In the film and media industry, if a film released in theatres fails to break even by a large amount, it is considered a box-office bomb, thus losing money for the distributor, studio, or production company that invested in it. Due to the secrecy surrounding costs and profit margins in the film industry, figures of losses are usually rough estimates at best, and there are often conflicting estimates over how much a film has lost. To accommodate this uncertainty, the losses are presented as ranges where this is the case, and the list is ordered alphabetically in the absence of a definitive order. Because the films on the list have been released over a large span of time, currency inflation is a material factor, so losses are adjusted for inflation using the United States Consumer Price Index to enable comparison at equivalent purchasing power. Many box office bombs are films with average or negative critical reception, which can contribute to low theater attendance, but critically-praised films may still become box office bombs for other reasons, such as expansive budgets or release timing with other films.