10 Amazing Movies That Bombed At The Box Office
Sometimes Hollywood does give us nice things ... and we pay absolutely no attention.
Some of the highest grossing movies of all time also happen to be some of the most entertaining movies to ever be released. The very best of the MCU holds this status and movies like The Dark Knight, Titanic and Toy Story 3 have all grossed over a billion dollars.
However, there are also some movies in the billion dollar club that it's fair to say leave something of a sour taste in our collective mouths. Transformers: Age of Extinction is the 27th highest grossing movie of ALL TIME for example. Why did we do that?
And in the same breath, somehow some truly great movies end up being completely overlooked and falling under the radar. Money might not be everything, but in Hollywood, it's the biggest thing and whether it was down to poor marketing or a lack of A-list stars to sell them, some movies that deserved the kind of financial reponse to turn them into franchises surprisingly failed to make much money.
10. Annihilation
Budget: $40-55 million
Box Office: $43.1 million
A science fiction horror film with an A-list cast and written by the same man who gave us 28 Days Later, Dredd AND Ex Machina? What isn't to love?
Annihilation takes a more cerebral approach to the sci-fi horror sub-genre and does it to great effect. It seamlessly combines elements of classic survival thrillers with modern science fiction. Natalie Portman gives one of her best performances since she picked up her Oscar for Black Swan, and the supporting cast is stellar.
Unfortunately, prior to release the writing was on the wall for it's box office performance. Test screenings were not particularly well received and a producer from Paramount was worried that the film was too complicated. Clashes with him and a producer on the film, Scott Rudin, eventually led to a deal being struck with Netflix for distribution rights.
The behind the scenes turmoil was only half the story, as the public took issue with Garland choosing to cast Natalie Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh in roles who (in the later installments of the source material) had been described as Asian and Native American dissent.
Regardless of how thought-provoking and unique this film ended up being, it wasn't hard to see how the public didn't flock to this film, even if from the comfort of their own homes.