10 Box Office Failures That Are Actually Brilliant

9. Hugo

Martin Scorsese's first foray into the realms of children's films cost an arm and a leg to produce, mainly thanks to the progressive, swooping 3D effects that dominated the picture from start to finish, and 'cause CGI is expensive! Though critical reviews for Hugo were strong - audience reaction seemed to be more or less split down the middle - it failed to make much of a killing at the box office, grossing a mere $185 million on a $170 million budget. What happened? Did parents see Martin Scorsese's name on the marketing and assume there would be bloodshed? More likely, word of mouth got around that Hugo was a fairly complicated picture - Scorsese mines the history of cinema to tell the story of a boy who lives in a Parisian railway station, after all, and there are peppered references to Georges Méliès and the Lumière brothers scattered throughout. Hugo isn't a film without flaws - it's too long, for one - but there's magic to be had here, perhaps more so for adults who have the same appreciation for cinematic history as Scorsese does. Even for 3D-haters the world over (and there are lots), it's a trip worth taking.