{"id":636628,"date":"2026-08-14T10:42:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T10:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/636628\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T10:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T10:42:21","slug":"28-years-ago-today-legendary-actor-starred-in-box-office-flop-with-5-rotten-tomatoes-score","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/636628\/","title":{"rendered":"28 Years Ago Today: Legendary Actor Starred in Box-Office Flop With 5% Rotten Tomatoes Score"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sean Connery is one of the most celebrated Hollywood stars<\/a> of his generation. Apart from being a critically acclaimed actor \u2014 he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1988 \u2014 Connery is best known for playing James Bond in seven franchise films.<\/p>\n

Connery was a bona fide box office draw, but his decorated career also featured the occasional miss. There is arguably none bigger than the action-adventure film The Avengers, which was released on August 14, 1998.<\/p>\n

Connery took on a more unusual role in the movie, which is a big-screen adaptation of a 1960s British spy TV series. He portrayed the main antagonist, mad scientist August de Wynter, who plots to blackmail the world using his weather-control machine. He goes up against a pair of British secret agents played by Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman.<\/p>\n

The movie flopped at the box office. With a production budget of $60 million, The Avengers grossed $10.3 million in its opening weekend. It eventually grossed $23.4 million domestically and $25.2 million internationally, for a worldwide box office total of $48.6 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sean Connery’s The Avengers Was a Critical Failure<\/p>\n

Three out of Connery’s James Bond films secured a score of 95% or higher on Rotten Tomatoes. This includes Goldfinger, which is his highest-rated film on the popular movie review portal, with a rating of 99%.<\/p>\n

The Avengers, however, is on the opposite side of the spectrum. With a score of just 5%<\/a>, it is one of the lowest-rated movies<\/a> in Connery’s repertoire.<\/p>\n

“A TV spinoff that lacks enough energy to spin,\u00a0The Avengers\u00a0is an ineptly written, woefully miscast disaster,” read the site’s Critics’ Consensus.<\/p>\n

Connery’s own performance was criticized as well. In fact, he was nominated for Worst Supporting Actor in the Golden Raspberry Awards (Razzie), a satirical award ceremony honoring the worst movies and actors in the industry.<\/p>\n

The Avengers was nominated for a total of nine Razzies, winning the dishonor for Worst Remake or Sequel (tied with Psycho and Godzilla).<\/p>\n

Connery himself later offered a less-than-flattering assessment of his experience making the film, chalking it up as a learning experience.<\/p>\n

“It taught me a lot,” he told the\u00a0Tampa Bay Times<\/a> in 1999. “One learns all the time; it’s like being in love. There’s only two words: the producer and the director, and that takes care of\u00a0The Avengers.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related: 1975 Classic, Which Was Sean Connery’s Personal Favorite, Has a 97% Rotten Tomatoes Score<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Men’s Journal<\/a> on Aug 14, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment<\/a> section. Add Men’s Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sean Connery is one of the most celebrated Hollywood stars of his generation. Apart from being a critically…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[128004,18,117,19,17,7391,327,29865,18279,15250],"class_list":["post-636628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-critically-acclaimed","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-james-bond","tag-movies","tag-ralph-fiennes","tag-sean-connery","tag-worldwide-box-office"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117093449467828827","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}