10 Recent Movies That Were Sent Out To Die

Unfortunately for Hollywood, not every film can be a billion dollar Disney flick.

Anna Luc Besson
Summit Entertainment

With Disney seemingly taking over the world in all areas of entertainment, it's getting more and more difficult for other studios to achieve breakout success, whether it be a franchise instalment or a small indie hoping to become a surprise hit.

With amazing coming-of-age comedies and dismally disappointing non-Marvel superhero movies failing to reach the heights of success they would have wanted, sometimes studios just have to throw in the towel and release their film whether it's a good strategy or not.

Counter-programming and opportune release windows are becoming increasingly tough to predict, promotion gets swallowed up in the excitement of other big franchise movies, and the ever-changing influence of critical reception and audience reactions makes the crowded industry almost impossible to navigate.

Here are 10 films that just couldn't find the right time to break out...

10. Shaft

Anna Luc Besson
Netflix

This film was weird from the very beginning. The idea of a sequel with the exact same title as its predecessor from 19 years ago is bizarre in itself, let alone when you consider when it was released and how its distribution was handled.

This summer has been completely dominated by huge budget Disney juggernauts, and Shaft was released in the United States on the same day as Men in Black: International - a film in an almost identical position as a similarly budgeted action-comedy sequel to an old property. The problem was that, while under-performing in its own right, Men in Black is a much more popular franchise with much more desirable starring talent.

Shaft only made $20 million against a $30 million budget, though some of that money must have been clawed back as the film randomly popped up as a Netflix Original outside of the States a couple of weeks later with hardly any promotion.

It appeared that everyone involved in this film knew it wasn't destined to do well, as the minimal promotion and effort put into both its theatrical and streaming debuts means most people don't even know this film exists.

 
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