to streaming quickly and faded fast, cutting off the lingering conversation that can help a new leading brand solidify.
7. Halle Berry
Some movies become nicknames, and “Catwoman” remains the one that never leaves Berry’s side. The film has endured as a pop-culture punchline for superhero stumbles, even as Berry continued working steadily. In the broader canon of career-derailing titles, one retrospective simply labels it the 2004 “Catwoman” disaster, which speaks to how permanently it branded her filmography’s riskier stretch.
8. Cuba Gooding Jr.
Gooding’s post-Oscar arc is often described as a long slide into lower-profile releases, with “Boat Trip” serving as an early, loudly mocked marker. After that, many later titles bypassed wide theatrical attention altogether, reshaping his public “movie star” identity into something closer to a working performer with fewer mainstream moments.
9. Jaden Smith
Jaden’s teen-leading-man push never fully recovered from “After Earth,” a project that placed massive expectations on a young actor inside a chilly critical climate. “The Karate Kid” had suggested a more durable runway, but the follow-through did not arrive on a scale that kept him in the A-list conversation. As a result, his on-screen presence became more intermittent, with attention often shifting to music and style rather than a steady film trajectory.
Hollywood still sells the myth of inevitability: the right star, the right budget, the right release date. These careers show the messier version where one role becomes a meme, one would-be franchise becomes a cautionary tale, and fame keeps moving even when the filmography hits a pothole.
The flops may be loud, but the most revealing detail is quieter: the modern A-list can survive almost anything, as long as the next project finds the right lane.
