10 Classic Films That Were Shamefully Ignored At First

9. Fight Club

So beloved is David Fincher's Fight Club by movie fans everywhere that it seems unlikely that there was ever a point in time in which people were ignoring it like it didn't exist or something, but that's legitimately what happened back in 1999. Regarded nowadays as one of the defining films of the '90s, back upon its first release, audiences just weren't all that into it - it grossed a relatively disturbing $37 million on a budget of $63. What gives, guys? Not only was the movie ignored by the general public (shocking, really, given that it came from the director of Se7en, which took in a fairly sizeable amount of cash), but the critics weren't particularly warm to it, either, many of whom failed to see it as clever and instead felt it relied heavily on a contrived gimmick. Only much later did Fight Club start to make a name for itself, bringing us up to the present, when we've all watched it 45 times each.
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Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.