Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is one hell of an awesome film and certainly ranks as one of the best prequels ever made. It was a critical darling, both from fans and critics and yet, despite being number one at the box office, it’s on track to be a box-office bomb. Pulling in around $25 million domestic over its three-day opening weekend against a budget of $163 million, Furiosa definitely has an uphill battle if it hopes to recoup its budget and make a profit. But does monetary success define how great a movie is? From a studio executive’s point of view, the answer is probably yes, but to the audience, the answer is no as we can rediscover films over the months and years. So I thought I’d highlight some films that totally tanked at the box office but are well received and spoken of with reverence, seen as classics or debated over to some degree, to highlight that these movies live on despite not making a big impact at first. In the spirit of Furiosa, I’ll keep this list to bigger studio films instead of indie darlings (with one exception) and films that were either well-reviewed or divisive, no critically panned films.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World

Coming off of the success of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, director Edgar Wright hopped on over to Canada to adapt the beloved Scott Pilgrim comics. Despite having a stacked cast and a legion of fans of both the source material and the director, the film bombed at the box office. But Scott Pilgrim vs the World would go on to become a cult classic and would even see a Netflix animated series get released in 2024 featuring the same voice cast as the live-action film.

Babylon

Hollywood loves movies about Hollywood, so when they gave Damien Chazelle, the Oscar-winning director of La La Land $80 million to realize his vision with the help of Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, they were expecting a critical and commercial hit. However, Babylon was met with divisive reviews and tanked at the box office, failing to be the award-season sweep Paramount was hoping for. The narrative around the film is already starting to change, with many feeling the film was misunderstood. Personally, I think the film is a mixed bag but considering the star power and how popular La La Land was, it’s surprising this movie wasn’t more of a hit. Perhaps it would’ve if its budget was a bit smaller.

Steve Jobs

Directed by Danny Boyle and written by Aaron Sorkin, Steve Jobs is a biopic about the co-founder of Apple. With Michael Fassbender playing the titular lead, acting alongside Kate Winslet, the film would go on to be one of the critical darlings of the year and considering the loyalty Apple customers have to the company, one might expect a bigger turnout, but Steve Jobs is considered a failure despite the talent and acclaim.

The Thing

The Thing is a classic today, but when it debuted in cinemas back in the 80s, no one turned out for it! This may be because the film was critically panned at the time, with an emphasis on how gross it was, which likely scared off audiences, causing the film to tank at the box office. Thankfully, it found second-life on home-video and ranks as one of the best sci-fi/horror films ever made and one of John Carpenter’s best.

Dredd 3D

Dredd 3D is a reboot of the franchise and one that features a more comic book-accurate interpretation, with the titular Judge Dredd never removing his helmet for the duration of this film (unlike the Sylvester Stallone version). Despite solid reviews, with praise in particular for its action, the film tanked hard, forever closing the door on a potential sequel that fans of the movie were salivating for.

Children of Men

Children of Men is an iconic film, one of the best science fiction films of the 21st century and a critical darling. Directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring Clive Owen, Children of Men is an Oscar-nominated film and one that’s highly regarded in the pantheon of cinema. And yet despite the hype around it, the film bombed especially hard. Perhaps audiences were not in the mood for a more intellectual dystopian film in 2006. But the film is spoken of with extreme reverence among critics and fans and it has found its place in cinematic history.

Fight Club

Fight Club is one of those movies you seemingly can’t escape from. It’s the image that comes to mind when you say “film bro”, it was topical in colleges, with the poster plastered all over the walls of fans. With David Fincher directing and Brad Pitt starring in this adaptation of a popular book, you’d think this would’ve been an easy win, especially with how we view the film today. But despite good reviews and a lot of buzz and marketing, the film massively underperformed and only really found its audience once it hit VHS.

Ad Astra

Ad Astra was released in a post-Interstellar world and stars Brad Pitt, so you might think that this movie would’ve printed money. Costing 20th Century Studios (now under the Disney banner) around $90 million before the marketing budget is factored in, Deadline would go on to estimate that Ad Astra would result in the studio losing $30 million, not a good number for a new merger with an A-list actor and rave reviews from critics, but audiences seem a bit more indifferent on it, with a B- CinemaScore likely keeping potential viewers away.

The Iron Giant

The Iron Giant is one of those seminal and classic animated films outside of the dominance of Pixar. And that was probably part of the problem, as Pixar and even DreamWorks were powerhouses in the medium and basically had a monopoly. Warner Bros. came in with an insane $70 million budget in hopes of taking a piece of that pie with the help of director Brad Bird (Incredibles, Ratatouille) and rushed the film out for a summer release with barely any marketing. So naturally, The Iron Giant flopped despite rave reviews and Warner Bros. Animation would essentially shut down four years later. But The Iron Giant was showered with praise and awards, cleaning up at the Annies and even getting a Hugo nomination and ranks as an all-timer now.

Blade Runner 2049

The odds were always stacked against Blade Runner 2049. A sequel to a box office bomb turned cult classic, this was a big-budget, R-rated hard sci-fi film that was directed by Denis Villeneuve that was a critical darling and got Roger Deakins his long overdue first Oscar win for cinematography. The film was a huge box office failure once you factor in marketing expenses, costing the studio roughly $80 million during its theatrical run, despite the critical praise and bankable cast, which featured Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford. Of course, as is tradition, Blade Runner 2049 would find its audience on home video and streaming.

Doctor Sleep

Fresh off the success of The Haunting of Hill House, director Mike Flanagan had the undaunting task of making a sequel to The Shining that operated as both as sequel to the original Stanley Kubrick film and as an adaptation of the novel Doctor Sleep. I would say he succeeded, as Doctor Sleep is a fantastic horror film with some great performances and world-building. Considering how popular Stephen King’s IT films were, one would think another well-reviewed adaptation of his works would do well. Still, the lengthy runtime and too much baggage around the original Kubrick film probably hurt Doctor Sleep more than the studio anticipated, resulting in a big letdown for Warner Bros, especially once marketing costs are factored in.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Strike four for Brad Pitt! Despite being one of the biggest names in Hollywood, Pitt has certainly had his fair share of box-office bombs, despite those films being more or less critically acclaimed. A revisionist Western, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford was probably too much of a mouthful of a title for audiences, and despite the reviews, not many turned out, with the film bringing in half of its production cost globally. Despite this, Pitt stated in a GQ interview that “my favorite movie is the worst-performing film of anything I’ve done, The Assassination of Jesse James”. How’s that for an endorsement?

Dazed and Confused

I debated putting Dazed and Confused on this list. Per my intro, I said I wouldn’t put any indie films on here, but considering the outcome of this movie, I felt I would make an exception. Less a bomb and more of a disappointment for the studio, the movie would click with audiences only on VHS, propelling the film to a legendary cult status and Entertainment Weekly putting it as number three on a list of 50 best high school movies. Director Richard Linklater would go on to have a successful career and the film would launch the careers of many actors, including Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, and Cole Hauser. Linklater would even get the chance to do a spiritual sequel to Dazed, Everybody Wants Some!!, which despite great reviews, was also a box office bomb more so than Dazed was. But Dazed has a bigger cultural impact, hence its place on this list.

Kingdom of Heaven

Orlando Bloom was on something of a hot streak in the early 2000s. From the three Lord of the Rings films, Pirates of the Caribbean and even Troy, he was seemingly in all the biggest movies. So when he teamed up with legendary director Ridley Scott, still riding the waves of both Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, one would assume that Kingdom of Heaven would be a smash hit. But negative reviews likely kept audiences away and the film was a big bomb. And while the theatrical cut of the film is, well, not great, the director’s cut is a must-see.

The Shawshank Redemption

Considered one of the best movies ever made, The Shawshank Redemption not only got shafted at the Oscars, losing out to the likes of Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction, but was also a box-office bomb for the studio, failing to turn a profit once you factor in marketing costs. Co-lead Morgan Freeman would state that the film’s title likely turned audiences away from seeing the movie. Yet Shawshank ended up being a hit on VHS, becoming the top rental in 1995 and once you couple broadcast syndication, all eyes eventually landed on this iconic and legendary movie.

And those are our picks! Are you surprised to see some of these movies on this list? Which film do you think should’ve been a bigger hit? Let us know!