From a Viking revenge tale to the true story of a boxing legend,
these films are worth checking out even though they didn't make much cash.
Although he's been one of Hollywood's top screenwriters ever since he penned "Lethal
Weapon" in 1987, Shane Black didn't make his directorial debut until 2005 with "Kiss Kiss
Bang Bang." His hilarious noir flavored comedy with bursts of action proved that
Black knew what he was doing behind the camera. After directing "Iron Man 3," Black returned
with another noir-action-comedy hybrid in 2016: "The Nice Guys."
With a clever script, a fun '70s LA setting, creative action sequences, and excellent chemistry
between stars Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, "The Nice Guys" is easy to love. What wasn't easy,
on the other hand, was making back its $50 million budget at the box office.
Though much larger audiences eventually came around to the film once it hit
streaming services, "The Nice Guys" only brought in $36 million domestically — a
massive drop-off from Black's over $1.2 billion-earning MCU endeavor.
"Y'know, nobody got hurt."
"A few people got hurt."
"I'm saying I think they died quickly, though, so I don't think that they got hurt."
Black returned to franchise filmmaking with his next outing in the form of "The Predator," but
again failed to make back the film's budget at the domestic box office once again.
Peter Strickland isn't a name that comes up often when the best horror directors of the 21st century
are being discussed, but maybe that ought to change. Much like Strickland's earlier film
"Berberian Sound Studio" and later film "Flux Gourmet," "In Fabric" is a stylish good time.
Rather than slotting into the current trends of modern horror,
"In Fabric" instead looks to the past. The film is styled like an Italian Giallo film from the '70s,
and uses that aesthetic to present the story of a haunted dress as it exchanges unfortunate
owners. A reverent tribute to director Dario Argento and his film "Suspiria" in particular,
fans of this semi-forgotten era of Italian horror will find a lot to love in this
film — especially the film's soundtrack composed by the band Cavern of Anti-Matter.
Strickland's three horror films so far have all greatly impressed critics, but have failed to
connect successfully with general audiences in the same way. "In Fabric" became Strickland's
most critically acclaimed horror outing to date when it was released in 2018, but it lacked the
reach necessary to earn back its budget at the box office. Despite having the largest budget of
Strickland's career yet, it resulted in a measly box office pull of less than $200K worldwide.
Perhaps "In Fabric" was simply a bit too weird to resonate with the general public,
but horror aficionados are bound to appreciate the commitment to its throwback style.
"Man of Tai Chi" is the first and so far only feature film directed by everyone's
favorite action star, Keanu Reeves. His love for martial arts is abundantly apparent in this
remarkably authentic kung fu flick, which was shot in China and has the bulk of its dialogue
spoken in Mandarin and Cantonese. Reeves' direction is full of stylistic throwbacks to
the kung fu films of days past. Reeves cast himself as the film's main villain across
from martial artist Tiger Hu Chen, whom Reeves met during production on "The Matrix" series.
Reeves also brought along "Matrix" stunt coordinator and legendary action director
Yuen Woo-Ping, who ensured that "Man of Tai Chi" had excellent fight scenes.
"We wanna see a pure-hearted, good-natured man of tai chi become a killer."
Given that Chinese was so prominent in the film, Reeves' directorial debut was aimed more at the
Asian box office than the U.S. box office — and his star power in both countries could
have resulted in a high-grossing hit. Instead, "Man of Tai Chi" unfortunately struggled to
connect with audiences in either country. With a budget of $32 million — which is quite high
for a kung fu film — "Man of Tai Chi" made less than $5 million in China and struggled to pull
in even $100K stateside. With his directorial debut resulting in a massive financial failure,
Reeves has stuck to working in front of the camera ever since,
and he starred in the first "John Wick" film the year after its release.
"Spontaneous Combustion" is a largely forgotten horror movie from 1989
that languishes in obscurity today. Despite being a box office failure,
though, it just might be worthy of a critical reevaluation nowadays.
The plot of this film follows a walking nuclear bomb played by Brad Dourif, who had lent his voice
to the killer doll Chucky for the first time the previous year. When Dourif's character gets angry,
flames erupt from his body and those around him — so naturally, he embarks on a quest for answers.
The plot is a tangled mess that doesn't hold up to any amount of scrutiny, but it's still a schlocky
fun time with an explosive lead performance and incredible special effects sequences.
Director Tobe Hooper, more commonly known for "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" and
"Poltergeist," holds the film together even as the script falls apart entirely.
"Spontaneous Combustion" was made for a budget of $5.5 million, but had the insulting box office
result of just $50K before it was pulled from theaters and seemingly vanished from existence
altogether. It was the latest in a string of box office failures for Hooper, whose career was in a
dire place by the end of the '80s. The film can be quite hard to find these days — it isn't available
to stream or rent digitally, and physical versions of it are pretty rare. Still, if a copy of
"Spontaneous Combustion" does work its way into your life, you should definitely give it a shot.
Released in 1980, "The Ninth Configuration" was the directorial debut of William Peter Blatty,
the author and screenwriter of "The Exorcist." Just like that earlier smash hit,
"The Ninth Configuration" was adapted from one of Blatty's novels — but unlike "The Exorcist," the
film was a complete failure at the box office, and has been condemned to relative obscurity.
The story is set in an insane asylum run out of a converted Gothic castle. Stacey Keach stars as
Kane, a military psychiatrist who attempts unorthodox therapy on the various inmates,
who all belong to branches of U.S. government organizations.
Scott Wilson stars opposite Keach as an astronaut who had a mental breakdown right
before he was sent into space. What sounds like the setup to another horror film is actually a
darkly funny drama filled with thought-provoking commentary on the nature of religion and humanity.
"Who are you? You're too human to be human."
Warner Bros. was initially attached to distribute the film, but after finding disastrous results
with a limited test release, the studio canceled the planned nation-wide theatrical rollout.
The scrapped distribution meant that the film's box office earnings were virtually non-existent,
and Blatty's directorial debut never had a real chance to connect with audiences.
Blatty only ever directed one other film — "The Exorcist III," which is also both excellent and
considered a financial disappointment, much like "The Ninth Configuration. "
"Annihilation" is a thought-provoking sci-fi adventure directed by Alex Garland of "Ex
Machina" fame and adapted from the novel of the same name by author Jeff VanderMeer. The
story concerns an exploratory rescue mission into a zone overtaken by an alien substance
dubbed The Shimmer, which changes the rules of biology in all sorts of disturbing ways.
Despite being an all-around excellent sci-fi film, "Annihilation" had its chances of success
hamstrung before it was even released. The film was the unfortunate subject of one of
the most contentious and high-profile public disputes between producers in recent years:
David Ellison of Skydance Media wanted to dumb down the movie after poor test screenings made
him fear it was too smart for audiences. In the end, Garland was able to resist the studio
pressure and deliver on his intended vision, but the film's distribution strategy was essentially
sabotaged as a consequence. Planned theatrical distribution was exchanged for streaming
premieres in most territories, which resulted in an otherwise avoidable failure at the box office.
Writer-director Robert Eggers put himself on the map with his 2015 feature-length
directorial debut "The Witch," a slow-burn historical horror that
turned a $3.5 million budget into $40 million of ticket sales. His next film,
"The Lighthouse," was made for a similarly small budget, and once again managed to turn a profit.
Unfortunately, Eggers' third film,"The Northman," ended that winning streak.
"The Northman" carries over the grungy period-piece nature of Eggers' previous films,
while drastically increasing the scope of the story and world. The film is a Viking epic with
a flair for the supernatural that certainly has far more mainstream appeal than "The Witch" or
"The Lighthouse" — but it proved to still be a bit too arthouse for the general public. Though
it cost significantly more money to make, "The Northman" produced a smaller box office return
than Eggers' debut feature. It earned just shy of $35 million at the domestic box office — a
huge disappointment for Universal Pictures, which gave the production a massive $90 million budget.
To make the situation even tougher, it is believed that $200 million was the
true figure the film needed to hit in order to avoid being a financial loss,
after the costs of marketing and international distribution were squared away.
"It's a nightmare."
"Then you must wake up."
When Eggers spoke to The Daily Beast about the film's poor box office performance, he said —
"I need to restrategize in terms of what I'm pitching to a studio."
He added that he would continue to resist taking the tentpole blockbuster route and
stay true to himself one way or another, in spite of concerns about marketability.
"Maximum Overdrive" is an exceptionally strange piece of work, not least of all
because it's the only movie ever directed by author Stephen King. Dozens of films have been
adapted from King's writings, but this 1986 action-horror hybrid adapted from his short
story "Trucks" is the only one he decided to helm himself. He would later admit to being
consistently high on cocaine throughout the shoot, which undoubtedly factored into the
movie turning out as weird and messy as it did. With a $10 million production budget,
"Maximum Overdrive" only earned back just shy of $7.5 million at the box office. King
has continued writing and occasionally producing, but he's never tried his hand at directing again.
Despite all it’s critical derision, box-office failure, and Razzie awards nominations for King
and star Emilio Estevez, "Maximum Overdrive" is an exceptionally fun flick if you go in without
expecting a masterpiece. The plot revolving around machines coming to life is fast-paced
and packed with creative death scenes, demolition-derby-style vehicular carnage,
and too many massive explosions to count — all scored by a rocking AC/DC soundtrack.
"The Master" is one of the best films from acclaimed auteur Paul Thomas Anderson.
Stunning cinematography, a challenging and thought-provoking script, and two world-class
lead performances from Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman culminate in a piece of work that
is routinely hailed as one of the best films of its decade. With such high prestige surrounding
"The Master," it's easy to forget that it was considered a 2012 box-office bomb upon release.
"Leave your worries for a while, they'll still be there when you get back.
And your memories aren't invited."
Concerns over the financial prospects of "The Master" started mounting before the film even
hit theaters. It was once meant to be handled by Universal Pictures, but the studio dropped
it out of fear that they wouldn't be able to turn a profit on a $35 million budget. Universal wound
up being even more right than they realized: the film's final budget eventually ballooned
all the way to $42 million, with the additional costs mostly stemming from Anderson's decision
to shoot parts of his film in 65 millimeter and exhibit the finished product in 70 millimeter.
The box office pull was only $16 million in the U.S. after a somewhat fumbled expansion
from limited release to wide release, and the international box office only contributed another
$11 million. That left the film significantly short of making back its budget. Even with
such overwhelming critical acclaim, Anderson lost the funding that was in place for his
next film after the terrible box office results, meaning he had to look elsewhere for financing.
"King Richard" wasn't the first sports biopic to get Will Smith nominated for an Oscar. That
would be Michael Mann's "Ali," an excellently acted film starring the former Fresh Prince
as the greatest boxer who ever lived. Despite the 2001 movie's critical acclaim and Smith's
unforgettable performance as Muhammad Ali, it still didn't manage to turn a profit.
"Ali" didn't actually perform particularly poorly at the domestic or international box offices. It
brought in almost $90 million worldwide, which would have been considered a success if "Ali"
hadn't been so exorbitantly expensive. The film went into production with an already overinflated
budget of $107 million, but Mann ended up going significantly over budget even before making
the $16 million decision to extend the shoot and relocate filming to Africa. To make matters worse,
Sony pumped even more marketing dollars behind the film than usual to try to make it a hit,
but they just ended up digging themselves into a deeper financial hole. It is believed
that Sony's total losses on the film surpassed $100 million by the time all was said and done,
making "Ali" one of the all-time biggest box-office disasters of this century.