10 Critically Acclaimed Films That Struggled At The Box Office

Considered to be amongst the greatest films of all times, it does feel a little wrong to include the Shawshank Redemption on this list - and it must be specified that this adaptation of a Stephen King novella can only be considered a box-office flop on its first run.

While it cost $25 million to make, it performed very poorly during its initial run by managing to recoup $16 million. While the reasons for this could be tough competition and a long run time, once the critical acclaim kept rolling in and the film picked up award after award, it received a theatrical re-release and managed too make up the shortfall by eventually taking just over $58 million.

Telling the story of a wrongly-convicted man and his eventual escape from Shawshank prison, it stars Tim Robbins as the antagonist and Morgan Freeman as narrator and secondary character "Red". With iconic scenes and lines littered throughout it never feels half as long as its runtime and it is a great justice that the financials eventually reflected the quality of the film.

90% of professional critics have given it a positive review, and the only mystery is what the other 10% were thinking.