Difference between revisions 2278212 and 2278245 on enwiki

A '''flop'''  or '''product failure''' is a [[product (business)|product]] that doesn't reach expectations of success, failing to come even close. A major flop goes one step further and is recognized for its almost complete lack of success.

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* The relaunched [[ITV1]] soap ''[[Crossroads]]''
* ''[[Supertrain]]''
* ''[[Pink Lady & Jeff]]''
* ''[[Bette]]''
* ''[[The Chevy Chase Show]]''
* ''[[The Pat Sajak Show]]''
* ''[[Thicke of the Night]]'' - Talk show with Alan Thicke
* The third season of ''[[Big Brother television program|Big Brother]]''
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=== Turkeys (Flops in theatre) ===
*[[1600 Pennsylvania Avenue]] (1976) Lyrics by [[Alan J. Lerner]], of "My Fair Lady" and "Brigadoon" fame; music by [[Leonard Bernstein]], with important Broadway successes such as "On the Town," "Candide," and, most notably "West Side Story" to his credit. Closed after only seven performances. There was no cast recording made. An attempt was made to revive it in London in 1997. A reviewer commented "As exhumations go, this one had its bright moments."

=== Flops in film  ===
A movie is most likely a flop if it doesn't perform as expected. A major movie flop might barely (or not even) make back the money it took to finance it. In extreme cases it might put the studio out of business.

A separate discussion of [[list of movies that have been considered the worst ever|movie flops]] provides examples and rationales.

==Commercial Flops==
===Commercial Failures in Aviation Flops===

These are aircraft which were technically sound, but failed in the marketplace.  For aircraft which failed to work at all see 'Flops in science and engineering'.

* The [[Convair]] [[Convair 880|CV-880]] and [[Convair 990|CV-990]] - these aircraft were commercial disasters as they only offered five-abreast seating, and were easily outcompeted on price by the [[Boeing 720]] which was based on an existing aircraft type.
* [[Supersonic transport]]s: [[Boeing 2707]], [[Tupolev Tu-144]], arguably [[Concorde]]
* The [[Dassault Aviation]] [[Dassault Mercure|Mercure]] - this aircraft had extremely limited range and as a result only ten were built for the [[France|French]] domestic airline [[Air Inter]]
* The [[Northrop]] [[F-20 Tigershark]] - this [[fighter aircraft]] was designed as a private venture for export, but failed utterly as foreign air forces wanted the more prestigious [[F-16 Fighting Falcon]] used by the [[USAF]], despite the F-20 having superior performance and lower cost.
* The [[Brewster Buffalo]] - this [[World War II]] [[fighter aircraft]] turned out to be no match for [[Axis Powers|Axis]] fighters
* The [[Bristol Brabazon]] [[airliner]] - overweight, underpowered and prone to [[metal fatigue]]⏎



===Automotive Flops===

*[[Ford Motor Company]]'s [[Edsel]]
*[[DeLorean]] automobile
*[[Electric vehicle|Electric cars]] - [[Ford Motor Company]] and [[General Motors]], who only had lukewarm interest in the technology, have dropped production of their [[electric vehicle|electric car]] models.
*[[Sinclair C5]] - a battery powered car designed by Sir [[Clive Sinclair]]
* The [[Bricklin SV-1]]
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* The [[INMOS Transputer]], a brave attempt at a different way of computing - but now largely forgotten.
*[[WebTV]]. Internet delivery via television set and set-top box. Cited by Jim Louderback as one of the "eight biggest tech flops ever".
* The [[Sinclair QL]] an unsuccessful attempt by [[Sinclair Research]] to make a [[16 bit]] computer in the mid [[1980s]]
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===Video Game Flops===

*[[Sega]] has had numerous flops in [[North America]], for example the [[Sega Saturn]], the [[Sega Nomad]], the [[Sega Master System]] II and III, and the [[Sega 32X]]. (The Master System was successful in [[Europe]] and [[Brazil]], and the Sega Saturn was successful in [[Japan]].) The [[Sega Megadrive]] was not well received in [[Japan]].
*[[Nintendo]], not to be left behind, has produced the [[Nintendo Virtual Boy]] and [[video game light gun|light gun]] games.
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* The [[Tanganyika groundnut scheme]], a plan by [[Clement Attlee]]'s [[British government]], financed by British tax-payers, to cultivate tracts of what is now [[Tanzania]] with [[peanuts]].
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==Flops in science and engineering==

A scientific flop may be something that took years of man-hours and a lot of money to complete (or perhaps never completed) and ended in failure.

* The [[Brewster Buffalo]] - this [[World War II]] [[fighter aircraft]] turned out to be no match for [[Axis Powers|Axis]] fighters
* The [[Bristol Brabazon]] [[airliner]] - overweight, underpowered and prone to [[metal fatigue]]
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* The [[Chauchat]] light machine gun - the French weapon of WWI was notorious for its unreliability, prone to jamming and lack of precision manufacturing.
* [[Cold fusion]] - after much hype, claims of success proved false. (Research into cold fusion continues.)
* The [[Europa rocket]] failed five times, without a single successful launch
* The German [[Maus (tank)|Maus]] tank was so heavy (188 tons) that it was unusable
(contracted; show full)*The [[UK Labour Party|Labour Party]]'s performance at the [[1983 UK general election|1983 general election]], led by [[Michael Foot]].

==See also==

* [[product management]]
* [[management]]
* [[new product development]]
* [[product (business)|product]]