8 All-Time Classic Movies You Didn't Know Flopped At The Box Office
Proof that second chances are a wonderful thing.
"Flop" has long been the most dreaded word in every studio executive's vocabulary. All it takes is one bad return at the box office to put them out of a job.
Most flops achieve a certain level of infamy, becoming cautionary tales for future filmmakers and serving as a punchline for years afterward. And yet, some films that are initially viewed as huge financial failures still go on to become legendary, universally beloved pieces of cinema.
Just to be clear, we're not talking about "cult classics" here, a label which implies the film has achieved diehard fandom from only a small group of film geeks as opposed to universal adoration. We're talking about outright classics.
It makes sense that a film like The Big Lebowski or Donnie Darko didn't pull in major dollars at the box office, and it also makes sense that those would achieve a second life after they left theatres.
But then there are these other movies that, by all critical and fan consensus, surely must have entered into the world as smash hits. However, a handful of what we now consider outright classics didn't fare so well upon their arrival.
In fact, they sank. Hard.
8. Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
Of all the eventual children's classics that started out as box office bombs, it kind of makes sense that Willy Wonka failed to catch on right away. Even a decade as weird as the 70s couldn't possibly get on board with the super creepy, at times nightmarish spectacle that Mel Stuart and Gene Wilder worked together to create.
At least not right away. And that reluctance showed in the initial run's numbers, where Wonka and his orange-faced compatriots pulled in a meager $4 million from a $3 million budget.
It received a second life once Warner Bros acquired the rights from Paramount and re-released the dark candy man's story on video in 1996. Suddenly, a movie that rightfully earned its status as a "cult classic" became an iconic piece of pop culture that generations of families could be completely freaked out by. It earned an additional $21 million from the ensuing video sales.
Willy Wonka is now essential viewing for anyone with a pulse, but it's hard to believe the film started out much closer to Labyrinth than E.T. in terms of acclaim and box office success.