8 All-Time Classic Movies You Didn't Know Flopped At The Box Office

Long before John Carter outed itself as an epic disaster, Cleopatra had already showed the world what an opulent budget looks like when it's being flushed down a gold toilet. It was the most expensive film ever made up until that time, clocking in at an absurd $44 million. Adjusted for inflation, that would be roughly $342 million today, making it the second most expensive movie of all time just behind Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

Reviews were insanely mixed when the four-hour historical drama hit theaters in 1963, with many critics lamenting the overall vacuousness of the story, while others praised the way certain performances - especially those of Rex Harrison and Elizabeth Taylor - were able to rise above the spectacle.

Audiences flocked to the theatre to witness the grandeur, making Cleopatra the highest-grossing film of the year. And yet, because of the overinflated budget, it took a massive overall loss out of the gate, nearly causing 20th Century Fox to go bankrupt.

By 1966, the film made its money back (and then some) thanks to worldwide rentals. But the damage had already been done, and there was major hesitation from studios to invest anywhere close to that amount of money in the coming years.