Which film is the biggest flop of all time

A.� Town and Country, released here last Friday, is thought to be one of the biggest flops in history. The picture cost �69 million to make and earned just �4 million in four weeks of release before the distributor decided to pull it from US cinemas.

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Q.� Why is it being released in Britain

A. The movie isn't going straight to video as expected, but was released in the UK on Friday in the hope that European audiences will be kinder than their American counterparts.

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Q.� Why has the film failed

A.� Insiders say the film has had a troubled history, and as such, these films rarely do well. The cameras began rolling in 1998, and 13 release dates were set and cancelled by the US distributors. The critics were unkind when the film opened and they were only allowed to see the film shortly before it opened, meaning many missed deadlines and didn't carry reviews.

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The cast is packed with big names such as Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton, Nastassja Kinski and Andie Macdowell, so failure to many was surprising. Allegedly the film started shooting without a script and because it was launched at the last moment, there was no Hollywood fanfare, which may have contributed to its woes.

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Q.� What is the film about

A.� Town and Country is a romantic comedy, described as about 'love, life, relationships and marital bliss'. Warren Beatty plays the part of Porter Stoddard, a New York architect who lurches from bad decision to bad decision, some involving his wife Ellie (Diane Keaton), and long-term friend Mona (Goldie Hawn) and her husband Griffin (Garry Shandling).

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Q.� What other spectacular flops have there been

A.� There are some films which go straight to video. The Replacements with Gene Hackman and Keanu Reeves, a $50 million baseball drama, did just that earlier this month.

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Last year's Battlefield Earth 2000 cost $80 million to make, but was seen by only a few, despite that fact John Travolta played a 7ft alien with dreadlocks.

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Cutthroat Island was made by husband and wife team, director Renny Harlin and actress Geena Davis, which was a swashbuckling pirate movie that cost $92 million to make. Few saw it.

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In 1980, ex-The Deer Hunter director, Michael Cimino, made an epic three-hour movie called Heaven's Gate, which was recut by the studio, but still failed to attract the crowds.

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Revolution, a film made in 1980, starred Al Pacino and Sid Owen, alias Ricky from EastEnders but the film was panned.

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Monty Python animator Terry Gilliam made The Adventures of Baron Munchausen in 1989, but despite three Oscar nominations, the film failed to fill cinema seats.

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Other failures include the 1963 classic Cleopatra in which Elizabeth Taylor was the first actress to get paid a million dollars for one film. The original director and two male leads (Stephen Boyd and Peter Finch) left, the production moved to Italy and Rex Harrison and Richard Burton joined the cast. The on-screen romance of Burton and Taylor caused headlines as the budget soared to $44 million, ($300 million by today's standards) but the film lost money.

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Tom Wolfe's bestseller Bonfire of the Vanities, staring Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis and Melanie Griffith, was panned by critics and failed to achieve the success it promised.

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By Katharine MacColl