10 Classic Films Critics Originally Hated

As if critics weren't enough, even the studio executives hated Fight Club. Worried the Chuck Palahniuk adaptation had zero appeal, they went as far as to completely change director David Fincher's advertising campaign for it. Now marketed as a trashy action flick, Fight Club incited all manner of critical negativity, from outright disgust at its violence to director Paul Thomas Anderson wishing cancer upon Fincher due to the film's depiction of cancer support groups.

Nothing like what the poorly handled marketing had promised, Fight Club was instead an edgy, philosophical meditation on '90s masculinity and consumerism. Despite Fincher and the actors being proud of what they'd made, it ultimately fell under the radar at the time. After a middling performance at the box office, Fight Club found new life on home media as a cult favourite.

Now regarded as a seminal snapshot of societal rebellion, Fight Club has been compared to similarly revolutionary classics such as A Clockwork Orange, The Graduate and Rebel Without A Cause. Its cult classic status has lead to several critical reassessments of its merits with many now considering it among the greatest films of the '90s decade.