10 Horror Movies You Didn't Realise Secretly Bombed

Budget: $2.5 million

Box Office: $7.3 million

Few filmmakers have boasted a more consistent career than Alfred Hitchcock. Like an assembly worker, the visionary auteur churned out masterpiece after masterpiece for decades.

While discussing Hitchcock's best work, it's only a matter of time before someone brings up Vertigo. Although it's not a conventional horror, every scene is dripping in so much suspense, your nerves are shot by the end.

Nowadays, Vertigo is regarded as a masterclass in creating and building tension. But at the time, it was criticised for being farfetched, boring, and indulgent. (Even Citizen Kane star himself, Orson Welles, couldn't hide his disdain for it.) Though Vertigo made a profit, saying it fell short is a major understatement. By comparison, Psycho, which Hitchcock released two years later, earned nearly ten times that amount.

Hitchcock blamed Vertigo's failure on its lead star, Jimmy Stewart, believing the 49-year-old actor was too old to play a convincing love interest for his 24-year-old co-star, Kim Novak. Despite the fact the pair had collaborated on several occasions for years, Alfred Hitchcock was so embittered by Vertigo's failure, he never worked with Stewart again.