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. You know, nobody got hurt. Nobody 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, Burberry and 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 Antimatter. 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 pool of less than $200,000 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 Chin
whom Reeves met during production on the Matrix series. Reeves also brought along Matrix stunt coordinator and legendary action director Yen Wu Ping who ensured that Man of Tai Chi had excellent fight scenes 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 $100,000 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 Toby Hooper, more commonly known for The Texas Chainsaw 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 $50,000 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 Keech 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 Keech 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 Brothers was initially attached to distribute the film, but after finding disastrous
results with a limited test release, the studio canceled the planned nationwide theatrical rollout
The scrap distribution meant that the film box office earnings were virtually non and Blatty directorial debut never had a real chance to connect with audiences Blatty only ever directed one other film The Exorcist 3
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 Northmen, 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. When Eggers spoke to the Daily Beast about the film's poor box office performance
he said, I need to re-strategize 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. You 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 million production budget Maximum Overdrive only earned back just shy of million at the box office King has continued writing
and occasionally producing, but he's never tried his hand at directing again
Despite all of its 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 ACDC 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 65mm and exhibit the finished product in
70mm. 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 Man
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 Elite one of the all-time biggest box office disasters of this century