10 Great Movies That Inexplicably Flopped At The Box Office

3. It's A Wonderful Life (1946)

Bombing at the box office isn't an exclusively modern phenomena, as this next entry will show. Perhaps one of the most famous Christmas movies of all time, this perennial black and white holiday classic was a big flop when it was first released in post-war America. Facing stiff competition at the box office, the film was met with a lukewarm reception from critics and audiences alike.

At the time, James Stewart was one of the world's biggest movie stars, having starred in box office hits such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and The Philadelphia Story (1940), which also earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor. However, in 1941 Jimmy Stewart became the first major American movie star to enlist in the United States Army to fight in World War II. He soon joined the Air Corps, and even piloted B-24 bombers over Germany in 1944. Importantly, for his film career at least, Stewart made no commercial films while enlisted in the armed forces.

Upon his return to America at the conclusion of the war in 1945, Stewart almost considered leaving the movie business all together. However, he was persuaded by his old friend, director Frank Capra, to star in his new film, It's a Wonderful Life. The film was seen as the return of Stewart to the Hollywood landscape, and box office hopes resided on Stewart's star power not having diminished, having been absent from the silver screen for five years.

Despite an ambitious and expensive production, the film only grossed $3.3 million against a $3.1 million budget. A big loss for a Hollywood studio of that time. Stewart's movie career stagnated for the rest of the 1940s, but was luckily revived in the 1950s with performances in movies such as Rear Window (1954) and The Greatest Show On Earth (1952).