Movies you liked and never knew were flops

Maplespuds

Have you ever watched a film, thoroughly enjoyed it, and then some time later find out that it was universally criticised and was a box office bomb?

I've had a few of these, mostly stuff I liked as a kid. The most recent I found out about was 'The Pagemaster' starring Machaly Culkin. I just recalled recently that I had a video of that movie as a child and watched it tens of times.

However a quick wikipedia search tells me it lost almost 10 million dollars and was hated by critics.

jpm4

Masters of the Universe (He-Man with Dolph Ludgren) springs to mind - possibly the first film I ever saw in the cinema as a kid and I thought it was brilliant at the time. Even years later I still think it's a decent action/fantasy flick but apparently it was panned and was a major flop when released.

MeIsGod

The Brothers Solomon (Will Arnett), i got a great laugh out of this thought it was mad funny but it bombed and was slated.

kevohmsford

Last Action Hero

irishgoldberg

howard the duck, loved it as a kid and I just checked there on wiki "one of the worst films ever made and a box office failure":(

AnonoBoy

kevohmsford wrote: »

Last Action Hero

I loved all the in-joke movie references in this when I was a kid.

Deserved to do way better than it did.

(Although I haven't seen it since I was a kid so I don't know if it holds up!)

constitutionus

i remember watching the original animated transformers film in the adelphi cinema with a gang of me mates back in the day.

fecking LOVED it and its incredbly brutal in parts. i remember getting it on DVD a few years back and thinking "feckign hell thats a bit full on" at some of the stuff in the autobot city battle that all the dancing and singing numbers some suit obviously stuffed in couldnt erase

i knew it'd never break any box office records but i had no idea just HOW badly it bombed till i got the net back in the early 2000s. box office mojo dont even show how much money it made outside america so i can only conclude i was one of the few to see it

jpm4

constitutionus wrote: »

i remember watching the original animated transformers film in the adelphi cinema with a gang of me mates back in the day.

fecking LOVED it and its incredbly brutal in parts. i remember getting it on DVD a few years back and thinking "feckign hell thats a bit full on" at some of the stuff in the autobot city battle that all the dancing and singing numbers some suit obviously stuffed in couldnt erase

i knew it'd never break any box office records but i had no idea just HOW badly it bombed till i got the net back in the early 2000s. box office mojo dont even show how much money it made outside america so i can only conclude i was one of the few to see it

Great film - blows the appalling live action films out of the water. At least it felt like the Transformers that I grew up with.

The Megaphone

The Last Airbender - watched it on dvd, enjoyed it, went on-line to see when the sequel was due out only to find it was slated...

The Megaphone

Almost forgot - Showgirls, great film that never got proper recognition...

the whole year inn

The Megaphone wrote: »

Almost forgot - Showgirls, great film that never got proper recognition...

"Daredevil"
Is "Starship Troopers" considered a flop

Tsipras

All The Pretty Horses.. Great book,good movie I thought but it flopped big time and was caned by the critics!

Mickeroo

AnonoBoy wrote: »

I loved all the in-joke movie references in this when I was a kid.

Deserved to do way better than it did.

(Although I haven't seen it since I was a kid so I don't know if it holds up!)

Watch it again, it's aged like a fine wine. It's on Netflix.

mike65

the whole year inn wrote: »

Is "Starship Troopers" considered a flop

Yes and no, it didn't quite wash its face at the cinema but DVD sales probably saw it break even.

constitutionus

the whole year inn wrote: »

"Daredevil"
Is "Starship Troopers" considered a flop

Reckon so. It only earned a bit over 50 million In the states and after the overseas came in only made 15m more than it took to make it .

The yanks just didn't get it , poor guys thought it was being played straight

I loved it though . Comedy masterclass .

Stark

Scott Pilgrim vs the world.

lahalane

Liar (Deceiver)

It was on late on Network 2 a few years ago so maybe I should have known it wasn't Oscar nominated but I enjoyed it and still enjoy it.

GreeBo

lucky number slevin

great film, never happened in the cinema, hadnt even heard of it before watching it on tv one night

segaBOY

Hannibal Rising. Generally received negatively by the critics however I thoroughly enjoyed it. It seems to have made a profit according to wiki though.

Cardinal Richelieu

Roman Polanski "Pirates" with Walter Matthau. It only took in about $8 million in cinema receipts of its $40 million budget but it still gives me a laugh.

DenMan

Waterworld and Judge Dredd (Stallone). I really enjoyed those movies.

BorneTobyWilde

How can you not know something you knew

fluke

Walk Hard is brilliant yet financially (anyway) is considered a flop

.jacksparrow.

Cocktail,probably the only Tom cruise film I enjoyed,brilliant dialogue,excellent film,but found out it won awards for the worst movie that year.....

Lelantos

The Megaphone wrote: »

Almost forgot - Showgirls, great film that never got proper recognition...

I gave it a 5 tissue rating myself

Liam O

Kevin Smith talks a lot about things like this, the way nearly everyone owns or at least owned a copy of Mallrats and yet it tanked at the box office. I thought it was a good fun movie and only when I started listening to Smith's podcasts I found that that flopped. Zach and Miri Make a Porno is another Smith one that I thought was very good and original and apparently that flopped at the box office too.

joe stodge

Zoolander, it failed horribly at the box office because it was released so soon after 9/11. Absolute comic gold.

krudler

joe stodge wrote: »

Zoolander, it failed horribly at the box office because it was released so soon after 9/11. Absolute comic gold.

I hated it the first time I saw it, but it grew on me and now I love it.

Last Action Hero is definitely my favourite flop ever, the script is great, troubled production aside its a brilliant satire of the genre Arnie helped make so popular, loads of nods to other movies and cliches by the dozen. Charles Dance is fantastic in it too.

TerrorFirmer

A lot of the movies mentioned here aren't flops. Zoolander wasn't a flop. Just because it didn't do as well as expected, doesn't make it a flop! It made far more than its budget in the box office, and was also huge on sales/rental.

Good list here of total bombs. Incidentally one there is Osmosis Jones, which appears to have lost about 50, 000, 000! Love that movie!

That_Guy

It absolutely flopped at the box office but to be honest, I didn't think John Carter was that bad a film.

All the negativity that surrounded it seemed to focus on how much it cost. Yes, it was a ridiculous amount of money but I quite enjoyed it for what it was.

krudler

That_Guy wrote: »

It absolutely flopped at the box office but to be honest, I didn't think John Carter was that bad a film.

All the negativity that surrounded it seemed to focus on how much it cost. Yes, it was a ridiculous amount of money but I quite enjoyed it for what it was.

that was doomed to begin with, Disney basically told people not to go see their own movie with crappy marketing, and ironically its not that bad.

Lelantos

krudler wrote: »

that was doomed to begin with, Disney basically told people not to go see their own movie with crappy marketing, and ironically its not that bad.

I saw the film, then wondered where the budget went? Movie nearly destroyed Disney & ruined a fledgling directors career.

That_Guy

I remember listening to Mark Kermode go on and on about it and funnily enough, I don't recall his actual review of the film, only him rambling about how much it cost.

Tipsy McSwagger

The Thing - Greatest remake ever and opened the same day as Blade Runner, but both were destroyed by the vastly overrated ET.

don ramo

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Good list here of total bombs. Incidentally one there is Osmosis Jones, which appears to have lost about 50, 000, 000! Love that movie!

what a terrible list, they said battlefield earth was 103 million dollars to make, it cost 44 million to make, are they trying to say that there is some moronic studio out there that actually spent 150% (which is 60 million dollars) more of the films budget on marketing:eek::eek::eek:,

also i do hate to say cause it was a good film, but john carter is probably the biggest flop of all time, it cost 250 million to make, and only made 280 million, films have to make at least 2 times their budgets in order to break even, the studios dont get 100% of the box office take, they probably get 70% in the first week or two and then it decreases each week its in cinema, so the longer its in the cinema the less the studio gets and the more the cinema makes, all in all i think i think disney took a hit somewhere in the region of 200 million dollars on john carter, they were lucky the avengers made so much money last year or it could have done some serious damage to them,

but back to great films that flopped, id say John Carter, Sphere and Scott Pilgrip Vs The World would be my fovourite total failure films, seen them all a few times (john carter only twice) and i do think they are solid entertaining films, it does baffle me why they failed so badly,

Allround Predator

Shawshank Redemption was a flop in the cinema believe it or not, one of the greatest movies of all time!

PhiloCypher

Lelanature 3365424 wrote:

I saw the film, then wondered where the budget went? Movie nearly destroyed Disney & ruined a fledgling directors career.

This is typical of the negative hyperbole you get with this film, it did not even come close to destroying Disney dude, they bought lucasfilm the next year ffs, thats hardly the act of a company brought low by the flop of one film.

I thought it was an excellent film personally, not without its narrative quirks mind you due to the Serialised nature of the book on which is based, but for me it's as swashbuckling an adventure as you'll see this side of raiders. I was absolutely gutted it flopped as it means there are unlikely to be sequels.

Lelantos

Lelantos wrote: »

I saw the film, then wondered where the budget went? Movie nearly destroyed Disney & ruined a fledgling directors career.

Those in power at Disney didn't so much as lose an hours sleep over the film. Yes it cost them money but thanks to the way the film business works they wrote that loss off against a hit.

don ramo wrote: »

what a terrible list, they said battlefield earth was 103 million dollars to make, it cost 44 million to make, are they trying to say that there is some moronic studio out there that actually spent 150% (which is 60 million dollars) more of the films budget on marketing:eek::eek::eek:,

Battlefield Earth and A Sound of Thunder are considered two of the biggest flops in recent memory and a lot of it has to do with massive fraud that occurred at Franchise Pictures. The producers were greatly inflating the budgets for films. Battlefield Earth's actual budget was 44 million but Franchise had declared that it cost $75 million. A German company, Intertainment AG was part finacing many of Franchise's films to the tune of 47% of the production budget but Franchise were cooking the books in such a manner that the German company were actually providing 60-90% of the production budgets.

Lelantos

Darko wrote: »

Those in power at Disney didn't so much as lose an hours sleep over the film. Yes it cost them money but thanks to the way the film business works they wrote that loss off against a hit.



Battlefield Earth and A Sound of Thunder are considered two of the biggest flops in recent memory and a lot of it has to do with massive fraud that occurred at Franchise Pictures. The producers were greatly inflating the budgets for films. Battlefield Earth's actual budget was 44 million but Franchise had declared that it cost $75 million. A German company, Intertainment AG was part finacing many of Franchise's films to the tune of 47% of the production budget but Franchise were cooking the books in such a manner that the German company were actually providing 60-90% of the production budgets.

Disney hasn't had a hit in a while. It's the companies they acquired that produce hits. They lost on Mars needs moms, then Carter, it cost R Ross his job as head of the division, it affected schedules for films in the making, to say no one lost sleep is incorrect

Lelantos

Lelantos wrote: »

Disney hasn't had a hit in a while. It's the companies they acquired that produce hits. They lost on Mars needs moms, then Carter, it cost R Ross his job as head of the division, it affected schedules for films in the making, to say no one lost sleep is incorrect

Ross getting fired was more to do with the manner in which he tried to lay all blame for John Carter at the feet of Pixar. He had already alienated a lot of the high ranking executive at both Disney and Pixar and was not exactly liked. Had he played his cards right there's a better than good chance that he would still have his old job especially considering that the write down on John Carter was far less than initially thought given how well it performed internationally.

Disney has had plenty of hits in the last few years and under Ross they released The Muppets, Cars 2, The Help and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,Alice in Wonderland and Toy Story 3, the latter three being in the top 11 grossing films of all time. Sure a lot of them were by companies they owned but it's still a pretty impressive track record.

kingtiger

has to been Dune

a movie that was way ahead of its time, critics panned it but I think it was a fantastic adaption of Hubert's universe

Archeron

I really love Event Horizon, didn't realise it was a flop until I just seen it on the list posted above.

krudler

Lelantos wrote: »

Disney hasn't had a hit in a while. It's the companies they acquired that produce hits. They lost on Mars needs moms, then Carter, it cost R Ross his job as head of the division, it affected schedules for films in the making, to say no one lost sleep is incorrect

The Lone Ranger is their big summer movie this year, I'd say with Johnny Depp and the team behind the Pirates movies it'll do well, never know though

TiGeR KiNgS

i quite liked 3000 miles to graceland

Jacks Smirking Revenge

Tenacious The Pick of Destiny.

Loved this movie, never knew until years later that it bombed! It must have done pretty bad if they wrote a song about it later.

Endaaaagh

Jacks Smirking Revenge wrote: »

Tenacious The Pick of Destiny.

Loved this movie, never knew until years later that it bombed! It must have done pretty bad if they wrote a song about it later.

There's a great documentary on their DVD, The Complete Masterworks Vol 2, where a camera crew followed them around on tour as the movie was being released. They started off full of optimism, but as the reviews start coming in you can see their moods changing when the realise the movie isn't as good as they first thought.

Daveysil15

Mortal Kombat. That and Sort Throat.

ancapailldorcha

Eks vs Server. I thought it was just a fun action movie until I googled it years later.

DazMarz

Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm

Easily one of the best Batman films out there, even if it is animated (which can make some people think "It's only for kids"). Was originally meant to be a direct-to-video release, but someone in Warner Bros. realised what a pure masterpiece they had on their hands and decided to give it a full theatrical release. But unfortunately it wasn't promoted enough or correctly, leading it to be a box-office flop, taking in just over $5.5m at the box office and not recovering its $6m budget.

That said, it was critically acclaimed, and I presume it made back a lot of its budget in the succeeding video and DVD sales in later years.

It is an incredible film and also gives another look at the genesis of the Batman.

Also, the opening credits are just incredible:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xgDpesd428

LOTTOWINNER

I am Sam.

loved it, especially the sound track, but I believe it wasn't considered a successful movie.

efb

The Newsies. I am batman lol