10 Critically Acclaimed Films That Struggled At The Box Office
But the critics are always right, aren't they? Surely this can't be...
While it is often the case that the critics and the audiences disagree on a film's merit, there are many examples of a critical panning being proven worthless by a booming box office. What a professional critic is looking for might not be what excites the public and people can have very different tastes and expectations.
However, it is rarer to have the sort of films that we will be looking at today. These films all have approval ratings of more than 75% on rotten tomatoes, showing that at least three out of every four reviews were positive... yet they failed to make money. While there is obviously more to success than just the plaudits or the bottom line financially, artistic merit and the chance for more work down the road have been seen to be tied to the money made or lost time and again.
Whether it was because of bad timing, competing with other franchises or just a runaway budget that meant ending up in the black was unlikely from the start, these are the films that the critics thought were excellent but never got the box office stubs to match.
10. The Sisters Brothers (2018)
Based on a Patrick deWitt novel by the same name, this black comedy received an extremely good response from critics, apparently warranting a standing ovation when it was screened at the Venice Film festival. As it did the rounds on the film festival circuit, it scooped a total of nine different awards and holds a positive review percentage of 87%.
Starring John C Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix as the brothers in the title (their shared surname being "Sisters", just to avoid and create confusion) it is a wild-west tale with bounty hunters, gunfighters, a search for gold and all the other expected tropes. With the performances of both men highly praised and also the final performance of legendary Dutch actor Rutger Hauer, there is a solid storyline with plenty of darkly comedic moments spread throughout.
Despite this, the film was estimated to cost $30 million dollars to make and even when the box office returns from all various territories were considered it managed to recoup just a shade over $13 million.
A shortfall in the region of $17 million is a fair amount to miss the mark by and the good reviews were not enough to bridge the gap.