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??
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.
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 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.
Waterworld is freaking amazing. Love that movie.
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.”
Now I kinda wanna finish grind house finally.
Without spoilers, what’s its style?
I especially love the Death Proof half of Grindhouse, but that’s because I love 70s B-list chase movies.
Dredd. Karl Urban always gets me in the door, but the movie ended up being pretty great.
Thanks for the recommend, all. I’d avoided it but really enjoyed myself.
That movie was so good. And what made it great was that it was like reading just some random issue of the comic.
No origin
No world at stake plot
Just another day for Dredd
Like picking up issue 24 and just reading
That’s one of my favorite parts, too. The story is relatively “small.” It’s 2 judges, one building, and some bad guys. That’s why I love Dredd’s final interaction with his boss so much. I don’t remember it verbatim, but it’s something like:
Boss: what happened in there?
Dredd: drug bust
Boss: you look like you’ve been through it.
Dredd: Perps were…uncooperative
I wish MCU would do stories like this. I mean I would watch a Spiderman movie where Spidey stops low level crooks and the big problem is peter trying to make rent.
Not everything has to have the world at stake.
What happened?
It’s Tuesday.
Understandable, have a nice day.
This is actually the movie that prompted the question! I forced my fiancé to watch it with me last night (I’d seen it before) and he loved it!
There’s so much to love about that movie. I always wondered if it would’ve been more successful if the Stallone Judge Dredd movie hadn’t been so terrible.
That movie is so damn good. Every other film adapting a comic book has to make it either an origin story or some major event in canon. Dredd is literally “this is a slightly unusual but not that abnormal day for this guy” and it’s absolutely riveting. And that’s how the Dredd universe is: everything is intense and over-the-top.
Treasure Planet.
It’s probably a good thing that Disney’s forgotten about it. I don’t wanna see them try to remake it.
There’s a whole conspiracy about this movie. Something about Disney making it tank with bad marketing so they could push for digital animation.
That Speed Racer movie that the Wachowski’s made. I think it’s a fun film and I feel fortunate to have found a handful of Lemmy users who also appreciate it.
That movie was too far ahead of its time for its own good. I remember hating it in theaters but gave it another chance recently on a friend’s recommendation.
Holy shit. The world was not ready for that level of cinematography. The scene transition from the villain’s office to the big race is pure art. People will be studying that one in film school for decades.
The Wachowski sisters are some of the most underrated filmmakers of all time. Everyone basically wrote them off as just, you know, the slow-mo kung fu people, and it’s absolutely tragic that they don’t get the respect their work deserves.
People will be studying that one in film school for decades.
If you have the time, this is a pretty great video studying the film
I knew one guy for years who swore up and down it was the best thing he’d seen in ages. Loved that movie. But he was also a troll with really questionable taste so I just ignored it.
But I see it get brought up like this fairly frequently so unless you’re all his puppets maybe ill watch it.
It is the only live actually movie I’ve ever seen that feels exactly like a cartoon. It got released in theaters for its anniversary recently and being able to watch it on the big screen as an adult was genuinely amazing.
An absolutely phenomenal movie. It would have sold better if so many people weren’t philistines.
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.
I saw it in the theater when it came out. Loved it.
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.
Dirk Gently (the last TV show)
Better off Ted
Dead like me
Dead Like Me deserved better than it got.
I have never seen the movie.
Event Horizon. I consider it in-universe canon for Warhammer 40,000.
Same. As far as I’m concerned that film is a depiction of what happens if you enter The Warp without a Gellar Field.
When I first saw the movie I was very unhappy because it was not at all what was advertised. I was expecting a sci-fi thriller, not Hellraiser in Space. It was quite badly marketed. If it had been marketed correctly it might’ve done far better.
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.
Amen. Didn’t it open against a blockbuster? That’s dim.
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.
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.
Blade Runner 2049 was technically a commercial failure by hollywood standards.
Because it was a mediocre movie
Disagree. I think it’s been too long since we’ve had slow-paced thoughtful scifi movies.
Dark Matter.
I was primed onto that show after playing a lot of Fractured Space, which was also a commercial failure.
Season 2 was just released (mostly); I don’t think it was a failure. It’s gotten better reviews than season 1.
Heh, I think you’re referring to the wrong Dark Matter. The one I’m talking about premiered in 2015 and was cancelled after 3 seasons.
Oh right haha, I forgot there was another series called Dark Matter! I remember that I read the book by Blake Crouch - that the current series is based on - and loved it, but being a little confused when I watched the trailer for that series.
This one is good too, though. I recommend it.