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9 Beloved and Acclaimed Movies that Flopped


It’s a sad fact of life that a lot of beloved works of fiction don’t get the popularity they deserve, at least at first. There are lots of movies out there that are loved by almost everyone who see them, but still don’t even make the cost of production back. There are also movies that just aren’t recognized as great by the audiences of time, only to be vindicated by history when they are rediscovered and made popular years later.

Let’s take a look at some of these movies. There’s a lot of them out there and some couldn't fit on the list, so be sure to talk about your own favorites in the comments!

  1. Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

    This is an unfortunate example of a recent, really wonderful movie that’s not getting the love it deserves. The film is funny, beautiful, heartwarming, emotional and complex. You can see Epicstream’s official review of the movie by Dave Giggs. Despite receiving a 97% Fresh Rating by critics and an 87% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, it opened with only about $12 million and has received only $55 million worldwide so far, putting it behind other Studio Laika productions (all of which weren't sales juggernauts by any means).

    It’s unclear what the cause is. Studio Laika has never done gangbusters despite producing generally quality work. They’re not a household name and stop-motion animation tends to struggle, no matter how gorgeous it is. Those might all be big factors. There’s also not huge merchandising tie-ins, so the target audience, kids, might not be as aware of it. Some analysts have even speculated that the problem might be that the film’s a little too original for audiences. It’s set in Japan and incorporates Japanese mythology and it doesn’t play it safe story-wise, confronting mortality and big questions.

    At any rate, if Kubo is still in theatres where you are, I highly recommend going to see it. It’s a great, innovative film and it deserves more response than it’s getting.

  2. Hugo (2011)

    Martin Scorsese’s Hugo really raked in the Academy Award nominations, earning eleven of them. But it still flopped at the box office. The film focuses on a boy who maintains the clocks at a Paris train station. Through a mysterious automaton and a girl he meets, he learns of a forgotten film-maker.

    It lost the studio that made it about $100 million. Hugo’s failure is thought to be because of the competition it faced, which included The Muppets and a Twilight movie, both of which drew audiences away. The Producer Graham King blames the lack of prep-time and budget getting out of control, saying no one realized how complicated doing a 3-D film would be and saying he takes responsibility. “Once the schedule started getting out of whack, things just spiraled and spiraled.”

  3. The Iron Giant (1999)

    These days, The Iron Giant is one of the most beloved animated films out there and is considered a modern classic. The film, set in the 1950’s, focuses on a young boy who discovers a giant robot and subsequently has to protect it from those who want to destroy it. The animation is very pleasing, the story is heartfelt and funny and it deals well with complex issues like Cold War paranoia and struggles to maintain pacifism.

    It was also a massive flop when it first came out. Despite great reviews, it made only $31.3 million worldwide, not even coming close to breaking even with its budget of $70-80 million. The consensus is that this is entirely due to poor marketing on Warner Bros part.

    Quest for Camelot’s flop at the box office had made the studio leery of animated films, so they held off on giving the film a release date. They gave the animation team and shorter timeframe and smaller budget. They didn’t prepare a marketing strategy in the meantime. Writer Tim McCanlies thinks the studio didn’t actually expect the team to meet to April deadline, but they did. There were plans for tie-in marketing for the movie, like Burger King prizes and toys, but it would take a year to get it all arranged. Warner Bros decided to release the movie after only a couple months, rather than wait. As a result, there was practically no promotion or visibility for the movie.

    Warner Bros first realized this was a mistake when the test screenings were incredibly successful. The audience response was reportedly the highest seen in fifteen years. But it was too late and Warner Bros was left with shame and loss when the movie flopped not due to quality, but obscurity.

    When it came time for video release, Warner Bros did not repeat their mistake and did tie-ins with Honey Nut Cheerios, AoL and more to promote the release. The film did a lot better on DVD as a result and interest increased more when it was made available on Pay Per View. But it’s probably Cartoon Network that really made it a cult classic. They bought the rights to the movie and did 24-hour marathons for it.

    These days, The Iron Giant is appreciated enough to get some nice DVD releases, including a Special Edition and Signature Edition on Blu-Ray.

  4. Batman: The Mask of Phantasm (1993)

    Batman: The Mask of Phantasm was made by the same people behind Batman: The Animated Series and takes place in that continuity. It’s one of the most beloved Batman movies, with many people still considering it to be the best one ever made. But the film was originally intended to be direct-to-video and it was only at the last minute that Warner Bros decided to release it in theatres. That meant there wasn’t much time for a marketing campaign. The film didn’t even earn back its $6 million dollar budget domestically.

    However, this changed when it was released on home video, where it did quite well.

  5. Blade Runner (1982)

    Blade Runner is thought to be one of the seminal sci-fi movies today, It was even archived in the US Library of Congress for being culturally significant. But when it first came out, the tale of a bounty hunter tracking down androids in a dystopian future didn’t even make back its budget of $28 million. Once again, the problem was the stiff competition in theatres. The film faced stiff competition in The Thing, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and especially in the box office giant E.T., the highest grossing movie of that year.

    This was another film that gained new life when it came out on VHS and DVD, enough that a director's cut and even a final cut was eventually released.

  6. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

    The movie is lauded today, but audiences didn’t seem to like it when it was first released (neither did Roald Dahl, who was behind the book it was adapted for). It made only $1 million more than its cost. It was bad enough that Paramount Pictures chose not to renew the film’s copyright seven years later and let Warner Bros. take it off their hands. 

    WB broadcasted it on TV and like so many other movies, that was where it reached enough people to become the classic it is today.

  7. Sleeping Beauty (1959)

    Sleeping Beauty is an honored Disney classic these days, even getting live-action spin-off movies. But it didn’t do well in its original theatrical release. The film cost $6 million to make, but only barely earned that back (and $5.1 million of that went to theater rentals.)

    Sleeping Beauty was the most expensive film Disney had made up until that point. The failure meant the company was in the red for the whole year and there were lots of layoffs as a result.

  8. Fantasia (1940)

    Fantasia is another Disney movie that greatly hurt the studio, despite being considered a masterpiece today. The film intercuts colorful Disney characters with live orchestra music. 

    The reasons for it flopping were many and complex. It was one of Disney’s most ambitious and expensive films. Walt had grand ideas of changing “the history of motion pictures”. He even created an entirely new sound system to go with the feature. It was called “Fantastisound” and it was a precursor to surround sound. Walt intended for it to be installed in theatres with viewers having to reserve special tickets to see it, but many theatres found it too expensive to install, which hurt the film’s box office significantly. World War II also cut off the European market, which further hurt profits.

    Walt has intended for the film to be rereleased over and over with new segments continuously added, but the disastrous reception prevented that. It lost what would be $15 million in modern terms, once again driving the studio close to bankruptcy.

     Some audiences found the film pretentious, as they were used to seeing Walt Disney as a popular entertainer and didn’t like the “high art” feel of the thing. Walt even became ashamed of this himself, saying, “I did try to be a little smarty-pants”.

    It turned out Fantasia was just ahead of its time in some ways. The movie appealed greatly to the audience of the 1960’s, who loved “psychedelic” artists like Andy Warhol and felt the movie had a similar feeling.  It even went on to influence popular films like Steven Speilberg’s E.T.

  9. The Wizard of Oz (1939)

    Believe it or not, The Wizard of Oz lost its studio some serious money when it first came out.  The production's special effects and distribution made it the most expensive film ever done by MGM Studios. They lost $1.1 million in the box office, which would be roughly $7 million adjusted for modern inflation. It was a critically acclaimed movie that was nominated for four Oscars and won two, but audiences didn’t bite.

    Because of the critical success, it was re-released in theatres ten years later and did quite a bit better. But it wasn’t until it was rebroadcast on CBS over and over in the 1950’s that it became the classic it is today.

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