I would also include anything that was initially a flop on its original release but then found a following later such as movies like Momento. This still counts as commercial failure for the sake of this question.
Firefly
Hedwig and the angry inch??
No one else gonna mention the 90s Mario Bros movie? It was one hell of a commercial flop, and set back video game movies a long time, but i love it.
Wildest dystopian cyberpunk movie ever made. In an underground dinosaur society once ruled by a benevolent fungal king and taken over by corrupt corporation developing trans-dino de-volution technology to control the masses, two sanitation engineers from Brooklyn become heros. To do so they must hack the mycelial network to find the lost king, survive an electric vehicle demolition derby style car chase, and save the princess.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show was a flop on release but still has special runs in theatres now some 50 years later.
Weird Al’s film UHF.
In a just universe it’d have made a ton of money, spawned sequels, and set Al up as just as successful a screen performer as he is a musical performer. As is it flopped in theaters, but gained a well-justified cult following on home video afterward.
Mystery Men. Probably 20 years ahead of its time. I don’t think people had been inundated with superhero movies enough to appreciate the deconstruction. Aside from one or two short pointless scenes (what purpose did the skunk scene serve?) the film is incredibly tight, peak comedy.
Watched it a few weeks ago for the first time in years. The movies hits differently now that we have has so many comic book movies.
I saw it in the theater when it came out. Loved it.
I don’t know that Water World ever got a later following, but I love it and it’s still an original take on the post-apocalypse genre.
I never understood what issue people had with it. There so many way way worst action movies.
I guess it technical made money but Kung Pow! Enter the Fist.
I saw it in theater and remember everyone laughing through the whole thing. Absolutely absurd re-dubbing of a couple of old kung fu movies by the guy that later wrote and directed Ace Ventura and wrote the Jimmy Neutron movie. The reviews were utterly horrible (deservedly) but undeniably funny. I still quote it all the time.
For the unaware that where the “That’s a lot of nuts!” comes from.I quote it so often that it often doesn’t occur to me that I’m quoting it.
I implore you to reconsider!
We have purposely trained him wrong, as a joke.
I’m bleeding, making me the victor!
THAT’LL BE FOUR BUCKS BABY, YOU WANT FRIES WITH THAT?
Taco Bell, Taco Bell, product placement with Taco Bell. Enchirito, nacho burrito!
Ba na na na na, Neo… Ba na na na na na na, Sporin
Tiger… Tiger, tiger, tiger… Mmm. Bird. Birdie. Birdie birdie!
My social group gets a lot of use out of “we trained him wrong as a joke,” “my name is Betty,” and “your shirt is red!”
I relate to Wimp Lo harder than I’ve ever related to a character depicted in any media.
Pantheon, the TV series.
One of the best shows ever, IMO, so good I can’t say much without spoiling the premise in a Outer Wilds kind of way.
Yet it was trampled by AMC and their failed streaming service. What a mess. I’m not sure it’s possible to even watch legally?
Incredibly good series. Just can’t really agree with its philosophy, or its ending.
Looks like it got moved to Netflix in the US.
Ah. Good. I thought it was only available from Amazon in a few regions, but it appears that isn’t the case anymore.
Most recently, Super girl was underrated.
I also liked The Dead Don’t Die.
The Incarnations of Immortality series.
Instead we just kept getting Xanth novels.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Piers Anthony is questionable at best, but the deep continuity and relationships and overall cohesion of the characters across several novels (we don’t talk about the Good/Evil/Night DLCs) was actually quite impressive.
If they’d succeeded more in a commercial sense maybe we’d have a cool remake or something.
If i could cast one 9th level wish, i would go ahead and leave the future of the world to other people, and use it to wish that Piers Anthony had never done or written anything problematic, but have the books come out even better than before.
Donnie Darko. It perfectly fits your second criterion. It was an abysmal flop in theaters, mostly because its ads got pulled because it featured ::: spoiler spoilers a jet engine crashing into a house just 6 weeks after 9/11. :::
It had a budget of $4.5 million and only made $500k in theaters. But it later exploded on DVD and made $10 million.
Surprised no one’s brought up The Room (2003) yet.
Really hoping that the Bob Odenkirk remake becomes a real thing.
Tremors?
Firefly. Watching Serenity, it’s pretty obvious they’re trying to hit several seasons’ worth of story beats in as little time as possible. Seeing it as intended would have been really cool.
Honorable mentions (in no particular order):
Fight Club
The Iron Giant
Grindhouse
Waterworld
The Iron Giant
I was wondering if anyone would mention it! By far one of the most influential animated films of my youth, might have even been the reason I continued to enjoy animation past my childhood.
It flopped in theaters because despite test audiences loving it, Warner Brothers dropped the ball on marketing and nobody even knew it was in theaters. But from what I heard it gained a massive cult following, and I remember it being shown every holiday season for years as a kid.
After all these years, the final “Superman” still gets me…
I remember renting it as a kid and loving it, then asking around school and no one else had ever heard of it.
During those difficult moments, I still tell myself, “We are who we choose to be.”
Waterworld is freaking amazing. Love that movie.
The appearance of Fight Club on your list surprised me - I thought it did well. But I looked it up - it was #1 on opening weekend but ultimately only turned a profit of $10m, which is indeed a flop. Wild considering how well regarded it is now.
I especially love the Death Proof half of Grindhouse, but that’s because I love 70s B-list chase movies.
Now I kinda wanna finish grind house finally.
Without spoilers, what’s its style?
