12 Movies In 2016 That Should Have Flopped (But Didn't)
3. Sausage Party
Amid a year of family-friendly films like Finding Dory and The Secret Life of Pets, another CGI animation about anthropomorphic foodstuffs living in a supermarket and trying to discover the truth about their existence sounded innocent enough at first. But Sausage Party bucked the trend with an entirely adult-oriented animation crammed with off-colour humour, relentless innuendo and more F-bombs than you can shake a stick at (150, to be precise). It certainly found its niche too, making nearly $140 million on its $19 million budget and surpassing kid-friendly Pete’s Dragon during its opening weekend in the US.
Considering Sausage Party had the odds stacked against it from the start, it’s quite the accomplishment. First conceived nearly a decade ago by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Jonah Hill whilst under the influence of the devil’s lettuce, the movie was turned down by dozens of studios before Sony eventually took the gamble. And for a film that culminates in a massive food orgy and only scraped an R-rating after the pubic hair of a walking, talking pita bread character was digitally shaved off (his hair-free scrotum was allowed to remain), it’s a wonder it made it to the big screen at all.