20 Recent Movies That Were Sent Out To Die

12. Animal Farm

An animated adaptation of George Orwell's Animal Farm has been Andy Serkis' passion project for an entire 15 years, with pre-production finally beginning in earnest in 2021.

During production, however, it was announced that original distributor Netflix had dropped out. 

The film was completed in May 2024, after which it spent an entire 18 months without a new distributor, even with an all-star cast including Seth Rogen, Steve Buscemi, Glenn Close, Kieran Culkin, Woody Harrelson, Jim Parsons, and Kathleen Turner.

The early word from film festival screenings was that Serkis' Animal Farm simply wasn't very good, leaving it to be picked up by Angel Studios - an outfit which tends to only distribute faith-based films and movies most other studios won't touch.

And so, the $35 million animation finally began its global rollout in May, where it ultimately grossed just $6.5 million, unaided by an utterly limp marketing campaign and atrocious reviews.