Films that may have flopped but not because of you, because you did your part and bought a ticket.

    • Ganondorf@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Emperor’s New Groove and Lilo & Stitch were also two of the last few times Disney put out something original. The last two decades of Disney releases have mostly been franchises they’ve bought from others or remakes of older Disney films that weren’t even their original stories to begin with, e.g. Star Wars, MCU, 20th Century Fox, Pixar, a majority of Disney classics.

    • geoffervescent@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Funnily enough it did fine at the box office but because it was positioned at the end of Disney’s “golden age” and made noticeably less than any other Disney movie of the era, they pivoted away from it to the point where many people assume it’s a DreamWorks or Universal animated flick.

  • xylan@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    1 year ago

    I really enjoyed The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It got panned by the critics and didn’t do well at the box office, but seems to be being more accepted recently.

    • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      It’s a fun ride, but I don’t know if I can say it’s exactly a good movie. It’s trying to scratch that same adventure itch as The Mummy or Indiana Jones, but I don’t think it does it quite as well.

  • Jaysyn@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    1 year ago

    The Fifth Element was kinda a flop in the USA, but I loved it. The alien opera bit was awesome in the theater.

  • Thugosaurus_Rex@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    1 year ago

    Despite overwhelmingly positive critical reviews, Children of Men lost money in its 2006 theatrical run. Most people I knew had never heard of it, and the only person I knew who had seen it was the friend I went to the theater with. It’s now generally regarded as one of the best films of the 21st Century (so far) and particularly lauded for its cinematography. It’s had a very successful home video run since then and is even more relevant today than on its release.

    • Kill_joy@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Seriously? Shit I saw it three times in theaters. I thought it was a masterpiece. Hopefully it’s getting some of the recognition it deserves now.

  • discosage@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    1 year ago

    John Carpenter’s The Thing was critically and commercially panned on release. It lost the special effects Oscar to ET. It got such a bad response John Carpenter considered retiring.

    Absolutely shocking in hindsight.

  • Jarmer@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    1 year ago

    Does waterworld count as a cult classic these days? I think so but I could be wrong. I thought I was going insane when it came out because I absolutely loved it and seemingly everyone else couldn’t stand it for one minute!

    • CloverSi@lemmy.comfysnug.space
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      That’s the first one that came to mind for me too! Kid me absolutely loved it in theaters, and it only gets better with age. It’s so stylistically out there, there’s really nothing that looks quite like it.

      Another one of my favorites was Tron: Legacy. Again, blew my mind in theaters, and I’ve come to love it even more now. I don’t think this one was a flop exactly, though it did underperform. It’s similar to Speed Racer in that it’s very visually-focused with a super unique aesthetic, though the emphasis on practical effects and physical camera stuff (lens flares etc) gives it a completely different feel that I love too.

      • ijustdoeyes@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        I watched Tron Legacy in the theatre, I thought it was really good, the soundtrack was amazing but as soon as I left the theatre I never felt like seeing it again, maybe it was just fine tipped over the edge by a great soundtrack?

        • niktemadur@kbin.socialOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          I saw Tron in the theater in 1982! How about that? I’d forgotten all about it, until just now that I read the word “Tron”.

          There was an arcade next door, of course - they had the Tron game! A guy was playing like a wizard, I asked if he’d gone next door to see it, he looked at me and said - “I’ve seen it four times”. I wonder where that guy is now. Did he go into computer engineering or something like that, just at the right time when the industry was about to explode in size?

  • mPony@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’m not sure if Death To Smoochy counts as a cult classic, but it damn well ought to. Screw critics, screw naysayers: That movie is bold, and it is fucking hilarious.

    • PotentialProblem@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      “Are you okay?” “I don’t know. I’m kinda fucked up in general, so it’s hard to gauge.”

      I saw Death to Smoochy in theaters and, for whatever reason, that line has always stuck with me. Great movie!

  • akai@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    I think Stargate didn’t do very well when it came out, but then went on to spawn several TV series.

    I was surprised when I learned that because the shows were really fun.

    • worfamerryman@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      I had trouble with the show. I really wanted to like it, but there are too many things I didn’t like about it. But the movie was amazing. I just watched it for the first time in the past year.

      • akai@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        How far along did you get in the show? It starts out sort of slow and cheesy, but ramps up to having really big overarching storylines and super epic battles!

        • worfamerryman@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          1 year ago

          Like 4 episodes. I’ve heard it gets better, I just can’t bring myself to watch it. Maybe I’ll try Atlantis and then go back to the original.

          I have a really hard time with the recasting.

          • stevecrox@kbin.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            With a lot of TV from that era you have to accept the first season is the show figuring itself out. 4 episodes, really isn’t enough.

            The best approach is just to skip boring chunks/episodes and move on to the next. Then when your hooked going back is worth it.

            With Stargate while its an episodic format, events in past episodes are incorporated and it slowly starts building a complex universe.

            Atlantis starts in SG1 season 5 and there are constant events in one series affecting the other one as a result.

  • CynicalStoic@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    The original Blade Runner (1982) didn’t do as well as expected at the box office upon release. I originally thought it lost money but when conducting research for this post I found that it apparently did turn a small profit according to Wikipedia.

    Now it’s considered a cult classic and some argue it’s one of the best sci-fi movies ever made and its influence can be felt in many other movies, TV shows, anime/manga, and games.

  • blivet@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    Blade Runner. It did very poorly at the box office, and the critics were lukewarm at best, but I loved it. I was a big fan of Philip K. Dick, so a film by Ridley Scott based on one of his novels was right up my alley. I dragged my friend to see it the week it came out, and I was blown away. Even back then I wasn’t alone. It almost immediately became a cult film that regularly played in smaller repertory theaters.

    I remember reading an interview with Arthur C. Clarke back then where he mentioned that he had recently spoken with Stanley Kubrick, and Kubrick had said that Blade Runner was the most visually beautiful film he had ever seen.

    • nicetriangle@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      I feel like the sequel had similar problems. I think it did end up making its money back but based on what they spent vs what it made it wasn’t a home run at all. But everyone I’ve talked to who has seen it thought it was great, myself included.

      • blivet@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        I get the feeling that both the original and the sequel are the kind of film where word of mouth just doesn’t do it for some reason. I had a friend years ago who mentioned that she had never seen Blade Runner, and immediately followed that by saying not to bother telling her how good it was.

    • niktemadur@kbin.socialOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      There was this duplex in '82 that was showing Blade Runner (rated R) on one screen and Clint Eastwood’s Cold War thriller Firefox (rated PG) on the other. As an unaccompanied teen I had to see Firefox, but I do remember that Vangelis soundtrack, which you could hear from the lobby area. I really wanted to see it then, but it didn’t happen until I rented the VHS tape a year later, maybe even a bit longer than that.

  • lemmyng@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    Dredd and John Carter. In both cases the film was tanked by marketing (or lack thereof).

    • CharlesReed@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      I absolutely loved Dredd when I finally got around to seeing it at home. The visuals made me wish I had seen it in theaters. It was so viciously and grotesquely beautiful.

    • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      If they had just called it “John Carter of Mars” it would have at least communicated a major plot point. It was a really ambitious attempt to reboot a classic science fiction novel, but since nobody remembered what Barsoom was they were at a disadvantage.

    • wjrii@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      I still maintain that while not the same disaster as a film that it was as an investment, John Carter was muddy, its source material was past its sell-by date, and it topped out at “okay.” I’m not at all sure added marketing budget would have made enough additional fans to have made it worthwhile.

      • magnetosphere @beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        The John Carter source material was so old that I imagine the movie was championed by dinosaur executives who remembered loving it when they were kids. Their underlings were afraid to say no.

        That probably isn’t how things went down, but it’s my head canon.

        • wjrii@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          IIRC it was a passion property for Andrew Stanton, who was coming off of one of the most insanely good Pixar resumes in an era of amazing Pixar resumes.

          Unfortunately, when something is old and influential, a modern audience is going to have seen things influenced by it for decades, and the original can sometimes become a kind of “inside baseball” that only appeals to the passion of people who are into the historical context of their fields.

          Nobody is making millions off of Citizen Kane or Metropolis.

  • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    Weird Al’s UHF is hilarious and would have done well except that it came out the same weekend as a whooole bunch of other classic movies. The weekend of July 21, 1989 the other movies you could see were:

    • Ghostbusters II
    • Raiders of the Lost Ark
    • When Harry Met Sally
    • Dead Poet’s Society
    • Batman
    • Lethal Weapon 2
    • Weekend at Bernie’s
    • Karate Kid III