20 Recent Movies That Were Sent Out To Die

In an ideal world every movie that's shot and completed would get a fully enthusiastic release from its distributor, because why go through all the toil of making a film not to give it the best possible chance of thriving with audiences?

But of course, the business of filmmaking is far more complicated than that in reality, and for one of many reasons, a studio might send a film out into the world without much fanfare whatsoever.

Perhaps said movie just didn't come together and they know it's a guaranteed box office dud, or perhaps the distributor simply lacks the marketing firepower necessary to do the film full justice.

Whatever the reason, these 20 recent films all made barely a peep when they landed in cinemas. 

Regardless of their quality, they were released so quietly that you couldn't be blamed for failing to realise that they came out at all.

In some cases it's clear why the studio had no faith in the end product, while in others it's a damn shame that they weren't given a more effortful rollout...

Despite being directed by Ridley Scott, adapted from an acclaimed novel, and touting an appealing ensemble cast led by Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, and Margaret Qualley, The Dog Stars came and went in the blink of an eye in August.

The marketing for this post-apocalyptic action thriller simply failed to distinguish it from countless other similar films, and perhaps sensing that the $110 million budget was a sunk cost, distributor 20th Century Studios didn't even really give it much of a push.

This high budget left it needing to gross around $275 million in order to be profitable, but after four weekends on release it hadn't even cleared $40 million worldwide - the sign of a film being completely shut out and rejected by basically the entire globe.

While The Dog Stars will probably perform better on streaming, this is a theatrical dud that just about everyone saw coming a mile off.