I would also include anything that was initially a flop on its original release but then found a following later such as movies like Momento. This still counts as commercial failure for the sake of this question.
Firefly
Hedwig and the angry inch??
Firefly. Watching Serenity, it’s pretty obvious they’re trying to hit several seasons’ worth of story beats in as little time as possible. Seeing it as intended would have been really cool.
Honorable mentions (in no particular order):
Fight Club
The Iron Giant
Grindhouse
Waterworld
The appearance of Fight Club on your list surprised me - I thought it did well. But I looked it up - it was #1 on opening weekend but ultimately only turned a profit of $10m, which is indeed a flop. Wild considering how well regarded it is now.
The Iron Giant
I was wondering if anyone would mention it! By far one of the most influential animated films of my youth, might have even been the reason I continued to enjoy animation past my childhood.
It flopped in theaters because despite test audiences loving it, Warner Brothers dropped the ball on marketing and nobody even knew it was in theaters. But from what I heard it gained a massive cult following, and I remember it being shown every holiday season for years as a kid.
After all these years, the final “Superman” still gets me…
I remember renting it as a kid and loving it, then asking around school and no one else had ever heard of it.
During those difficult moments, I still tell myself, “We are who we choose to be.”
Waterworld is freaking amazing. Love that movie.
I especially love the Death Proof half of Grindhouse, but that’s because I love 70s B-list chase movies.
Now I kinda wanna finish grind house finally.
Without spoilers, what’s its style?
Dredd. Karl Urban always gets me in the door, but the movie ended up being pretty great.
Thanks for the recommend, all. I’d avoided it but really enjoyed myself.
That movie was so good. And what made it great was that it was like reading just some random issue of the comic.
No origin
No world at stake plot
Just another day for Dredd
Like picking up issue 24 and just reading
That’s one of my favorite parts, too. The story is relatively “small.” It’s 2 judges, one building, and some bad guys. That’s why I love Dredd’s final interaction with his boss so much. I don’t remember it verbatim, but it’s something like:
Boss: what happened in there?
Dredd: drug bust
Boss: you look like you’ve been through it.
Dredd: Perps were…uncooperative
I wish MCU would do stories like this. I mean I would watch a Spiderman movie where Spidey stops low level crooks and the big problem is peter trying to make rent.
Not everything has to have the world at stake.
What happened?
It’s Tuesday.
Understandable, have a nice day.
This is actually the movie that prompted the question! I forced my fiancé to watch it with me last night (I’d seen it before) and he loved it!
There’s so much to love about that movie. I always wondered if it would’ve been more successful if the Stallone Judge Dredd movie hadn’t been so terrible.
That movie is so damn good. Every other film adapting a comic book has to make it either an origin story or some major event in canon. Dredd is literally “this is a slightly unusual but not that abnormal day for this guy” and it’s absolutely riveting. And that’s how the Dredd universe is: everything is intense and over-the-top.
Treasure Planet.
It’s probably a good thing that Disney’s forgotten about it. I don’t wanna see them try to remake it.
There’s a whole conspiracy about this movie. Something about Disney making it tank with bad marketing so they could push for digital animation.
That Speed Racer movie that the Wachowski’s made. I think it’s a fun film and I feel fortunate to have found a handful of Lemmy users who also appreciate it.
That movie was too far ahead of its time for its own good. I remember hating it in theaters but gave it another chance recently on a friend’s recommendation.
Holy shit. The world was not ready for that level of cinematography. The scene transition from the villain’s office to the big race is pure art. People will be studying that one in film school for decades.
The Wachowski sisters are some of the most underrated filmmakers of all time. Everyone basically wrote them off as just, you know, the slow-mo kung fu people, and it’s absolutely tragic that they don’t get the respect their work deserves.
People will be studying that one in film school for decades.
If you have the time, this is a pretty great video studying the film
I knew one guy for years who swore up and down it was the best thing he’d seen in ages. Loved that movie. But he was also a troll with really questionable taste so I just ignored it.
But I see it get brought up like this fairly frequently so unless you’re all his puppets maybe ill watch it.
It is the only live actually movie I’ve ever seen that feels exactly like a cartoon. It got released in theaters for its anniversary recently and being able to watch it on the big screen as an adult was genuinely amazing.
An absolutely phenomenal movie. It would have sold better if so many people weren’t philistines.
Mystery Men. Probably 20 years ahead of its time. I don’t think people had been inundated with superhero movies enough to appreciate the deconstruction. Aside from one or two short pointless scenes (what purpose did the skunk scene serve?) the film is incredibly tight, peak comedy.
I saw it in the theater when it came out. Loved it.
Watched it a few weeks ago for the first time in years. The movies hits differently now that we have has so many comic book movies.
Dirk Gently (the last TV show)
Better off Ted
Dead like me
Dead Like Me deserved better than it got.
I have never seen the movie.
Weird Al’s film UHF.
In a just universe it’d have made a ton of money, spawned sequels, and set Al up as just as successful a screen performer as he is a musical performer. As is it flopped in theaters, but gained a well-justified cult following on home video afterward.
Amen. Didn’t it open against a blockbuster? That’s dim.
Event Horizon. I consider it in-universe canon for Warhammer 40,000.
Same. As far as I’m concerned that film is a depiction of what happens if you enter The Warp without a Gellar Field.
When I first saw the movie I was very unhappy because it was not at all what was advertised. I was expecting a sci-fi thriller, not Hellraiser in Space. It was quite badly marketed. If it had been marketed correctly it might’ve done far better.
I don’t know that Water World ever got a later following, but I love it and it’s still an original take on the post-apocalypse genre.
I never understood what issue people had with it. There so many way way worst action movies.
Blade Runner 2049 was technically a commercial failure by hollywood standards.
Because it was a mediocre movie
Disagree. I think it’s been too long since we’ve had slow-paced thoughtful scifi movies.
No one else gonna mention the 90s Mario Bros movie? It was one hell of a commercial flop, and set back video game movies a long time, but i love it.
Wildest dystopian cyberpunk movie ever made. In an underground dinosaur society once ruled by a benevolent fungal king and taken over by corrupt corporation developing trans-dino de-volution technology to control the masses, two sanitation engineers from Brooklyn become heros. To do so they must hack the mycelial network to find the lost king, survive an electric vehicle demolition derby style car chase, and save the princess.
Donnie Darko. It perfectly fits your second criterion. It was an abysmal flop in theaters, mostly because its ads got pulled because it featured ::: spoiler spoilers a jet engine crashing into a house just 6 weeks after 9/11. :::
It had a budget of $4.5 million and only made $500k in theaters. But it later exploded on DVD and made $10 million.
Jesus. Probably most of my media library? It’s genuinely a surprise when anything I really like is successful.
First thing that comes to mind is Blade Runner 2049. Film flopped hard, but it’s a god damn masterpiece. Absolutely perfect way to build on the ideas presented in the original, while also playing with a whole new set of notions on top of that. Gosling continues to be incredible, the soundtrack is pure magic, and Denis Villeneuve is one of the best filmmakers in the world.
I’m worried that the TV show is gonna be garbage
I love me some Michelle Yeoh, but yeah, I’m not really seeing anything that says it has a point to it beyond “Ooh, what if humans were the oppressed minority… How zany!!!” It’s got a real “Fox News telling you that straight white men are gonna get herded into camps” kind of vibe to it.
Yeah. Guess I should just focus on being hyped for Dune 3 and Denis eventually announcing his pick for Bond.
Wait, hold up… Denis is making a bond movie?!
Yeah, they announced it earlier this year, not sure if it’s gonna be his next movie or the one after.
Absolute hype. I didn’t even know a Denis Villenueve Bond movie was something I needed, but fuck it, I’m down. I’ve loved every one of his movies going right back to Enemy, and I know he can do one hell of a tight thriller (Prisoners is about as perfect a crime thriller as I’ve ever seen).
His upcoming movie I’m most excited about is Rendezvous With Rama, but that is so hyper-specific to my tastes that I’m honestly starting to think Denis making movies for me personally.