Sacha Baron Cohen already had an appreciative cult audience from "Da Ali G Show" -- a hit in the U.K. and a HBO favorite in the U.S. -- but no one expected him to score a legitimate blockbuster with a big screen spinoff of "Ali G" character Borat. (A less inspired Ali G movie had already come and gone in 2002, before the HBO show.) "Borat" was so big that giving the final "Ali G Show" character his own movie became an inevitability. And so "Brüno" was born. The flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion lover was always going to be a tougher sell with mainstream audiences than wacky politically incorrect Borat, but "Brüno" had one of the most disappointing box office performances of summer 2009. Although it opened to $33 million, it suffered massive declines from there (73% in its second weekend) and closed with just $60 million. Critics were split on whether the film mocked or encouraged homophobia, but either way audiences simply didn't find it funny.

-Geoff Berkshire