While plenty of your favorite movies actually get the critical acclaim and box office success
they deserve, there are some amazing films that just don't seem to click with an audience.
Still, just because a film wasn't a box office success at first release doesn't mean that
it's not worth your time.
Here are some genuinely great movies from this decade that bombed at the box office.
Free Fire
British director Ben Wheatley, who made the modern horror masterpiece Kill List, quietly
dropped Free Fire in 2017.
Hardly anybody saw it, but Free Fire has got all the makings of a cult classic.
The film is a lean romp that takes place almost entirely inside a single warehouse.
Free Fire tells the story of an arms deal gone wrong, leaving all the lowlifes involved
trapped with nothing but their wits and a whole lot of guns to get them out.
It's filled with offbeat humor, one-liners, and physical comedy that nicely breaks the
tension here and there.
"Hey Vern, is everybody like you where you come from?"
"Vern is a rare and mysterious jewel.”
Tomorrowland
A fun, exuberant, and inventive science fiction tale, Tomorrowland was one of the better science-fiction
films of the last 10 years.
The film features George Clooney as a reclusive genius inventor who meets a science-crazed
teenage girl.
Their adventures center around Tomorrowland, an alternate dimension of scientific wonder.
Full of twists, turns, and some compelling sci-fi concepts under director Brad Bird's
expert direction, Tomorrowland deserved to be a huge hit.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
There are movies that fail at the box office that are only guilty of being released a few
years too early, and it was clear from the first trailer that Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
was ahead of its time.
Director Edgar Wright chose to ramp up the comic book and video game influence on the
story all the way to 11.
Bad guys explode into piles of coins and sound effects appear written out on the screen.
It's a self-aware and self-referential film winking at the audience constantly and packed
to the gills with nostalgia for classic video games.
If released in today's age of metatextual pop culture, the film probably would have
been a massive success.
"Hi.
Big fan."
"Why wouldn't you be?"
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
A fake documentary spoofing concert-biopics of modern pop sensations should be a onenote
journey with a few good jabs about Instagram culture and autotune at best.
Instead, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping turned into one of the best mainstream comedies
of 2016.
Created by comedy music group The Lonely Island, the film stars Andy Samberg as Conner, a Justin
Bieber-esque pop star on the rise.
It's got plenty of laughs, but what's more surprising is how much heart is hidden beneath
its many celebrity cameos.
Unfortunately, it underperformed at the box office, but we think time is going to be kind
to this one.
"A nun dunks a basketball, living the impossible, a man breaks his leg inside a hospital.
We just thought of that and it could change the world."
Dredd
Lean, relentless, and running at a breakneck pace, Dredd is a viscerally satisfying sci-fi
action film adapted from the long-running british comic series Judge Dredd.
The film sees future super-cop Judge Dredd and his trainee, Judge Anderson, trapped in
a massive skyscraper with hundreds of armed thugs out to kill them.
Leading the gang of criminals is Ma-ma, a notorious drug dealer played with ruthless
relish by Game of Thrones’ Lena Heady.
The film is a violent, brutal romp, taking Dredd and Anderson up through the building's
many floors in increasingly inventive action sequences.
"This block operates under the same rules as the rest of the city.
Ma-Ma is not the law.
I am the law."
Premium Rush
An action-crime story set in the world of fixed-gear bike messengers shouldn't work,
and yet somehow, Premium Rush is fantastic.
Premium Rush is anchored by the excellent Michael Shannon, who really shines in his
role as a crooked cop.
As he relentlessly pursues Joseph Gordon-Levitt's bike messenger character throughout New York
City, the film showcases some killer chase sequences and well-edited action scenes.
The film's nonlinear narrative seals the deal, making Premium Rush a whole lot of fun and
very much worth your time.
Warrior
The story of two brothers separated as teenagers who find themselves forced to fight one another
in a mixed martial arts tournament sounds cliche at first glance, but Warrior is surprisingly
powerful.
The brothers, played by Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy have gone down different paths since
their separation but are perpetually tied together by their alcoholic screw-up father.
Warrior is very much Rocky for the UFC generation, and the movie packs the same emotional punch
of Sylvester Stallone's seminal classic.
This is one you shouldn't miss, but make sure you bring tissues.
You'll need them.
"You're not the only one who's suffered Tommy.
I didn't even know she was sick."