10 Iconic Movies That Were Initially Critical Flops
9. The Money Pit
Released in 1986, The Money Pit was an updated version of the 1948 classic Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House starring Cary Grant and Myrna Loy, based on the novel that had come out two years prior. In the new version, a couple played by Tom Hanks and Shelley Long buy a massive house for a startlingly cheap price. It's not long before the reasons for the price become apparent.
After it opened, critics by and large did not take kindly to it much at all. A consensus had been built that the gags were repetitive and that the characters, and the movie itself, were very unintelligent. Some particularly scathing words were dealt to it by famed critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, the latter calling the film 'miserable', and from Variety, which called it 'gruesomely unfunny'.
Despite this, The Money Pit became popular on home video and was frequently aired on HBO and over time it has developed a cult following.