10 Critically Acclaimed Films You Never Realised Bombed At The Box Office

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 94%

Budget: $23 Million

Box Office: $47 Million

Spike Jonze seems to have been around forever now, but his sci-fi romantic dramedy Her was actually his solo screenwriting debut. The director’s previous successes Being John Malkovich and Adaptation were penned by Charlie Kaufman, though his decision to go it alone this time around was more than justified, earning him wins in the Best Original Screenplay category at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes.

Starring Joaquin Phoenix as introverted and lonely love letter composer Theodore Twombly and Scarlett Johansson as the voice of the AI that he falls in love with, Her manages to be dark and brooding at one moment then sweet and soulful the next, subtlety lampooning the state of modern human relationships and our ever-increasing reliance on technology.

While critics gushed over the Pygmalion-esque premise and the strikingly beautiful end result, the film was not the huge success that many believe it to be. Her just managed to surpass its production budget in domestic takings and pulled in a similar figure overseas for an overall gross of $47 million.

Generally speaking, for every million spent on a production a studio will spend the same again in advertising, though when a film has big stars and Oscar ambitions the ratio is likely to rise in favour of marketing. A generous estimate has Her barely nudging past the entire cost of making the film, a disappointing return for Jonze on the back of undeniable box office flop Where The Wild Things Are.