25 Movies That Bombed in Theaters But Are Actually Great

Plenty of box office bombs had it coming. The Adventures of Pluto Nash. Waterworld. John Carter. Those movies stank despite all the money pumped into them, and audiences knew well enough to stay away. Of course, the opposite is sometimes true. Grown Ups made enough money to induce existential despair.

And then there are the gems that people didn't notice. They made no money. Maybe the critics missed the boat, or the marketing departments failed. Some movies, despite their quality, go unnoticed and no one showers them with cash. You might be suprised about some of these quality bombs, as they're no regarded as classics. Either way, they're all deserving of your time.

Here are 25 movies that bombed in theaters but are actually great.

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Written by Rich Knight

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Event Horizon (1997)

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Stars: Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, Joely Richardson
Budget: $60 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $27 million

The only Paul W.S. Anderson movie that holds up today, Event Horizon was panned by critics but has since become a cult classic for its novel haunted-house-in-outer-space premise. We love it for its creepy mood and superb acting by Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne, both of whom make the terror palpable. Unfortunately, with its $60 million budget, Event Horizon's small returns made it a complete box office failure. It's a shame, given that you can tell Anderson really tried to make Event Horizon a cerebral film with something more to it. Resident Evil [insert contrived sequel title] it's not.

Donnie Darko (2001)

Director: Richard Kelly
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, Mary McDonnell, Katharine Ross, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wyle
Budget: $4.5 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $1.2 million

Donnie Darko, seems, at this point, to have been a fluke for first-time filmmaker Richard Kelly—his subsequent pictures, Southland Tales and The Box, are, to differing degrees, misfires. But Donnie Darkois something special, even if it was an accidental knockout.

Featuring time travel, Jake Gyllenhaal's most underrated performance to date, and the freakiest bunny suit we've ever seen, Donnie Darko was a bit too esoteric for its own good. The film performed poorly in the states, but surprisingly almost made its budget back overseas. Since then, it's become a cult classic. And its soundtrack is to die for—you can never go wrong with Tears For Fears. Never.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Director: Joe Dante
Stars: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, John Glover, Robert Prosky, Christopher Lee
Budget: $50 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $41 million

Why some people hate Gremlins 2: The New Batch, we'll never know. Sure, it's entirely different from its predecessor, but only in good ways. It's weird, it's fun, and it even lampoons the original.

Taking place in an elaborate, big city skyscraper instead of a small town, returning director Joe Dante's follow-up finds the titular creatures going destructively H.A.M., taking over the building. Audiences in 1990 weren't impressed, not even with guest stars like Hulk Hogan and Christopher Lee, and the movie sunk into obscurity.

Thankfully for Gizmo and his pint-sized foes, endless cable TV airings have woken sleepers up to The New Batch's many goofball charms. Chief of which is a big musical number during which hundreds of gremlins sing along to Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York." It's sublime.

Slither (2006)

Director: James Gunn
Stars: Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Gregg Henry, Michael Rooker
Budget: $15 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $7.8 million

Any modern-day movie that pays direct tribute to Fred Dekker's 1986 campy horror-comedy classic Night of the Creeps immediately deserves props. So the fact that James Gunn's wacky 2006 flick Slitheris an added bonus. Or, for a more apt metaphor, the melted skin oozing across the pus-filled bodily sore.

After a meteor crash-lands in the outskirts of a small hunting town, the local do-gooder sheriff (Nathan Fillion) and a ragtag group of other survivors fend off locals who've become zombies after ingesting intergalactic creepy-crawlies that exited the aforementioned meteor. With a nice blend of showy horror effects and sly humor, Gunn's tribute to '80s B-movies recaptures a time when studios made genre movies that favored throwing everything into metaphorical kitchen sinks rather than solely eyeing box office windows.

Sorcerer (1977)

Director: William Friedkin
Stars: Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal
Budget: $21 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $12 million

William Friedkin is, simply put, the man. From his early, Oscar-winning works (The French Connection, The Exorcist) to his recent sleeper gems Bug and Killer Joe, Friedkin has made some truly badass genre flicks. That said, he hasn't always experienced box office success. Sorcereris a prime example, even though it's an exceptional action-thriller.

Boasting a plot that has absolutely nothing to do with magic, Sorcereris a taut suspense film about four international criminals on the lam in Nicaragua who try to stop an oil well blaze. The film's most memorable scene features a truck filled faulty, nitroglycerin-covered dynamite sticks that's disastrously moving across a rickity bridge. It's bold and masterfully executed.

So why did the picture flop? Blame Star Wars, which came out just one month before Sorcerer's release and continued to eat up ticket receipts all the way through Friedkin's movie's unceremonoious debut.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Director: Andrew Dominik
Stars: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Mary-Louise Parker, Sam Shepard, Jeremy Renner, Ted Levine, Zooey Deschanel, Sam Rockwell
Budget: $30 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $3.9 million

More of a solemn, hypnotic character study than a rootin'-tootin' western, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Fordis a smart, elegant art-house picture set in the west. So, yeah, it was destined to fail.

New Zealand-born filmmaker Andrew Dominik's movie is powered by a nuanced yet commanding performance from Brad Pitt as James, alongside Casey Affleck's Oscar-nominated, unhinged turn as his envious, obsessed murderer, Mr Ford. Clocking in at 160 minutes, The Assassination of Jesse Jamesisn't for antsy, thrill-seeking viewers, though, ultimately, that explains why it recouped only half of its budget during a quiet, limited theatrical run.

It's all good, though. This is exactly the kind of film that's best experienced for the first time at home, without the distractions of loud, obnoxious theater attendees.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)

Director: Eric Radomski, Bruce Timm
Stars: Kevin Conroy, Dana Delany, Hart Bochner, Stacy Keach, Abe Vigoda, Mark Hamill, Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
Budget: $6 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $5.6 million

While there are certainly episodes from Batman: The Animated Series that are better than this feature-length film, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is arguably the second best Batman movie ever made, right after The Dark Knight. The plot is a breathe of fresh air from the DC character's live-action projects: There's a new, enigmatic criminal terrorizing Gotham City, and he (or she?) looks dangerously close to the Caped Crusader, which leads people to believe that the bat has gone bad.

Foolishly, Warner Bros. tossed Mask of the Phantasm into theaters on Christmas Day 1993 with barely any pre-release hype. And since nobody even knew it was coming out, the millions of die-hard Bruce Wayne fans who'd otherwise flock to it didn't catch up with Mask of the Phantasm until it hit the home video market.

Office Space (1999)

Director: Mike Judge
Stars: Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, Stephen Root, Gary Cole
Budget: $10 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $10.8 million

Mike Judge is a brilliant writer, even though he loves writing buffoonish characters. He first hit it big with the MTV animated series Beavis and Butt-head, which spawned the 1996 theatrical smash, Beavis and Butt-head Do America, a box office juggernaut that accumulated $323 million worldwide.

When it comes to live action, however, Judge hasn't been so lucky. First came the 1999 flop Office Space, and then, seven years later, Idiocracy failed to make a splash.

Office Space is the closest we'll ever get to a live-action Dilbert film, and that's a good thing. Judge's comedy deals with the same kind of drone job ennui, but with more mean-spirited zaniness than anything Scott Adams put down on the page.

Ron Livingston stars as a man who hates his job. One night, he visits a hypnotist who convinces him to stop caring. It turns out to be a great career move, as he begins to advance almost immediately. The cutting satire remains Judge's best work to date.

The Fountain (2006)

Director: Darren Aronofsky
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, Ellen Burstyn
Budget: $35 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $10.1 million

Darren Aronofsky is one of the most exciting American filmmakers working today, and the engimatic sci-fi love story The Fountain remains his oddest, most demanding effort. Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz play a husband and wife, and Weisz's character is dying of cancer. No, wait—Jackman is a conquistador and Weisz is his queen. No, scrap that, Jackman is an astronaut traveling to a distant star and Weisz is a tree?

Whether or not The Fountain is an empty puzzle is up to you, but it's impressive for many reasons. One, it's gorgeous. The cinematography drips liquid gold, and the score complements every perfect shot. If you can see this in anything resembling a theater, do it—you'll be floored.

Two, the movie is a wonder because Aronofsky was able to make it. It's bold, intimidating, and ultimately captivating during its run-time, and all without a dumb rom-com plot or gratuitous violence/nudity.

Heathers (1989)

Director: Michael Lehmann
Stars: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater
Budget: $2 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $1.1 million

Given recent events, Heathers could never get made today. Who would green-light a black comedy about teen suicide and murder set among a dysfunctional high school? Yes, the comedy serves as satire about the ludicrousness of cliques, a model for Mean Girls, but it just couldn't happen today. Not to mention that it didn't make money.

Unsurprisingly, kids weren't lining up in droves to watch teens off themselves and blow up gymnasiums. At least not in theaters. Over the years, via VHS and DVD, Heathers found a cult audience: adventurous viewers who can appreciate intelligent, pitch-black social commentary.

Seeking a Friend For the End of the World (2012)

Director: Lorene Scafaria
Stars: Steve Carell, Keira Knightley
Budget: $10 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $7.1 million

A recent failure, Seeking a Friend For the End of the World is a charming, depressing, wonderful film, and a great directorial debut from the writer of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Let's hope that after this flop, Lorene Scafaria gets to direct another one.

With a plot revolving around the weeks preceding the end of the world, this must've been a tough sell. But with better marketing, this could've found its audience. If we're lining up for dark comic book movies, why not dark rom-coms?

The movie makes the most of the crazy premise, eliciting strong laughs and stirring real emotions. And what's more, there's actually chemistry between Steve Carell and Keira Knightley. Look for it on DVD.

Freaks (1932)

Director: Tod Browning
Stars: Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, Roscoe Ates
Budget: $310,00
Domestic Box Office Gross: Not available

If Freaks came out in today, as a long YouTube clip, it'd be a smash. It's a movie that features, among other spectacular oddities, a limbless man who can roll and light a cigarette with only his mouth. Who doesn't want to see that?

In 1932, long before the Internet, plenty of people did not want to see that. Freaks destroyed the career of Tod Browning, who was seemingly untouchable after 1931's smash Dracula. Then he lost it all by making an incredible film using real circus workers to tell a timeless story of community and revenge.

But people just weren't ready for the uncompromising reality of Browning's vision. He never recovered from the disappointment. If it's any consolation to his memory, the film is regarded as one of the most significant films in motion picture history.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010)

Director: Edgar Wright
Stars: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Alison Pill, Brandon Routh, Jason Schwartzman
Budget: $85 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $32 million

Proof that Internet buzz does not a blockbuster make, the fans were all over this movie from announcement to the eve of its release. And then it opened—and flopped like the awkward kid trying to impress his "friends" at the swimming pool. out and it flopped right on its face. The audience was just too niche. If you weren't a nerd, so many of the references will fly right by you. Which is why it's a freaking awesome movie.

Based on the beloved comic book series, Scott Pilgrim features Michael Cera's finest work post Arrested Development. He plays the titular character who must fight off the evil ex-boyfriends of the dreamy new girl he's dating. Existing at the epicenter of so many fanbases—comics, video games, anime, manga—Scott Pilgrim was pop culture overload for unprepared moviegoers just looking for a funny rom-com. Which is a pity, because a film this inspired has to be seen.

Harold and Maude (1971)

Director: Hal Ashby
Stars: Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort
Budget: $1.2 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: Not available

Love stories, successful Hollywood ones at least, all have something in common: They feature beautiful people who face difficult odds but find happiness, however brief, in the end. So, why did Harold and Maude flop? It's nothing but a sweet love story between a young man and an older woman—why the initial failure?

The devil is in the details: Harold, in addition to being a young man, drives a hearse and frequently fakes his own death as a way to communicate to the rest of the world that the world is really fucked up. Only no one pays attention. And Maude is just a nice woman with a great, open outlook on life. She's also pretty old. How old? Seventy-nine. Yes, they have sex.

Now it's clear why this movie took a minute to find its audience. Even the Cat Stevens score couldn't pack 'em in during the opening run. In the years since, it's become the quintessential cult romance.

Fight Club (1999)

Director: David Fincher
Stars: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter
Budget: $63 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $37 million

Mishandled to the extreme when it came to the marketing approach, Fight Club fought an uphill battle before finding success in living rooms across America, a new classic once it hit DVD.

Based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club told the story of a man (Edward Norton) who sees little significance in modern life. Then he meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), who understands his problem and has the solution: grown men hitting each other to feel things. Oh, it's hard to be a white man, isn't it?

Jokes aside, the movie is a technical tour de force, with impeccable cinematography and smoldering performances. It's become one of the defining films of the '90s, muddled message be damned. Turns out that ultimately nobody paid attention to the golden rule: "You do not talk about Fight Club."

Bringing Out the Dead (1999)

Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Nicolas Cage, John Goodman, Ving Rhames, Tom Sizemore, Patricia Aequette, Marc Anthony
Budget: $55 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $16.8 million

Released in 1999, Bringing Out the Dead is one of Scorsese's last New York films (Gangs of New York [2002] was filmed at Cinecittà Studios in Rome, so it doesn't quite count). It also marks the last pairing of Scorsese with Paul Schrader, the screenwriter he collaborated with on Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).

The film surreally chronicles a few days in the life of a paramedic all but wrung out by insomnia and guilt over a girl he couldn't save. Bringing Out the Dead opened to fair reviews, but box office was not kind. What's more, the ensuing years have not been very kind to it. It's been all but forgotten, which is unfortunate for such a visually bold film. Nicolas Cage turns in a strong performance as well. Perhaps one day it'll find supporters. Fans of Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son should check it out.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)

Director: Terry Gilliam
Stars: John Neville, Sarah Polley, Eric Idle, Jonathan Pryce, Oliver Reed, Uma Thurman
Budget: $47 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $8.1 million

Terry Gilliam makes weird movies. Some of them hit—Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 12 Monkeys—and some of them miss—The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The Brothers Grimm. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is both a hit and a miss in that it's a quality film that arrived to the box office DOA.

The film tells a tale, or rather, a series of tales, about Baron Munchausen, a traveler with a knack for exaggerating his stories. The film is loud, bizarre, exciting, and like nothing ever seen before or since, part fairy tale, part art object, part giant fish tale.

Grindhouse (2007)

Director: Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright, Eli Roth, Jason Eisener
Stars: Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Josh Brolin, Marley Shelton, Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Zoe Bell, Vanessa Ferlito, Naveen Andrews, Fergie, Bruce Willis
Budget: $53 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $25 million

How did this fail? Two great directors, two great films, a slew of great fake trailers, all for the price of one. It's brilliant!

Granted, Robert Rodriquez's film, Planet Terror, was the more successful effort, with Death Proof dragging on for far too long. In fact, that was probably the problem: getting patrons into a movie that would keep them there for nearly three hours. It's working today for Batman, but without a bankable franchise behind it, Grindhouse came up short.

Of course, this was destined to be a cult object from the start, and now fans can brag about who saw it in theaters and who had to wait for the DVD.

Idiocracy (2006)

Director: Mike Judge
Stars: Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard, Terry Alan Crews
Budget: $2-4 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $444093

The concept behind Mike Judge's Idiocracy (his equally unsuccessful follow-up to 1999's Office Space) is great satire: Smart people stop having babies, leaving only the idiots to procreate at an alarming rate and give birth to a world full of morons.

But as it turned out, the folks responsible for releasing and marketing the movie displayed similar levels of stupidity. Idiocracy was dumped into seven theaters at first (only expanding to a measly 130 locations), wasn't screened it for critics, and the promotion strategy was non-existent.

Like Office Space, Idiocracy's next life will happen among cult stans

Dredd (2012)

Director: Pete Travis
Stars: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Wood Harris, Lena Headey
Budget: $45 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $13.4 million

As a violent action-packed thrill ride, Dredd is a total success. Too bad nobody went to see it. We'll chalk that up to the bad taste left by Sly Stallone's earlier effort with the character. Stallone's film was a mock-epic about cops in a lawless future. It was melodramatic and cheesy.

Last year's incarnation was tight, brutish, and eye-popping. The slow motion violence was balletic and didn't outstay its welcome. Karl Urban snarled correctly, but didin't try to chew the scenery like Sly. It was all you could ask for, really.

The Iron Giant (1999)

Director: Brad Bird
Stars: Eli Marienthal, Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., Vin Diesel, Christopher McDonald, John Mahoney
Budget: $50-$70 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $23.2 million

Director Brad Bird is best known for his Pixar films and his work on The Simpsons, but before making The Incredibles and Ratatouille, he made this heart-breaking gem.

A love letter to the monster and sci-fi B-movies of the 1950s, The Iron Giant is about a boy and his robot friend. They have grand, frolicking adventures until the military intervenes. What happens next never fails to turn viewers into puddles of hiccuping sobs. They just don't make cartoons like this anymore, and its failure at the box office is probably why.

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Director: Victor Fleming
Stars: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton, Charley Grapewin, Clara Blandick, Pat Walshe
Budget: $2.8 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $3 million

NOW it's considered one of the greatest movies of all time, and NOW it's a cultural touchstone for generations, but back when The Wizard of Oz was first released, it barely broke even. MGM considered it a massive failure. It took regular TV screenings to turn the adaptation of L. Frank Baum's novel into the juggernaut it is today.

You know the story: Sepia-tinted girl leaves her sepia-tinted world for the colorful Oz, where she helps three strangers fulfill their dreams, while simultaneously destroying the facade of a puppet government. And the monkeys fly. Legendary stuff today, but in 1939, no one showed up.

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Director: Frank Capra
Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers
Budget: $3.2 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $3.3 million

That movie you watch every Christmas that isn't the one with the BB gun? Total bellyflop. When It's a Wonderful Life opened, director Frank Capra was painted as being painfully out-of-step with popular cinema. The evidence was an endearing film about realizing that life is tough but ultimately worth living.

Okay, put like that, the movie could be a guidance counselor's poster, but thanks to its great performances and beautiful images, It's a Wonderful Life avoided cloying sentiment. And now we line up at the couch to watch it annually!

Vertigo (1958)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes
Budget: $2.5 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $2.8 million

Newly selected as the greatest film of all time by Sight & Sound, Vertigo received mixed reviews upon its initial release, with many critics decrying its pace. Guess they were too busy checking watches instead of observing the gorgeous cinematography, or appreciating the film as the ultimate expression of cinema's love affair with the image.

Eventually, Vertigo did break even, but it made significantly less money than Hitchcock's preceding films, making it an ugly duckling. The cantankerous director, who always stood by the picutre, blame much of the film's failure on Jimmy Stewart being too old for the role, and appearing strange next to Kim Novak, who was 25 at the time.

Citizen Kane (1941)

Director: Orson Welles
Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Everett Sloane, Ray Collins, George Coulouris, Agnes Moorehead, Paul Stewart, Ruth Warrick, Erskine Sanford, William Alland
Budget: $840000
Domestic Box Office Gross: $1.6 million

Long regarded as greatest film of all time, Citizen Kane had a rough release. Because media magnate William Randolph Hearst was the basis for Kane, the mogul did everything in his power to sink the film. He forbid every newspaper and radio station in his media conglomerate from discussing the film, and banned it from cinemas he owned. This had an effect on ticket sales.

As critical consensus crystallized around the picture, a masterpiece of form as content, its rep grew bigger until, you know, it was heralded as the GOAT among leading cinema publications.