Your Favorite "Box-Office Flops"

[Harvey]

15. Lolita

Do you mean the '97 remake? The '62 version wasn't a flop. (To be perfectly honest, I haven't seen either version).

(Cf. the number of people today who can remember Presumed Innocent...

I think you're a little unfair to Presumed Innocent, which is a pretty neat courtroom thriller, with a good cast and a memorable theme by John Williams. The others you've listed don't ring any bells for me. (If there are any readers of The Dissolve here, they have a relevent feature called Forgotbusters which delves into box office hits that have evaporated from the public consciousness).

As to the principal subject of the thread, the opening post lists a number that I would choose. Blade Runner is one of my favorite films. Walk Hard is, in my estimation, the funniest assault on a movie genre since Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles and/or Young Frankenstein. "And you never once paid for drugs. Not once." Ride with the Devil might be Ang Lee's masterpiece. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is certainly a masterpiece (and I'd love to see the director's cut).

 

[bigdaddy]

Buckaroo Banzai

Is it really a flop when they were going to make a sequel?

No, I'm a huge fan of the movie and the movie did decently enough in VHS sales or internationally or something and was cheapest to make that there was going to be a sequel. But it fell through because some president of the studio stole the money or something equally as silly as that.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

I really liked John Carter when I finally saw it on cable a few months back. The reviews kept me from the theater but now I wished I had seen it on the big screen.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I really liked John Carter when I finally saw it on cable a few months back. The reviews kept me from the theater but now I wished I had seen it on the big screen.

I agree. Not only was it visually pleasing, but that story was quite good, especially the framing story and how the author of the story fit in. I watched it with my brother on Blu ray and we both liked it a lot.

 

[BigJake]

15. Lolita

Do you mean the '97 remake?

With Jeremy Irons, yes.

I think you're a little unfair to Presumed Innocent, which is a pretty neat courtroom thriller, with a good cast and a memorable theme by John Williams. The others you've listed don't ring any bells for me.

I suppose for movies like Disclosure or Presumed Innocent it's not that there was a failure of craft -- they were solid and adequate if not spectacular -- so much as that the zeitgeist has just passed them by. I actually do sort of vaguely remember Presumed Innocent as being a sturdy, likable specimen of the psycho-sexual thrillers of its day: but despite having seen it once, I cannot honestly recall one scene, one line, one frame of it. (And I'm not going to cheat by YouTubing it. )

The Forgotbusters feature on The Dissolve is pretty great, and their analysis of The Golden Child is spot on. Even though I know exactly why Kanye West remembered that "dear sweet Brother Numsy" line.

 

[BigJake]

I really liked John Carter when I finally saw it on cable a few months back. The reviews kept me from the theater but now I wished I had seen it on the big screen.

I did not know until recently that one of the writers on John Carter was Michael Chabon (of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and Gentlemen of the Road fame). That makes me curious to check it out.

 

[Amaris]

...

I'm certain it was a flop, since I never heard of it until I saw it on local TV, but Quickchange is another one in my DVD collection.

Bill Murray, Randy Quaid, Geena Davis and a few other mid-level stars.

Yes! Quick Change is another really good movie, and sorely underrated.

 

[BigJake]

I need to rewatch Event Horizon, too.

 

[Melakon]

Fortunately, I've not seen too many flops/box-office bombs, at least judging from the list at filmsite.org (a great site if you've never been there).

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)

Showgirls - I'd never seen it, and bought it because I realized I had over 30 dvds, and the only one with any nudity was Starship Troopers.

Supernova - I think the only reason I like it is a girl who lived with me for a while liked it. And it's sci-fi.

K-19: The Widowmaker - It's no Das Boot, that's for sure.

 

[Orac Zen]

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Not a great movie (IMO, anyway) but certainly not the utter turkey it was dismissed as.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I like a lot of flops, but I have no list handy. However, two films that immediately come to mind are:

Fail-Safe (1964)
Big Trouble in Little China

I researched The Rocky Horror Picture Show for this post, but according to the wiki on it, it's still in its first release (and therefore doing just fine).

 

[1001001]

I don't know how well So I Married an Axe Murderer did at the box office (I think not well) but that movie kills me every time. I've probably seen it 50 times.

"Oh, I HATED the Colonel. With his wee beady eyes!"

I own this on DVD. A really underrated Mike Myers flick with more examples of his fixation on the Scottish (several years before Fat Bastard). The picture of QEII on the dartboard in the loo was a funny touch.

"I think most Scottish cuisine is based on a dare"


I'm certain it was a flop, since I never heard of it until I saw it on local TV, but Quickchange is another one in my DVD collection.

Bill Murray, Randy Quaid, Geena Davis and a few other mid-level stars.

Yes, Quick Change was quite good, IMHO.

 

[Starbreaker]

Hugo
The Postman
Red Planet

 

[EnterpriseF]

Empire Records
Rock Star

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Bicentennial Man
Red Planet
Nothing to Lose
The 13th Warrior
Titan AE
Equilibrium
Sahara
Dredd
Serenity
Blade Runner
Cloud Atlas
Alexander
The Iron Giant
Event Horizon
Waterworld
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Soldier
Children of Men
The Postman
1941
The Shawshank Redemption
Dazed and Confused
Office Space
Idiocracy
Fight Club

 

[Jax]

Bicentennial Man
Dredd
Serenity
The Shawshank Redemption

Would be very high up on my list.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Big Trouble In Little China was the first one that sprang to mind.
Dredd was the second...
Last Action Hero was third.

Sahara gave me the vibe I get from reading Cussler's books, even if he disagrees.
Waterworld wasn't that bad.
XXX 2 was kind of a guilty pleasure, as is Cowboys & Aliens.
The Blues Brothers is always worth watching, but didn't do that well originally.


I've actually got John Carter and Hugo on the to-watch pile, so who knows if they might be included.

 

[CaptJimboJones]

I quite enjoyed John Carter quite a bit. Others that jump out were Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and Titan:AE.

I also quite liked Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny, which really, really bombed. But them I'm a big fan of The D.

 

[BigJake]

Big Trouble In Little China and Equilbrium -- can't believe I forgot those. I've never seen Hugo or the Tenacious D flick (not sure if I'm a big enough Jack Black fan).

 

[BigJake]

^ Burnage.