10 More Awesome Movies That Didn't Deserve To Bomb
These incredible movies deserved to do so, so much better.
The theatrical moviegoing experience is certainly in a precarious spot right now, as audiences have been trained to stay home and wait for streaming for all but their most anticipated movies.
Furthermore, truly original films which also make bank at the box office are in depressingly small supply.
While it's tough to lament a bad movie that fails to turn a profit, it's certainly disheartening when quality films fail to find an audience, because it sends the wrong message to studios, that people aren't interested in these types of films.
And it's even worse when a film flops while being a genuinely brilliant, perhaps even all-timer piece of work.
The winds of box office success are rarely dictated by whether a film "deserves" to succeed, but it was a damn shame that these terrific movies didn't find an audience on the big screen, ensuring that in many cases, planned sequels and prospective franchises were effectively killed in the crib.
Whether they were poorly marketed, over-budgeted, or just released in a hugely crowded part of the calendar, these films all flopped despite being really, really damn good...
10. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Even accepting the global popularity of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise, it's still a relatively niche IP in mainstream terms, and so spending $150 million on a blockbuster movie adaptation was an undeniably sizable risk.
A risk which, ultimately, didn't pay off - 2023's Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves ended up grossing just $208.2 million worldwide, immediately killing Paramount's plans for a sequel.
It was certainly a disappointing outcome given that Honor Among Thieves was one of 2023's most pleasant surprises - a thoroughly charming, smart, and creative tentpole adaptation that benefited enormously from the chemistry between its stellar cast.
Given that the film landed a sturdy "A-" CinemaScore, it's safe to say that just about everybody who actually bothered to see it had a good time - but that number just wasn't enough.
Granted, Paramount did themselves no favours here - the $150 million budget was a huge liability, and it might've stood at a chance were it more modestly scaled as a $80-100 million adventure instead.
Plus, releasing in close proximity to John Wick: Chapter 4 and The Super Mario Bros. Movie - both of which were massive box office hits - ensured it didn't really have a hope.