How I Learned to Stop Worrying (About the Box Office) and Love the Bomb.
WetRats
Posts: 6,314
The recent failure to thrive of Tomorrowland has reminded me that most of my favorite movies were "bombs".
What are your favorite box office disasters/disappointments?
What are your favorite box office disasters/disappointments?
Comments
According to Boxofficemojo.com, the film cost was $150 million, and worldwide gross was only $140 million. (A film needs to make double its cost just to break even).
A great listing of box office bombs can be found here
1941
Silverado
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
Big Trouble in Little China
Pleasantville
Leap of Faith
Popeye
Knightriders
Appaloosa
Heaven's Gate
The Alamo
There are LOTS of issues with it but I find it to be an enjoyable mess. The scene with Kirk questioning/giving attitude to what at the time everyone thought was a divine being is a classic Kirk moment.
That said, Big Trouble in Little China and John Carter are both definitely on my list, in addition to pretty much anything that's ever been on Rifftrax or MST3K or Cinematic Titanic
I'm one of the few who also enjoyed Green Lantern too.
I'm also a fan of the Howard The Duck movie... though I will never argue that it didn't deserve to be a bomb.
Orca
Barbarella
These are my top three favorite movies of all time. While Barbarella is the only "bomb" on the list, none of them enjoyed the success I believe they deserve, performing poorly at the box office and receiving many negative or mixed reviews upon release.
I highly recommend all three, especially Orca for it's tragic and beautiful Morricone soundtrack and a stellar performance by Richard Harris.
Poor Marketing and not the biggest stars/actorst to grab the Casual Fan's interest. Friday Night Lights had trouble finding a home on a network and you are gonna use a actor from that series?
This is but one of the articles:
deadline.com/2012/04/disney-bob-iger-president-ceo-rich-ross-fired-259477/
I love that movie. Its fast paced, funny, exciting and great looking. I constantly hear it trashed and can't understand why. John McTeirnan was thrown off it but you still see his flair in some of the scenes. It has buddy cop, fish out of water and quotable scenes all through out. It shows us a slice of history little visited in cinema. Antonio Banderas was never used better, despite playing an Arab it never felt like Kevin Costner playing Robin Hood. There is a battle scene that ranks high on my action movie scene list when a attacking calvary is beaten back by a small mobile squad of Vikings. Watch that riveting scene and dismiss all the rotten tomatoes that this movie gets.
I have never been a believer of "they say it stinks". Judge for yourself. If they say Big Trouble in Little China or John Carter are no good, they can go see what they want.
If you're in this forum and have seen 13 Warrior give it a try. Its a solid two hours at minimum.
That's one of my top 5 movies!
Sure it might have flopped in the theaters 30 years ago, but it's well liked now and 90% of Americans that have had cable have watched it at least 637 times since it's movie release. Every red blooded American under 40 loves it, hell most of us grew up learning about life from Ole Jack Burton.
Budget: $60 million
Box Office: $47.3 million