It was inevitable that a few films would suffer the bad fate of becoming financial failures given the absurd number of releases each year.
Box office results no longer influence a movie’s success in the same way that they formerly did. Studios are considering other factors in addition to box office results to determine a film’s success as streaming services increasingly dominate the market and reduce revenue from theatrical releases.
This is a significant shift for the business, especially for moviegoers who have long understood that a film’s perceived success is not always an indicator of its quality. Even though they were commercial failures when first released in theatres, certain films have withstood the test of time.
It wasn’t until “It’s a Wonderful Life” went into the public domain that it became a Christmas classic.
Despite being a standard in many Christmas movie collections today, “It’s a Wonderful Life” had a dismal box office opening in 1946. The film’s popularity improved once it was picked up by TV networks in 1974 after the copyright on the film expired.
It became known as a pleasant, touching touchstone in American families each Christmas as a result of repeated viewings.
When it debuted in 1971, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” did not do well.
The quirky film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s well-known book has grown in popularity over time. When it initially debuted in 1971, it fared poorly at the box office, earning only $4 million, barely exceeding its $3 million budget.
Warner Brothers purchased the film rights and introduced “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” to TV where it gained new fans when Paramount Pictures apparently refused to extend its distribution agreement.
Today, “Blade Runner” is regarded as one of the greatest science fiction movies.
Even though “Blade Runner” is a visually spectacular movie that served as inspiration for many sci-fi films, it wasn’t very successful when it was first released in 1982. However, the picture received a lot of favorable reviews from both reviewers and viewers.
At the box office in 2017, the sequel “Blade Runner 2049” unfortunately had a similar fate to that of its predecessor. Fortunately, both fans and critics agreed that it was fantastic.
“Donnie Darko” was an abject failure.
The 2001 movie “Donnie Darko,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a teenager who is trapped in a temporal paradox and experiences manic episodes that involve a guy in a rabbit costume, may not have been the simplest to advertise.
Only $110,494 were made over its opening weekend, and it wasn’t distributed abroad for another year. Since then, it has become popular as a DVD rental and solidified its status as a classic in the independent horror genre.
Initially, “Fight Club” received negative reviews from critics.
Even though “Fight Club” is frequently mentioned today, many critics weren’t originally impressed when it was released in 1999.
Edward Norton plays a depressed soap salesman who joins a boxing club run by Tyler Durden in the movie (Brad Pitt).
The Chuck Palahniuk novel that was adapted into a movie seemed too gloomy for general viewers, but when people gave it another opportunity, it went on to sell 6 million DVD copies.
In a year crowded with potential Oscar candidates for the movies, “The Shawshank Redemption” went unnoticed.
It goes without saying that 1994 was a great year for movies, with the hugely successful premieres of “Pulp Fiction” and “Forrest Gump.” When it was published that same year, “The Shawshank Redemption” unfortunately gained less notice.
The heartfelt prison drama gained popularity on television and is now IMDb’s top-rated movie, surpassing titles like “The Godfather,” “12 Angry Men,” and “Schindler’s List,” according to users. Additionally, both reviewers and viewers have given it glowing ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.
The dark comedy “Harold and Maude” fell flat with reviewers.
A 20-year-old fell in love with an 80-year-old woman in the play “Harold and Maude” from 1971. The unconventional love story, which had drama and dark comedy, failed to draw audiences to the cinemas.
It was considered sad by many, and it failed to turn a profit at the box office.
Critics and moviegoers would begin to reconsider their negative opinions of the movie years later, and they would finally praise it for its artistic quality.
The response to “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” was divisive.
Terry Gilliam’s dark, ludicrous version of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” by Hunter S. Thompson performed poorly at the box office. This movie is for someone that likes to apply the martingale strategy when playing a casino game.
It caused a lot of controversy among critics and was usually seen as a pointless visual show that lacked motivation. Fans now laud the film, which starred Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro, for its peculiar and avant-garde aesthetic.
In 1982, “The Thing” was judged to be a flop.
Although the 1982 John Carpenter masterwork is today hailed as one of the best entries in the horror genre, it was first thought to be a commercial and critical failure.
The sci-fi horror movie barely made any profit in domestic sales.
Many critics hated it, and David Denby of New York magazine was among them. He felt it was “more filthy than terrifying, and much of it was plain uninteresting.” Many would later come to regret their initial opinions as it rose to fame over time.
