The Big: Convinced he had a mega-hit on his hands, John Travolta managed to convince Warner Brothers to part with $73 million to get Scientology nut L. Ron Hubbard’s alien saga up on the big screen. We hope he gave them a receipt…

The Damage: Commonly referred to as “The Worst Film Ever”, Battlefield Earth saw Warner claw back just $30 million of their original outlay, as the movie tanked in every country foolish enough to screen it. Travolta meanwhile, undid all the goodwill he’d earned in Pulp Fiction and spent the next decade popping up in rubbish like Swordfish.

What Could Have Saved It: Ditching the prosthetics might have given Forest Whitaker a fighting chance, whilst poor old John might not have ended up as such a laughing stock…