11 Unexpected, Unusual, And Outright Bizarre Box Office Facts I Can't Stop Thinking About

I'll never look at Miley Cyrus the same way again.

1. Sleeping Beauty was such a box office flop for Disney that they didn't make another animated princess film for literally decades.

Buena Vista Distribution

Upon its initial release in 1959, Sleeping Beauty faced a challenging time at the box office and was not as successful as Disney had hoped. The film's elaborate production, featuring a distinctive art style inspired by medieval tapestries, contributed to its high production costs, making it one of the most expensive animated films Disney had ever produced up to that point. "The film cost $6 million and grossed slightly more than $5 million. Mostly because of this film, Walt Disney Productions lost $1.3 million in 1959‐60, the first time it had lost money in a decade," The New York Times reported in '79.

The underwhelming box office performance of Sleeping Beauty, combined with the rising popularity of live-action films and other animated projects, led Disney to reevaluate its strategy for producing animated princess films.

Walt Disney Pictures

It wasn't until 30 years later, in 1989, that Disney released another animated princess film, The Little Mermaid. This marked the beginning of the "Disney Renaissance," a period characterised by a series of successful and critically acclaimed animated films that revitalized Disney's animation division. 

I'm sorry, but the animation budget was worth it:

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I mean, when you cheap out a little on animation, you end up with something like, IDK, Hunchback of Notre Dame II:

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2. Barbie and Oppenheimer broke box office records for films which were released at the same time

Warner Bros. / Universal Pictures

Their double launch marked the first time in film history that one movie surpassed the $100 million mark in box office revenue, while simultaneously, another movie secured earnings exceeding $80 million during a shared opening weekend. 

"Never before in Hollywood movie history have two films opened the same weekend at over $100 million (Barbie) and $50 million (Oppenheimer)," The Wrap report.

I mean, I can see why:

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3. In fact, the Barbie movie has broken more box office records than you can throw a pink Birkenstock at.

Warner Bros.

*Deep breath* the achievements include: biggest pre-sales for a Warner Bros. film ($49.5 million), biggest opening weekend of 2023, biggest opening weekend box office sales for a female director in the US, and the largest Monday box office for  Warner Bros. ever ($26.1 million). Phew.

Interesting fact – movies that open at over $100 million usually have majority male audiences, but this was not the case for Barbie. Only time will tell just how much moolah the blockbuster will rake in – "It’s likely that Barbie will have 'long legs', a common phrase in the exhibition business that means a movie will continue selling significant numbers of tickets far past its opening weekend," AP shared.

Another fun fact – most of Billie Eilish's streams for What Was I Made For came from a single source: me. I am physically addicted.

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4. MGM's Showgirls initially performed so poorly in the box office that the company's marketing strategy changed to "hate-watching".

MGM

After Showgirls' initially disappointing box office performance (around $8.1 million in its opening weekend), MGM decided to change its marketing strategy to capitalize on the film's cult following and encourage ironic enjoyment. Embracing the film's unintentional campiness and melodrama, MGM repositioned Showgirls as a cult classic, screening it with Rocky Horror, getting drag queens to draw crowds and tapping into the phenomenon of "so-bad-it's-good" entertainment. 

This shift in marketing proved successful, eventually generating over $100 million in DVD and video rental sales and making Showgirls one of MGM's top 20 all-time bestsellers. "By the movie's 10th anniversary, they were able to celebrate with a DVD box set that came with a drinking game, playing cards and shot glasses," E! reports.

You know I've never seen the movie, but I think that marketing magic is working on me too (do you like brown rice and vegetables?):

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And call me tasteless, because I have Rocky Horror on repeat too:

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5. The Flash opened to more box office success than Titanic.

Warner Bros. Pictures / Paramount

You read that right – The Flash, a movie widely considered to have underperformed in the box office, trumped Titanic at the start of its theatre run. During its opening weekend, the film netted $55.1 million, while Titanic opened to a comparatively meagre $28.6 million. Of course, there were 12 years between the two – but even adjusted for inflation, Titanic's opening weekend only earned Paramount $54.4 million. It "would still be the lowest opening weekend in the top 10", ScreenRant says.

While The Flash enjoyed bigger box office success during its opening weekend, it's very, very unlikely to surpass Titanic in terms of overall box office earnings. The epic romance-drama dominated the box office for months, eventually becoming the highest-grossing film of its time and retaining that title for over a decade. 

Only one of these was destined to go onnnn and onnnn:

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6. In fact, Titanic's highest-grossing peak happened on its 58th day.

20th Century Studios / Paramount Pictures / Paramount Home Entertainment

Look, sometimes it's 58th day lucky, right? The film gained a slow and steady following, and it continued to draw audiences and generate significant revenue long after its initial release. 

Ultimately, Titanic's financial triumph solidified its position as the highest-grossing film of its time and one of the most commercially successful movies in cinema history.

And it led to one of my personal top one Internet moments:

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7. Mortal Kombat II is the only video game to have made more money when it came out than the popular movies of its season did.

Acclaim Entertainment

During its first week of release in '93, the game generated an astounding $50 million in sales, outperforming the opening box office results of several Hollywood blockbuster films from the same season. 

And no, it wasn't a quiet couple of months at the cinema – the success of Mortal Kombat II's first-week sales outshone the box office results of some serious big hitters. The New York Times said at the time: "Mortal Kombat II, the latest version (of the video game), had record sales of $50 million in the first week after its introduction on September 9th. The sales passed the opening week receipts of the summer's top-grossing films, including Mask, True Lies, Forrest Gump, and Lion King."

And yes, they did go on to turn the game into a film:

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8. Disney may have chosen to call their Rapunzel movie Tangled because "girlier" titles were doing worse at the box office.

Walt Disney Pictures / Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

"After the less-than-fairy-tale results for its most recent animated release, The Princess and the Frog, executives at the Burbank studio believe they know why the acclaimed movie came up short at the box office.

Brace yourself: Boys didn’t want to see a movie with 'princess' in the title. (With Tnagled, Disney were) taking measures to ensure that doesn’t happen again. The studio renamed its next animated film with the girl-centric name Rapunzel to the less gender-specific Tangled," The LA Times shared. Oof.

I mean, this song is surely the epitome of "relatable to everyone", right?

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9. Aladdin didn't take the number one box office spot until eight weeks after its release.

Walt Disney Pictures / Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Unlike many blockbuster films, the '92 film did not reach the number one spot until its eighth weekend in theaters. However, once it (finally) reached the top, it held on pretty firmly – Aladdin continued to dominate the box office for three consecutive weekends, securing first place in its 10th, 11th, and 12th weekends.

In fact, despite not reaching number one until week eight, Aladdin's earnings peak came during its third weekend. The discrepancy between its pay and its place on the box office charts came partly because the blockbuster A Few Good Men was released simultaneously and stayed a number-one box office hit for three weeks. 

See? Not everyone has taste:

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10. 2007 was the last year that no movie grossed more than $1 billion worldwide.

NIckelodeon

Listen, if you weren't on board with the SAG-AFRA strikes before, this might just do it for you: every single year since '07, at least one movie has grossed more than a billion. This coincided with the writer's strikes at the time. And even in The Year Of Rihanna's Umbrella, the top-grossing film (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End) came close to ten digits with a whopping $961 million.

Some of the biggest hitters since then include 2009's Avatar ($2.74 billion), 2019's Avengers: Endgame ($2.8ish billion), and 2021's Spiderman: No Way Home ($1.9 billion). Golly. 

11. The Blair Witch Project had a budget of $60,000 – but made $248 million.

Artisan Entertainment / Summit Entertainment / FilmFlex

The Blair Witch Project was made on an extremely low budget of approximately $60,000 and went on to make a whopping $248 million worldwide (woah). This astonishing financial achievement made it one of the most profitable films in cinematic history, generating a staggering return on investment of approximately 110,500 times its production budget.

The entire production process for the film lasted only eight days, an unusually brief period for a feature-length movie. The super-short filming schedule was due to the movie's unique found-footage style, where the actors, who were relatively unknown at the time, were given handheld cameras and improvised much of their performances while following a loose script.

I genuinely have no stomach whatsoever for horror, but I'm glad the rest of you are having a nice time:

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Do you know any other wild box office facts? Share them in the comments below!