19 Cult Classics And Critically Acclaimed Movies That Absolutely Bombed At The Box Office

"For years after that film came out, people would come up to me and say, ‘You know, I really liked you in that film Scrimshaw Reduction or Shimmy, Shimmy, Shake, or Shankshaw.’"

We often assume that if a movie breaks even, or makes double its reported budget, then it's surely done alright, right? Wrong. The marketing and other costs mean that most movies' revenue must far exceed their budget.

Warner Bros. Pictures

For example, Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix had a reported production budget of $150 million, yet after it made nearly $1 billion gross at the box office, it still was short $167 million of the movie's total expenditure. 

We all know you shouldn't judge a movie by its box office success, and these 19 films proved it, by going from box office flops to acclaimed cult classics.

1. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Universal Pictures

Budget: $60,000,000

Box office: $47,664,559

This certified cult classic from Edgar Wright was well-liked when it debuted at Comic-Con, but, according to Michael Cera anyway, there was one major stumbling block at the box office: Sylvester Stallone. 

It was Stallone's Expendables and also Eat, Pray, Love that took much of the attention away from this high-wire action comedy film, with it coming fifth over the weekend of its release.

On its release, Michael Moses thought the movie may have just been premature for the audience:  "[With] its cult status, now I think it may have just been truly a movie that was ahead of its time. So, maybe I would have put it out 10 years later!"

2. The Shawshank Redemption

Columbia Pictures

Budget: $25,000,000

Box office: $28,341,469

Despite being at the top of countless "best movies ever" lists, the now classic film was considered a box office flop when it was released. Tim Robbins, who played Andy Dufresne, believed it was the title that kept viewers away: 

"Well, it’s the title, no one can remember the title. And that makes sense, too, because, for years after that film came out, people would come up to me and say, ‘You know, I really liked you in that film Scrimshaw Reduction or Shimmy, Shimmy, Shake, or Shankshaw.’"

3. Hocus Pocus

Buena Vista Pictures

Budget: $28,000,000

Box office: $45,395,069

Hocus Pocus was seen as a box office failure, particularly by Disney's standards, earning just $39,000,000 domestic off a $28,000,000 budget. Fast-forward to 2020, and it was reported that it was the most-watched Halloween flick on Vudu for five years in a row, and it now ranks among the best Halloween movies for many who watched it growing up.   

The reason may be because everyone was watching it on Disney's own channels, as it was often repeated around the Halloween season, and thus became a go-to Halloween classic! 

4. The Big Lebowski

Gramercy Pictures

Budget: $15,000,000 

Box office: $46,142,637 ($17,451,873 domestic)

There are fewer movies with more of a cult following than the Coen brothers' The Big Lebowski, but its domestic box office performance was disappointingly low. The international numbers buffed out its total box office takings, but the movie was still nowhere near the success that its eventual following would suggest. 

Nowadays, it's seen as a cult classic, and has even spawned its own religion; "Dudeism," which has over 600,000 ordained priests worldwide...

5. Fight Club

20th Century Fox

Budget: $63,000,000

Box office: $100,853,753

While nowadays Fight Club certainly splits opinion, it's still garnered a fanbase that far outweighs its less-than-impressive box office returns. While it did gross over $100 million from its $63 million budget, the majority of that was from the international box office, and was still considered a disappointing total. 

Talking to People TV, Ed Norton explained why he thinks it didn't take off: “I think there was a reluctance on the part of some of the people who were actually marketing it, to embrace the idea that it was funny, and honestly, I think they felt indicted by it.”

6. Donnie Darko

Pandora Cinema

Budget: $6,000,000

Box office: $7,012,321

This movie, which boasts an array of future Hollywood stars, is now considered a pop classic with a certified cult following. The eventual success, however, was a result of the home DVD sales and the UK release, which came a whole year after its disappointing US box office intake.

The failure at the box office could perhaps be down to the unfortunate timing of its release, which came in the wake of 9/11. In fact, its initial run in US cinemas only took $500,000! Looking back now, it's seen as one of the best teen dramas of all time, and sparked the career of current Hollywood incumbents Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal! 

7. Hugo

Paramount Pictures

Budget: $180,000,000 

Box office: $185,770,160

Sometimes, we assume that success at the Oscars equates to decent box office returns, but that certainly wasn't the case with Scorsese's 2011 movie Hugo. Despite getting 11 Academy Award nominations (winning five), Hugo barely broke even, and huge losses for GK Films strained their relationship with Scorsese.

8. The Iron Giant

Warner Bros. Pictures

Budget: $70,000,000

Box office: $23,159,305

To many, The Iron Giant is a classic animated film — it's even often included on "best child-friendly films" lists — but for a variety of reasons, its release was a total failure. 

With the filmmakers worried that if they delayed finishing the project, Warner Bros. wouldn’t release it, they sped up their marketing campaign, even though they probably should have waited. The rushed campaign failed to raise public interest in the film. 

The movie was also a departure from the animated format that Disney had perfected, which the director thought may have kept people away:

"For us to set it in 1957, and have it deal with things like the Cold War, was definitely not considered the kind of thing you do in an animated film. Where is the fairy tale? Where is the magic? And where’s the singing?"

9. The King of Comedy

20th Century Fox

Budget: $20,000,000

Box office: $2,536,242

This team-up between Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro is still overlooked by many casual fans, but critics and film fanatics see it as one of, if not the best of the celebrated director's movies. At the time of its release, however, it got what was described as "a critical and public kicking" which was reflected in the box office taking a fraction of the budget! 

10. The Thing

Universal Pictures

Budget: $15,000,000

Box office: $19,629,760

This classic horror movie is now considered one of John Carpenter's best works in his storied filmography, but it tanked at the box office on its release, making just over its budget. In fact, the New York Times disregarded it as "instant junk," and the poor reception put a dent in Carpenter's career. 

If you'd have told Carpenter back then that The Thing would be looked back on as his masterpiece, and regarded as one of the top 10 best horrors of all time, he'd have never believed you; how things can change, eh! 

11. Idiocracy

20th Century Fox

Budget: $2,400,000 

Box office: $495,303

Despite being in theaters for five weeks, the futuristic comedy was unable to recoup more than a quarter or so of its budget at the box office. Later on, when the movie was released on TV and DVD, comedy fans discovered it and elevated it to cult status. 

Mentions of the film skyrocketed again during the 2016 US election, with the screenwriter tweeting: "I never expected #idiocracy to become a documentary,” about Trump's presidential run. Its relevance is continually being referenced, with the idiotic dystopian future looking more and more familiar. 

12. Steve Jobs

Universal Pictures

Budget: $30,000,000

Box office: $34,441,873

This biopic directed by Danny Boyle is another movie that, despite its high praise and positive reviews, failed to make an impact at the box office. The movie was described as an "exhilarating portrait of the visionary tech mastermind" with a "scorching script" and a "commanding performance," so why did the audiences not come? 

Danny believed that the poor box office showing was due to the release strategy, suggesting that they released it too wide too early.

13. Warrior

Lionsgate

Budget: $25,000,000

Box office: $23,308,615

Gavin O’Connor's MMA film received positive reviews, with Empire calling it a "powerful, moving, and brilliant sports-pic-cum-family drama." Nick Nolte's performance as the burly coach also won him an Oscar nomination. 

The poor showing at the box office, however, didn't reflect the buzz around the film — perhaps because it didn't boast the Hollywood stars like Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg who were in The Fighter that came out earlier that year. 

14. Children of Men

Universal Pictures

Budget: $76,000,000

Box office: $70,455,770

This harrowing dystopia was and is widely regarded as a superb story with excellent filming, but it was surprisingly a bomb at the box office. Since its release, the movie has amassed a cult following, which has only increased as a result of the film's increasing prescience regarding modern society. 

15. The Rocky Horror Picture Show

20th Century Fox

Budget: $1,200,000

Box office: $2,302,632

If there was a cult movie showdown, The Rocky Horror Picture Show would be getting my vote any day. Not only did the fans of the show elevate it to success, but they did it organically. Fans would flock to midnight screenings at the Waverly Theater in New York in 1976, dressing up, singing and dancing along, and creating an immersive cinema experience. 

So, after being considered a box office flop, the movie, and its highly engaged fanbase, have spawned conventions, clubs, and most of all, made the movie and subsequent theater production major successes. 

16. Heathers

New World Pictures

Budget: $3,000,000

Box office: $1,108,462

As teen movies go, Heathers certainly stands out, but despite its place among many "best teen movie" lists, it couldn't catch the eye of audiences when it was first released in 1989. 

Once again, it was the die-hard fans that projected this box office flop into a cult classic; through home video and TV, they made the high school dark comedy into a success — one that would go on to have a musical spin-off!

17. Brazil

20th Century Fox

Budget: $15,000,000 

Box office: $9,929,135

Terry Gilliam's Orwellian sci-fi is now regarded as one of the great films of its genre, as its place at #17 on the Guardian's all-time sci-fi and fantasy list attests to. Even though fans didn't flock to see it — perhaps due to its lack of an obvious target demographic — the movie has had a lasting impression on Hollywood and has been inspiring filmmakers ever since. 

18. Labyrinth

Tri-Star Pictures

Budget: $25,000,000

Box office: $13,915,874

Even the draw of David Bowie couldn't give Jim Henson's wonderfully bizarre movie commercial success, with the film barely making back half of its budget. Perhaps the pull of Bowie, not to mention his excellent performance, was responsible for the film achieving the cult status to match the praise it received from critics.

19. Mulholland Drive

Universal Pictures

Budget: $15,000,000

Box office: $20,271,905

David Lynch's puzzling commentary of Hollywood itself was certainly divisive, but critics were so admiring of the movie that in 2016 the BBC even named it the best film of the 21st century! It wasn't just critics that admired the mind-bending mystery; the film, which was initially planned to be a TV series, also garnered a cult following. 

Lynch's work often finds itself being described as a cult classic, and Mulholland Drive is no different, with the propensity for Lynch fans to theorize about the mysteries leading to vast online discussion, and repeated rewatches! 

What's the most surprising box office flop? Let us know in the comments below!