Your Favorite Box Office BOMB/Let Down

[Guest areacode212]

I agree with that totally... whenever I feel like stuff at work is going stupidly, I'll either mention stuff from that movie there or in my column. "PC Load Letter? What the FUCK does that mean?" is one of the best lines ever.

I used to quote that line at work all the time. Sadly, we've replaced all of the HP LaserJet 4 printers at the office, so it doesn't come up as often.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Blade Runner

 

"It's too bad she won't live. But then again, who does?"

 

Deep.

[Guest Luke Cage]

Superman 4

Battlefield Earth

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Superman 4

Battlefield Earth

You actually LIKED those movies?

 

The topic is good movies that did poorly at the box office.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Out Cold...that bombed pretty well, but I like it a lot. I'm also one of the 13 people that liked Blair Witch 2

[Guest Madmartigan21]

License to Kill

UHF

Army of Darkness

Darkman

Big Trouble in Little China

Dune

Willow

Willow cost $35 million to make. It made $57.269 million at the box office. This was in 1988. That much money was A LOT more meaningful then, because in 1988 ticket prices were significantly lower. I bet that's probably about $100 million today. It was hardly a bomb. It just wasn't huger than huge.

 

Equalibrium was freakin awesome!

 

It didn't get any hype or anything and some people thought it was a Matrix ripoff, but I loved it.

 

No, but it ripped off about a zillion other movies/books. Just off the top of my head, it "borrows" ideas from:

 

- 1984

- Logan's Run

- Fahrenheit 451

- Gattaca

- Brave New World

[Guest Luke Cage]

Superman 4

Battlefield Earth

You actually LIKED those movies?

 

The topic is good movies that did poorly at the box office.

Best entertainment for your dollar.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Superman 4

Battlefield Earth

You actually LIKED those movies?

 

The topic is good movies that did poorly at the box office.

Best entertainment for your dollar.

Hey now...I saw Superman 4 in the Theatre as a kid and liked it.

[Guest Vyce]

Big Trouble in Little China

Probably my favorite Kurt Russell movie ever. Its almost my favorite John Carpenter movie ever (if he hadn't also directed stuff like "The Thing" and "Halloween"). It's absolutely one of my favorite movies ever.

 

A really campy, fun, tongue-in-cheek homage to all of the great kung-fu-fighting ghost movies that Asia produced back in the 70s. I love this movie. I've seen it DOZENS of times, and I've been wearing a hole in the DVD already.

 

Army of Darkness

Bruce Campbell is God. He can do no wrong.

 

Replacement Killers

Certainly not as good as Chow's previous work in Chinese cinema, especially his classics with Woo like "The Killer", "A Better Tomorrow", or "Hard Boiled", but still a fun movie nonetheless. It's lacking in plot, sure, but it's stylish as hell, and fulfills all of the necessary visceral thrills: bullets flying, shit getting shot up, high body count, hot piece of ass (Mira Sorvino), Jurgen Prochnow playing a villain (again), Danny Trejo plaing a villain (again), and Chow blowing away the father of Madonna's first child to the tune of Crystal Method's "Keep Hope Alive". SLICK.

 

The Corruptor

An overlooked Chow movie that came out after Replacement Killers. He plays a dirty cop in Chinatown, who's paired with a new partner (Mark Wahlberg) to take on the triads. Chow makes a good effort, as always, balancing his loyalties to the triads and to the police force. A good flick that manages to rise above the fact that Marky Mark is a major part of the storyline. It's too bad this didn't come out closer to the time of the Planet of the Apes remake, as the Wahlberg factor may have upped its box office.

 

Dark City

A modern sci-fi classic, merging elements of Metropolis-style science fiction, horror, and noir together wonderfully. It did SHIT at the box office, but was justly given its respect by none other than Roger Ebert, who championed the film, put it on his top ten best movies of the year list, and who also supplies an excellent and informative commentary track on the DVD.

[Guest Slingshot Suplex]

Tank Girl was decent enough.

Tank Girl f'n rocks. And a young babe of a Naomi Watts.

[Guest Crazy Dan]

I forgot about Army of Darkness and Dark City. I loved both those movies.

 

Army of Darkness had me rolling throughout the whole film. Bruce Campbell actually manages to elevate Ash into the all important "moronic hero", awesome. The part where he tells the villagers about his "Boom Stick" is priceless.

 

Dark City was very stylish and dark. It was like nothing I had seen. And it has Keifer Sutherland and William Hurt in it. Definately a strange journey, but one of the best films to come out that year.

[Guest Banky]

Stealing Harvard is much funnier than ANYONE gives it credit for.

[Guest C.H.U.D.]

I think the best film to completely bomb at the box office was The Iron Giant. It got amazing reviews, and is revered by many people as one of the best animated films ever made. Also, the animation is top notch, and it's very funny. Yes, Warner Bros. decided to drop the ball and didn't give it much of a release and it barely made any money. I guess they figured it wouldn't be successful if it didn't have Disney or Pixar attached to it. It will find an audience on video, but I think this film deserved much more than a lot of the crap Disney has put out in recent memory.

[Guest converge241]

Mallrats opening Friday night in the hottest movie theater in my area

 

4 people in the whole theater..i mean i wasnt expecting hundreds of millions of dollars but i at least expected all the clerks video fans there

[Guest Youth N Asia]

4 people in the whole theater..i mean i wasnt expecting hundreds of millions of dollars but i at least expected all the clerks video fans there

There still weren't many Clerks fans back then...took a couple years for both movies to do well on video. I love the hell out of both of them.

[Guest converge241]

eh i think there was less that i think and more that you think cause in 1995 clerks was huge in the video stores (at least in my area)

 

lets put it this way opening night of a movie should have more than 4 people

 

thats bad

 

the only time ive had less people in a big theater was opening day of Four rooms

 

JUST ME!!!

[Guest Nevermortal]

Freddy Got Fingered, BASEketball, and pretty much every Kevin Smith movie. None cracked over 30 Mil.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

2 Kevin Smith movies made $30+ million, just a hair over.

 

Jay and Silent Bob: $30,059,386

 

Dogma: $30,651,422

 

source: http://www.the-numbers.com

 

Hell, Dogma opened at #3 with $8 million and stayed in the top 10 for 5 weeks.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Freddy Got Fingered numbers:

 

Production Budget $15,000,000

Worldwide Gross $14,249,005

 

This is my favorite one:

 

Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever

 

Production Budget $70,000,000

Prints and Advertising Budget $20,000,000

Worldwide Gross $14,294,842

 

It made less then the cost to advertise it!

[Guest Lethargic]

I remember being the only in the theater for Freddy Got Fingered. It was funny because at first there were three people. The other two people snuck in and of course got caught. It's pretty easy when only ONE ticket has been sold to peak in and see more than one person.

[Guest C.H.U.D.]

I remember being the only in the theater for Freddy Got Fingered.  It was funny because at first there were three people.  The other two people snuck in and of course got caught.  It's pretty easy when only ONE ticket has been sold to peak in and see more than one person.

What, no one wanted to go with you to see that epic?

 

When I saw Freddy Got Fingered, there were only about 9 people in the theatre including me and my buddy. By the end of the movie, everyone walked out and it was just us two. We were laughing our asses off and everyone else left.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

When I saw BASEketball I was only one of 5 people there.

 

And when I saw South Park (OPENING WEEK) there was only about 10 people in there.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Donnie Darko didn't make money in the theatre.

 

Production Budget $4,500,000

Worldwide Gross $514,545

 

But then again it was only on 58 screens in its opening week and by week five was only on 6 screens.

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

Equalibrium was freakin awesome!

 

It didn't get any hype or anything and some people thought it was a Matrix ripoff, but I loved it.

 

No, but it ripped off about a zillion other movies/books. Just off the top of my head, it "borrows" ideas from:

 

- 1984

- Logan's Run

- Fahrenheit 451

- Gattaca

- Brave New World

Yeah, but I still liked it.

 

It had enough cool elements to overcome the abundant idea borrowing.

[Guest El Satanico]

Donnie Darko was only on 58 screens? That's just terrible and surprising since it had a few mainstream actors. And didn't Drew Barrymore and her production company produce it?

 

Even "Art House" movies from total unknowns can get on more than 58 screens.

[Guest MaxPower27]

Dark City and Truth or Consequences, N.M. are my picks.