It is common amongst both casual and hardcore film fans to trot out box office numbers as “evidence” that a movie was great, or as evidence that it sucked. We all have our opinions and it sure is nice to be able to back them up with something that sounds, at least, like hard science. So if Jurassic World is the third highest-grossing movie in history (not adjusting for inflation), it must be the third best movie in history? Right?
Of course not. We can all acknowledge that financial success and actual quality aren’t necessarily linked. After all, Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime and The Phantom Menace is one of the most successful movies ever made. But we try again and again and again to suggest that because a movie didn’t make money, it must have sucked. Especially in the summer, when studios have more riding on the success of their tentpole releases than ever.
Related: Here’s Why Roger Corman’s ‘Fantastic Four’ Is Better Than The Reboot
And yet our odd cultural obsession with box office bombs is completely undermined by the fact that some of the most popular and acclaimed movies ever made were considered outright disasters in their original theatrical run. It’s important to remember that box office bombs are only partially the movies’ fault: a lousy marketing campaign and even just unfortunate timing can ruin an audience’s opinion of a film sight unseen, or get them excited to see a different kind of movie altogether, thus turning the actual film – however good it was on its own merits – into a disappointment.
But yes, sometimes the movies just suck. We’re not trying to suggest that the newest Fantastic Four isn’t bad. We’re just pointing out that it would still be bad if it had made lots of money, and that Jurassic World would have still been an amusing ride even if it had tanked.
Case in point: here are nine films that were supposed to be summer hits, but that wound up making far less than expected, and that are now considered cult classics… or bona fide classics.
Top image via Tri-Star Pictures
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
The Nine Best Summer Box Office Bombs
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Blade Runner (1982)
Budget: $28 million
Box Office: $27.5 million
It's one of the most influential and acclaimed science-fiction films of all time, but hardly anybody cared when Blade Runner first came out in 1982. There are excellent reasons: the studio hacked away at Ridley Scott's director's cut, forcing Ford to perform an awful voice-over and film an unbelievable "happy" ending, leading to initially mixed reviews. But also, Blade Runner came out just two weeks after E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, and ain't nothing was going to stop that juggernaut that soon.
Image via Warner Bros.
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John Carpenter's The Thing (1982)
Budget: ~$15 million
Box Office: $19.6 million
Although not a TOTAL bomb, John Carpenter's brutally violent, utterly cynical and absolutely grotesque (but now highly acclaimed) remake of The Thing from Another World wasn't exactly the kind of extra-terrestrial experience audiences were looking for two weeks after E.T. came out. Oh yes, The Thing and Blade Runner came out on the same weekend, and hardly anybody cared. Tragic.
Image via Universal Pictures
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Labyrinth (1986)
Budget: $25 million
Box Office: $12.7 million
The film that would become an indelible staple of slumber parties everywhere, and eventually go down as one of director Jim Henson's great classics, got lost at the box office in 1986. Audiences were too busy seeing The Karate Kid Part II and Top Gun again. Maybe if the marketing campaign had focused a little more on David Bowie's massive codpiece...?
Image via Tri-Star Pictures
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Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Budget: $20 million
Box Office: $11 million
John Carpenter (again? the poor guy) would eventually develop a massive cult around this hilarious fantasy-action caper, so much so that when a remake was announced earlier this year, the fans went ballistic. Those fans were nowhere to be found during Big Trouble in Little China's theatrical run, when it opened against Psycho III and the Prince debacle Under the Cherry Moon... and lost.
Image via 20th Century Fox
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The Monster Squad (1987)
Budget: ~$12 million
Box Office: $3.8 million
Like John Carpenter, director Fred Dekker just couldn't catch a break at the summer box office. His cult classic Night of the Creeps underperformed in 1986, and then his mainstream follow-up - a fun and quotable monster mash from the writer of the smash hit Lethal Weapon (which had just come out earlier that year) - couldn't find an audience either. Until home video, that is. Now The Monster Squad is considered a Halloween staple and one of the best "kids rule" movies ever made.
Image via Tri-Star Pictures
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Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
Budget: $10 million
Box Office: $4.2 million
Timing is everything, and coming out with an experimental prequel to a hit TV series one year after it had been cancelled because audiences lost interest is probably not the best timing in the world. But time has been kind to David Lynch's Fire Walk With Me, which shockingly takes us through the last days of murder victim Laura Palmer's life, with no hope that she could possibly escape. It's now considered one of the most intriguing and unusual horror movies of the 1990s.
Image via New Line Cinema
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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
Budget: $18.5 million
Box Office: $10.6 million
Terry Gilliam's adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's drug ballad probably isn't the kind of film one would normally release against Roland Emmerich's Godzilla, especially as a wide release. But Universal Pictures tried, and Universal Pictures failed to attract mainstream audiences, and eventually the avid fans of this faithful, exhilarating film found their way to it on home video. Johnny Depp gives one of his greatest and most unhinged performances, years before most audiences gave a damn.
Image via Universal Pictures
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The Iron Giant (1999)
Budget: $70 million
Box Office: $23.1 million
Before Brad Bird went on to win multiple Academy Awards for directing hit animated films like Ratatouille and The Incredibles, Hollywood had no idea what to do with him. He wanted to make heartfelt and exciting animated films and the studios wanted to make them seem "90s cool" with trailers that featured retro rock songs. No one thought The Iron Giant looked good, so everyone saw The Sixth Sense that weekend instead. Then everyone realized how wrong they were about The Iron Giant when this animated classic finally hit home video.
Image via Warner Bros.
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Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010)
Budget: $60 million
Box Office: $47.6 million
The marketing campaign was strong with Edgar Wright's adaptation of Bryan Lee O'Malley's acclaimed comic book. Maybe a little too strong. Audiences were definitely aware of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, but the concept was difficult to whittle down to a tag line, so no one knew what to make of it, so everyone saw The Expendables and Eat Pray Love instead. It's still building its cult, and frequently plays to sell-out midnight shows, and it's considered one of the best and most avant-garde films of the decade.
Image via Universal Pictures
