Some people use box office numbers as a barometer to judge a movie, but there are plenty of classics that started out as commercial failures. Box office success is rarely a good indicator of a movie’s quality, since there are so many external factors at play. Marketing, industry trends, timing and sheer luck can severely affect how a movie performs, which means that some great movies fall short of expectations while some terrible movies are huge successes.

Some of the best movies ever made struggled at the box office. Sometimes, this is merely a coincidence, but it’s often the case that the things which make these movies so special are also what make them such big box office bombs. Experimental movies, or those which subvert audience expectations, generally struggle to reach big audiences in theaters, but they can be reappraised soon after and recognized as the masterpieces that they are.

6

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Box Office: $16 Million

The Shawshank Redemption is now considered one of the best movies ever made, but it flew under the radar when it first came out. The Stephen King adaptation follows two prisoners who form an unlikely bond behind bars, sharing their dreams of one day being free. Thanks to an outstanding script and two compelling lead performances from Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, The Shawshank Redemption now gets the credit it deserves. It’s the kind of powerful movie that can make audiences cry, think, and ultimately leave with a deeper appreciation of life.

In 1994, The Shawshank Redemption faced stiff compeтιтion at the box office. It came out while Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump were attracting much more attention. It probably didn’t help that Columbia Pictures decided to omit Stephen King’s name from any marketing, fearing a negative ᴀssociation with his popular horror movies like Carrie and The Shining. While The Shawshank Redemption is certainly a different kind of story, King’s name still could have helped it stand out. The movie gradually gained traction among critics and awards-season voters, and it eventually turned a profit on its $25 million budget after a re-release.

5

Blade Runner (1982)

Box Office: $41.8 Million

Blade Runner has shaped the sci-fi genre for decades, so it’s a little surprising to think that it was originally viewed as a commercial flop. Ridley Scott’s neo-noir dystopian thriller masterfully blends different genres. While the visuals are captivating throughout, inviting viewers into a spectacular, dark world, Blade Runner is a detective movie at its heart. Like so many film noir classics, it delves into some fascinating philosophical themes, leaving one or two lingering mysteries for the audience to mull over. This weighty, cerebral mixture ultimately didn’t draw audiences to see Blade Runner, and its $30 million budget started to look like a mistake.

1982 was a bumper year for sci-fi, and it’s possible that Blade Runner simply came out at the wrong time. Audiences were spoiled for choice, with movies like The Thing, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan all coming out in the same year. Blade Runner is much slower and more thoughtful than the kinds of sci-fi blockbusters which do well at the box office, so it initially struggled to find its audience. The long-awaited sequel, Blade Runner 2049, was also a mild box office disappointment when it came out in 2017. It remains to be seen how the spinoff TV show, Blade Runner 2099, will fare.

4

Fight Club (1999)

Box Office: $100 million

Fight Club wasn’t a complete commercial disaster, but with a budget of $65 million, it still fell well below expectations. Since then, it has come to be recognized as a true cult classic, and one of David Fincher’s best movies. His exploration into the darkest reaches of human psychology has been a constant theme throughout his career, and Fight Club is no different. With a charismatic performance from Brad Pitt and an immensely satisfying twist, Fight Club is now much more popular than it was when it was first released.

One of Fight Club‘s greatest strengths is the way that Fincher manages to blend so many different genres. There are elements of action, crime and psychological drama, but there are also moments when Fight Club resembles a pitch-black buddy comedy about two mismatched friends committing heinous acts of violence together. This singular approach meant that 20th Century Fox didn’t quite know how to market Fight Club, with some of the marketing material selling it as a bare-knuckled action thriller. The truth to Fight Club is much more interesting.

3

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010)

Box Office: $51.7 Million

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was Edgar Wright’s first movie outside the UK, and he kicked up his stylistic indulgences to the extreme for his adaptation of a popular series of graphic novels. The aesthetics of comic books run throughout Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, with unusual framing choices, snappy camera movements and moments when text or colorful images appear superimposed on-screen beside the characters. Another obvious inspiration is arcade games, which also shapes the structure of the narrative as Scott battles through seven levels.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World‘s unique quirks have helped it become a cult classic, but this unusual style also contributed to the movie’s underwhelming box office performance. With a budget of $85 million, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World would have needed to make triple its box office total to even stand a chance of breaking even. The animated TV reboot in 2023 showed that there’s still a lot of love for Wright’s movie, even if this wasn’t apparent when it first came out. The movie doesn’t have mainstream appeal, so its budget was always a huge hurdle.

2

Children Of Men (2006)

Box Office: $70.5 Million

Alfonso Cuarón’s best movies show that he can master any genre that he turns his attention toward, and Children of Men shows signs of a much more experienced action and sci-fi director. The dystopian thriller takes place in a near-future where humanity has mysteriously lost the ability to procreate, which leads to widespread chaos and panic. Although it was a box office disappointment, Children of Men has now been recognized as one of the best and most influential sci-fi movies of the 21st century, with many other filmmakers imitating Cuarón’s intelligent worldbuilding and his use of long takes to enhance the action.

Children of Men failed to recoup its $76 million budget, although this was partially caused by its strangely limited release. Due to a lack of recognizable stars, long stretches between the sporadic action scenes and a bleak tone, Children of Men was seen as a big risk by Universal Pictures, who decided to mitigate their losses by releasing the movie in fewer theaters. People who did get to see Children of Men were largely positive about the movie, which explains how a movie with such a stellar critical reputation could still consтιтute a flop.

1

Citizen Kane (1941)

Box Office: $1.7 Million

Orson Welles was already a well-respected name before he made his directorial debut, so there was a lot of anticipation for Citizen Kane. However, it would have been hard to predict that the first-time director would immediately produce one of the best movies ever. Citizen Kane is endlessly entertaining, but it also contains hidden depths that have fascinated audiences for decades. It’s a stunning character portrait that works as an indictment of a whole society, and one of its biggest strengths is that it still feels relevant.

Citizen Kane is a satirical roman á clef about William Randolph Hearst, one of the biggest newspaper magnates of the time. When Hearst caught wind of the movie, he did everything within his power to destroy it. Although he couldn’t stop it from being released, he exerted his influence to scare distributors away, and he refused to allow any marketing for the movie in any of his newspapers or on any of his radio networks. This proved effective for a while, as Citizen Kane made a loss of around $150,000, but Hearst’s actions did nothing to affect the movie’s positive critical response.