The term "movie flop" tends to be synonymous with that of "absolutely terrible," because good movies don't flop at the box office, do they? Despite the fact that the majority of movies that fail to gross back their budgets when they're realised in theatres are truly awful, there are a few motion pictures out there that flopped regardless of their quality - simply because they were marketed wrong, or because everybody in the world happened to be busy on that particular weekend, or for reasons that are unexplainable, but not - as many believe - because they really sucked. So join us here as we take a look at 10 movies that all flopped at the box office and failed to recuperate their losses - some well-known, some you might never have even heard of. What's important is that all the movies here are genuinely worth your time, despite the fact that they were considered poison to the studios that decided to green-light them. The emphasise here falls on the idea that a movie can be ignored by the general public and branded a massive flop even if it's good - though "flop" generally denotes an inferior product, it isn't actually always the case...
10. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
The most common complaint regarding Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within seemed to be: "It has nothing to do with Final Fantasy," which is an understandable criticism, but one that doesn't really ring true. Final Fantasy games, after all, are mostly single entities - with every new game, there's a new world, new characters, and a new story; there are staples of the series that reoccur throughout, of course, but generally speaking, with every added Roman numeral, the playing field gets reset. Perhaps it's just that Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was too darn weird? Or was it that the Final Fantasy fanbase just wasn't big enough? Either way, this insanely expensive $137 million dollar animated movie grossed just half its budget back at the box office. Whereas many wrote off its story as dull and generic, they complimented the breathing-taking visuals. But there's more to this movie that meets the eye; not only did it raise the bar for the "photorealistic CG movie," the action scenes are stunning and mesmerising, the spiritual themes both timely and moving. If it's bewildering, then it's also a picture in need of multiple viewings.
