What were the biggest streaming flops of 2022?

Below, you’ll find 12 titles that earned a spot on our year-end roundup of streaming bombs, either because they received terrible reviews or because they failed to connect with audiences.

So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the worst of 2022. And don’t take our critics’ word for it. You can stream them all yourself, with links to each stream.

Let’s start with one of the biggest streaming flops of the year. The Bubble might even qualify as one of the worst movies on Netflix of any year. With a cool 21% on Rotten Tomatoes as I write this, it was a pretty unmitigated streamer disaster, despite an all-star cast and direction from Judd Apatow. The film is set during the early days of COVID-19, when the cast of a blockbuster franchise shoots a sequel while quarantined in a hotel, largely using greenscreen and motion-capture technology. While that premise sounds promising enough, the jokes fall flat and the pandemic jokes just don’t feel right.

Netflix takes up a lot of space on this list, which makes sense considering it releases tons of titles every year. They can’t all be winners. A stay-at-home dad takes advantage of a weekend away from the wife and kids to have some alone time and reconnect with an old friend. Together, the two devise wild antics that threaten to turn his life upside down. It currently sits at 6% on Rotten Tomatoes. Ouch!

Deep Water may not have fully worked, but there’s a lot to appreciate in it. It’s one of those bombshells that’s actually a lot of fun to watch and arguably the best streaming flop of 2022, if such a title can be given to any movie. This erotic thriller (from erotic thriller master Adrian Lyne) sees a man suspected of foul play when his wife’s lovers go missing. Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas play the lead roles. It’s dark and messy in all the ways you want an erotic thriller to be, despite its poor run with critics.

The Marilyn Monroe semi-biopic sparked controversy long before it premiered on Netflix. Based on Joyce Carol Oates’ novel of the same name, the film takes great liberties with the life of the pop icon. Many found the film exploitative, despite praise for Ana de Armas’ leading role. Whether the film taking creative liberties was justified or exploitative, it generally fell flat, aiming high while largely missing its mark. While critics were divided and some loved it, most were unimpressed.

Technically not a streaming original, Firestarter did have a hybrid release, reaching Peacock the same day it hit theaters. Unfortunately, the remake of the 1980s classic based on the Stephen King novel failed to catch on with critics or audiences. The story of a young girl who develops the ability to create fire with her mind was one of the biggest streaming flops of 2022. Despite its initial streaming release on Peacock, Firestarter is now on Prime Video.

With 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, Netflix’s Marmaduke may be the biggest streaming flop of 2022. Based on the comic strip of the same name, the movie about a naughty dog ​​was strangely lacking in humor, and many critics were quick to note that the animation lacked just look awful.

2022 was a big year for legacy games like Top Gun: Maverick. One that really didn’t land was Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Overwriting existing sequels, the film sees a new group of young people invade Leatherface’s territory, with the chainsaw-wielding killer going into attack mode. With a dull central story wrapped in a convoluted moral message, the film failed to tap into the brilliance of the original.

Not to be confused with Guillermo del Toro’s great Pinocchio movie on Netflix, one of the best movies of 2022, Disney Plus’ live-action Pinocchio was all but dead upon arrival. Despite the legendary Tom Hanks as Geppetto, who shunned a theatrical release, the streaming original was a bland, reheated take on the Disney original. While the film was visually beautiful, it was largely dismissed by critics as an unnecessary remake of a beloved classic.

Another theatrical release that received a same-day streaming release on Peacock, the final chapter in the new Halloween trilogy certainly had its defenders. Most of the time it was a disappointment, as it didn’t live up to the Halloween 2018 promise. With a half-baked story and bizarre character beats, Halloween Ends was a weak ending to an uneven reboot of the franchise.

The Russo Brothers seemed to have a hit with this spy thriller. With a great A-list cast and a fun premise, it definitely should have been. When a black ops CIA asset is burned by the agency, he wages a one-man war with his old employers. Instead of the high-octane popcorn movie the synopsis promises, we get a bland action movie with jerky set pieces and every cliché recycled and stripped of all its fun. Reviews were mixed to negative. Even the good ones were a bit disappointing. However, bad reviews do not always mean failure. Whatever stats it uses, Netflix has seemingly declared The Gray Man a success, greenlighting an entire Gray Man streaming universe, with upcoming sequels and spin-offs already in the works.

After winning the Best Picture Oscar last year with CODA, Apple TV Plus may have ridden in 2022 with high confidence. The Greatest Beer Run Ever, directed by 2019 Best Picture winner Peter Farrelly, failed to deliver on that promise. In 1967, a New York man jumps at the chance to help with the Vietnam War in the only way he knows how. By buying his mates abroad a beer. He flies into a war zone with some cans of PBR and gets to work tracking down the neighborhood boys. This light premise fails to hit the right note in its treatment of the war, instead coming across as a tone-deaf sentimental snoozefest.

Another Netflix miss, The Man from Toronto came and went pretty quietly. What could have been a Hitchcockian mistaken identity comedy-thriller instead lacked both laughs and suspense, despite a pretty stacked cast and a fun premise about a man accidentally teaming up with a hit man after an Airbnb mix-up.

Those are some of the biggest streaming flops of 2022. Were you excited about major titles falling short of your expectations this year? Let us know in the comments!