10 Flop Movies You Thought Were Huge Hits

John Carpenter's The Thing is rightly held up as both one of the greatest sci-fi and horror movies ever made, and to the layperson watching the movie within the context of today, why wouldn't it have been at least a modest box office hit?

After all, it offers up a sci-fi horror riff on Agatha Christie's mystery novel And Then There Were None, touts cutting edge practical monster effects, is directed by a red-hot filmmaker fresh off three back-to-back smash hits in Halloween, The Fog, and Escape from New York, and even reunites Carpenter with the latter's Kurt Russell.

Basically, what's not to like?

But in 1982, The Thing simply failed to connect with mass audiences, in large part because it released just two weeks after the sci-fi mega-hit that dominated the entire summer - Steven Spielberg's E.T.

This is to say nothing of the other many great films released that summer - Blade Runner, Poltergeist, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Conan the Barbarian, and Tron.

And so this, combined with the bleakness of the early-80s recession, didn't exactly leave audiences in the mood to watch a nihilistic sci-fi horror film with a hopeless ending, causing The Thing to gross just $19.6 million on a $15 million budget.

But of course, it goes without saying that The Thing's legacy was secured in the years and decades afterwards, where genre fans embraced it for its sublime atmosphere, gnarly effects, and strong ensemble cast.