10 Notorious Box Office Bombs That Are Actually Pretty Good
3. Serenity (2005)
Budget: $39m Box Office: $38.8m RT: 82%
Seven years before he assembled the Avengers, Joss Whedon made his feature directing debut with the big-screen adaptation of his cult television series Firefly. Much like the show on which it was based, Serenity received enthusiastic reviews from both critics and fans, but didn't make enough of an impact on general audiences.
Although it was only on the air for three months, Firefly amassed enough of a following and registered such strong home video sales that Universal commissioned a feature-length continuation of the story. Unfortunately, Serenity suffered from the same fate as its small-screen counterpart; the movie failed to earn back its budget at the worldwide box office, yet managed to eventually turn a profit thanks to rentals (remember them?) and DVD sales.
Even if you hadn't seen the show, Serenity still provided an entertaining sci-fi adventure for the uninitiated, a unique blend of space opera and Western that is full of likeable characters (not to mention Chiwitel Ejiofor's villainous performance), great dialogue, plenty of humor and an old-fashioned sense of fun that is increasingly hard to come by in the genre.