10 Movies You Didn't Realise Secretly Bombed

There's no business like show business, and these shows did no business!

[LostScarf]

Shawshank redemption is always the weird one. I saw it for the first time in college with 23 other people. Someone said, hey I heard this movie was good and they put it on. We were wrapped up in that movie the entire time.

[andrewm]

Dungeons and Dragons bombed.... I don't think they'll make a sequel. But it's an amazing film. Great writing, good mix of practical and special effects, genuinely funny, well cast. I've seen it at least half a dozen times this year and twice at the movies

[jikae]

The Greatest Showman had an amazing song that later picked up momentum much later. It was actually a really fun movie with really good performances that were overshadowed by the less-than-ideal real life story of PT Barnum.

[shadowmine]

The slow start for Greatest Showman was it released same time period as Star Wars:The Last Jedi. As it faded in box office, TGS held and became number one from positive word of mouth. Jumanji:Welcome to the Jungle was also released same time, and also used positive word of mouth to hold until Star Wars faded out

[garibaldilebeau]

Actually, It’s A Wonderful Life was picked up for TV because the studio just let the rights expire. Broadcasters were desperate for cheap content to fill their schedules, so they snapped up films they could screen for free like this

[SpelCastrMax]

My brother took me to Batman Mask of Phantasm on opening night and I think people weren't sure who it was marketed to. There were lots of college age people, teens, and kids my age (10 through 12), but also lots of little LITTLE kids. I remember there being a trailer for Man's Best Friend (a rated r Cujo rip off) before the movie and a bunch of parents/kids left.

[jeffvictor]

The entire rights issues with It's A Wonderful Life are wrong here. They didn't renew them, and they went into public domain in 1974. That is why it became a cult classic. Any station could play it for free. This is pretty common knowledge, not sure how it was so wrong in this script for this video

[muxz]

Surprised The Thing didn't make it. If I remember right, it nearly ended John Carpenter's career.

[andrewm]

I kind of thought the greatest showmans music saved it. It was everywhere and is great music. So after hearing it for a couple weeks straight I went to the movies to see it ... and it was pretty full lol.

[WastedPo]

This video disproves the narrative I keep hearing (especially lately) that audiences are very smart and savvy. If a movie does poorly, it's because it's a bad movie, and only high-quality movies are rewarded financially.

[jacobdrolet]

Amazing video what culture, fantastic job.

[mcgee]

I did watch Batman: Mask of the Phantasm when it was in theatres. You're right Jules, it is absolutely incredible.

[sparrow]

Pretty much all Disney movies in the last couple years??
Oh wait, it said "secretly" bombed . . .

[jamalvargas]

Original Gangstas It Flopped When It Was Released In 1996 but thanks to THIS TV during the 2010's It's a cult classic worth checking out

[SAVANTI]

The fact that the greatest animation film of all time The Iron Giant bombed really says something about people.

[jsmith]

All of these are well know and the reason the Batman movie bomb was it was originally going to be a straight to video movie but at the last moment Warner change there mind and decided to show it in theater and put it out at the tail end of the year with very little marketing

[rastaoneeye]

For the last one, it was word of mouth that finally had people start to see it.

[PanteraRossa]

These films are part of the countless examples of how wrong the pro-theatrical crowd is so often.
"Release a movie in theaters, the only way to get revenue downstream and raise awareness." Well it seems like there's many titles that flopped theatrically which went on to make multiple times their budget on home release. Where exactly was that awareness from theatrical if nobody saw it Some titles that bombed in theaters actually earned more money in ancillaries than movies that were big theatrical hits. How do these theatrical fanatics explain that??
Oh that's right, they can't.
Many of the best films made any given decade do not find success in theatrical because they are challenging and complex products compared to the crap that makes money, while many "big" theatrical "hits" are basically forgotten a year or two later and don't get much repeat viewing at home. Judging the success/failure of a movie based on its initial 90 days or less it spent in theaters vs the 99% of its lifetime that it will spend available for purchase at home is JUST AS RIDICULOUS as cancelling new TV series based on how many people watched in the first 28 days.
Any given day, there are many cinemas in the US and around the world playing movies to empty rooms. We're about to see it happen to Oppenheimer with its long IMAX exclusivity for a movie that very possibly could come in 3rd on its opening weekend.
After a week or so when the Nolan stans have tired themselves out, I'm sure IMAX will realize they could've grossed much higher by keeping MI7 on a portion of their screens.

EDIT: Also movies need closer to 3 or even 4x their budget in theatrical gross to turn a profit. You are omitting the fact that studios only earn 60 percent of the domestic BO and 30 percent foreign, even less in China. So considering exhibitor cuts and marketing overhead, the multiple of the budget that needs to be earned grows. But it also has to do with scale. Bigger budget films have more economies of scale so the number MAY go down to 2.5x for breakeven but it almost NEVER goes below that. On the other hand, genre mid-low budget movies often generate impressive multiples compared to their production budget but you forget genre marketing is still pretty expensive so a Blumhouse horror film can cost 10-20 million to make but it costs another 20-30 million to market so the "multiple" needed becomes closer to 4x or more in some cases.

[STEP]

I think “The Greatest Showman” suddenly did so well because “This Is Me” went viral.

[Zombiesnyder]

Now everything this year is secretly bombing

Most of them are great movies