Ishtar: a $51M spy comedy that grossed $14M, the archetype of the Hollywood flop

Ishtar, a comedy-adventure written and directed by Elaine May and starring Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman as two struggling singer-songwriters, was budgeted at an initial cap under $28 million that grew to about $51 million as reported conflict between May and Beatty dragged the shoot out. Columbia Pictures released it in the United States on May 15, 1987.

It grossed $14.4 million worldwide against that roughly $51 million budget, with up to another $20 million spent on prints and marketing. Industry insiders had openly predicted its failure well before release, on the strength of the runaway cost and the well-publicized behind-the-scenes turmoil.

Ishtar lost an estimated $40 million and became the archetype of the Hollywood flop — the 'Ishtar of...' idiom and decades of pop-culture references made the film's reputation as a disaster part of its cost. The very word came to mean a movie so expensive and so rejected it becomes a punchline.