10 Movie Marketing Stunts That Backfired HARD

In theory, a $1 million giveaway as marketing for a movie seems sensible enough - that's not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, unless your movie is an horrendous flop of course.

That was sadly the case with 1987 Razzie-nominated comedy Million Dollar Mystery, which revolved around the hunt for a series of briefcases containing $1 million each.

Producer Dino De Laurentiis came up with the idea to give $1 million to any audience member who could guess where the movie's missing briefcase was located, using clues in the film itself and entering their answer on a form.

De Laurentiis clearly expected the allure of easy riches to bring viewers to the cinema in droves, but in the end the $10 million film ended up grossing, hilariously enough, just shy of $1 million - $989,033.

But the production still had to pay out their advertised prize, to 14-year-old Californian Alesia Lenae Jones, who was reportedly one of thousands who guessed the correct answer - hidden in the nose of the Statue of Liberty - and was chosen randomly.

This might be the only example in movie history where a movie marketing prize was actually worth more than the film's own box office receipts. Incredible.