10 Flop Movies You Thought Were Huge Hits
3. The Iron Giant
While 2D animation is absolutely a tough sell to the audiences of today, back in 1999 it hadn't yet been fully supplanted by 3D/CGI animation and could still be relied upon to turn a solid profit.
And given the near-universal acclaim for Brad Bird's The Iron Giant, why wouldn't it have been a smash hit?
Yet despite its gorgeous animation and heart-warming story, the film grossed a brutal $31.7 million - barely half of its $50 million budget.
The blame has been largely placed with Warner Bros., who following the box office failure of The Quest for Camelot the year prior, didn't believe The Iron Giant would be a success.
As such, they didn't even bother organising fast food tie-ins or the production of major merchandise like toys - all the basic things you'd expect for most kid-targeting animated films.
A wildly positive test screening close to release totally shocked the Warner Bros. brass, who were then left without sufficient time to give it the marketing push it clearly deserved.
The Iron Giant's reputation as an eye-wateringly beautiful masterpiece only fomented in the years that followed, and while some fans hoped that the film's later success made a sequel possible, Bird reaffirmed that the initial box office outcome was dire enough that it's unlikely to ever get a follow-up.