10 Classic Films That Were Shamefully Ignored At First

4. Vertigo

Nowadays, people are all like, "Oh, Vertigo, you're so good," but back in 1958, they were more like, "Oh, Vertigo, okay, whatever." Seriously: despite the fact that Vertigo is often thought to be the greatest of all Alfred Hitchcock movies, and was declared the best film ever made by the BFI back in 2012, it was met with only a lukewarm reception upon first release, and didn't make anywhere near as much money as your average Hitchcock flick. Okay, so Vertigo did pull in $7.3 million on a budget of $2.5 million, but this wasn't seen to be particularly good, given the sort of box office numbers that Hitchcock films were used to bringing in. Presumably the idea seemed a little "far out" for audiences at the time, and negative word of mouth kept the punters away. Critics ignored the movie's greatness, too: the original review from Sight & Sound confidently notes that "the plot fails to work." Sigh.