10 Notorious Box Office Bombs That Are Actually Pretty Good

Some of these movies are by no means classics, but better than their reputations would suggest.

By Scott Campbell / July 14, 2015

Even though the movie business is a commercially-driven industry, high financial returns aren't exactly a barometer of quality in an age of sequels, remakes, reboots and franchises. For example, the Transformers and Twilight franchises have each earned well over $3bn at the box office despite generally being awful, while at the other end of the spectrum several all-time classics such as It's A Wonderful Life, The Shawshank Redemption and Blade Runner were considered box office bombs when they were first released, but are now regarded as some of the greatest movies ever made.

With that in mind, this article will take a look at ten notorious box office bombs that are actually pretty good movies in their own right, although admittedly none of them are anywhere near on a par with the aforementioned classics. Despite the fact that many of these movies have some pretty major shortcomings, not to mention combined losses of hundreds of millions of dollars for the studios involved, they are nowhere near as bad as their tainted reputations would suggest.

Famously troubled productions, failed franchise starters, mega-budget misfires and genre flicks that sank without a trace all feature, so read on and see if you agree that these movies have been remembered for all the wrong reasons.

10. Hard Rain (1998)

Budget: $70m Box Office: $19.9m Rotten Tomatoes Score: 29%

One of the biggest commercial disasters of 1998, Hard Rain performed so poorly at the domestic box office that it ended up bypassing theaters entirely in many countries and going straight-to-video instead. However, the movie found a new lease of life on home video, and is now something of a cult favorite amongst action movie aficionados.

Born from a time when high-concept pitches were the way to sell an action project and Christian Slater was still a movie star, Hard Rain is essentially a small-town heist flick set against the backdrop of a major flood. As you would expect from the writer of Speed, the plot moves at a frantic pace and doesn't pause for a moment to think about things like dialogue, logic and believability but it provides plenty of entertainment value nonetheless.

Hard Rain just about overcomes the cliched script and characters by having the narrative run at a breakneck pace, and offers plenty of blockbuster spectacle thanks to some brilliant stunts and impressive special effects. It may be loud and stupid, but its a hell of a lot of fun. And where else would you see an action movie that boasts Morgan Freeman and Betty White amongst the cast?