Movies

10 Box Office Flops From the Past Five Years That Are Actually Great

Photo of cnnradionews staff cnnradionews staff Send an email 2 days ago
0 11 minutes read

Films fail all the time. If anything, they fail more than they succeed. A box office flop is par for the course for any actor or filmmaker with a significant body of work. But, while financial success isn’t an indicator of quality, seeing an excellent film fail still hurts.

This is especially true in a modern filmmaking landscape. The IP obsession, the rise of streaming, and the impact of COVID-19 have all rapidly altered the way movies are released and consumed. As a result, many excellent films slip through the cracks and get lost in the shuffle. However, a film’s opening weekend at the box office shouldn’t be its be-all and end-all. Some of the best films of the last five years flopped at the box-office, but these future classics deserve to be seen and appreciated.

10

‘The Fall Guy’ (2024)

Box office: $181.1 million

Image via Universal Pictures

Stuntman Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is returning to work after a horrific on-set injury almost killed him. However, his comeback won’t be easy. Colt travels to Sydney to work with a first-time director, who also happens to be his ex-girlfriend Jody (Emily Blunt). To make matters worse, the star of the film, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who Colt doubles for, has gone missing. Colt works to track Tom down in time to save his ex’s movie, and hopefully win her back.

While $181 million is far from an insignificant haul, The Fall Guy had an estimated budget of $150 million, a huge marketing campaign, and an all-star cast. The Fall Guy certainly wasn’t one of the best films of the last five years. Yet, the charisma of the leads, the high quality stunt work, and the originality of the premise would certainly lead people to think The Fall Guy would have at least been a mild hit. Unfortunately, the boldness of the marketing campaign and the intent to showcase the below-the-line crew were not rewarded by box office returns.

9

‘Underwater’ (2020)

Box office: $40.9 million

Kristen Stewart as Norah Price in Underwater.
Image via 20th Century Fox

Medical engineer Norah (Kristen Stewart) works on a state-of-the-art drilling facility at the bottom of the world’s deepest oceanic trench; the Mariana Trench. When an earthquake damages the facility, Nora and a few of her colleagues are the only survivors. With extensive damage to the surrounding structures, and many of the escape pods rendered unusable, the group must walk across the ocean floor to reach safety. However, the earthquake isn’t the only danger they have to worry about.

Kristin Stewart does her own rendition of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in Underwater. The dark and damp monster-horror movie came a few million shy of recouping its budget at the box office. Fun, tense and surprisingly original, Underwater just didn’t have quite enough oomph to be a box office hit. That being said, the dark and claustrophobic film is the perfect thing to watch on streaming, and Kristen Stewart is an excellent sci-fi horror lead.

8

‘Beau is Afraid’ (2023)

Box office: $12.3 million

Joaquin Phoenix with face wounds sitting on a cruise ship looking anious in Beau is Afraid.
Image via A24

Beau Wassermann (Joaquin Phoenix) is mild-mannered, soft-spoken and very highly strung. His paranoia and neuroticism are nurtured by his doting mother, Mona (Patti LuPone) who has a central and domineering role in his mind. While trying to visit his mother, Beau encounters myriad, surreal challenges, including his crime-ridden neighborhood and his own inner demons.

After his previous two films, Hereditary and Midsommar, dominated the box office and became favorites among “elevated horror” lovers, Ari Aster‘s Beau is Afraid seemed like a sure thing. Instead, the surrealist/comedy/horror/tragedy with a three-hour runtime floundered, and brought in about $12 million against a $35 million budget. Beau is Afraid is without a doubt the least accessible of Aster’s work, but the director’s skill as a storyteller and strength as an emotional provocateur is still on full display.

7

‘Nightmare Alley’ (2021)

Box office: $39.6 million

Dr. Lilith Ritter lighting a match in Nightmare Alley.
Image via 20th Century Studios

In the late 1930s, Stan Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) gets work at a traveling carnival. As time passes, Stan learns how to cold read people and perform other grifts and scams. After a few years, Stan has blossomed into an accomplished mentalist and regularly performs for the city’s elite. However, his confidence in his own abilities, and his involvement with psychologist Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett) gets him into trouble.

Based on the 1946 novel of the same name, Nightmare Alley was woefully neglected by audiences upon its release. Bringing in just under $40 million against a budget of $60 million, the Guillermo del Toro film was undeniably a financial flop. But that doesn’t mean the marriage of del Toro’s craftsmanship and Nightmare Alley‘s generous budget was anything less than a perfect match. Adorned with sumptuous art deco sets and costuming, and rendered simultaneously romantic and tragic by the lighting and camera work, Nightmare Alley deserved much better than what it earned in theaters.

6

‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ (2024)

Box office: $173.8 million

Anya Taylor-Joy behind the wheel in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga with black oil warpaint on her forehead
Image via Warner Bros. 

After an apocalypse irradiates Australia, the country is a barren wasteland. The Green Place of Many Mothers is one of the last areas with fresh water, flora and fauna, and agriculture. While in the Green Place picking peaches, young Furiosa (Alyla Browne) is spotted and kidnapped by a group of raiders, who take her to their leader, Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) remains a prisoner for years, and Dementus hopes that one day she will lead him to the Green Place.

Mad Max: Fury Road is a film defined by two wildly different, but not mutually exclusive perspectives. On the one hand, the movie from 2015 is considered by filmmakers and film nerds alike to be a once in a generation cinematic achievement without an equal. On the other hand, the film didn’t actually perform that well at the box office, and failed to recoup its budget. For this reason, the lukewarm financial success of its sequel, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, probably wasn’t a surprise to many box office prognosticators. But for those who believe that excellent filmmaking should be seen and rewarded, the subpar box office receipts for Furiosa are disheartening and indicative of the challenges of modern movie making.

5

‘Synchronic’ (2019)

Box office: $1.5 million

Jamie Dornan and Anthony Mackie as paramedics walk down a street with a stretcher in Synchronic. 
Image via Well Go USA Entertainment

New Orleans paramedic team Steve (Anthony Mackie) and Dennis (Jamie Dornan) notice that their calls are getting stranger and harder to make sense of. The pair believe that this rise in strange accidents and violent injuries is linked to a new designer drug called “synchronic.” Curious about the drug’s properties, Steve tracks down its creator, who claims that the drug alters one’s perception of time, and as a result, can be used to time travel.

Synchronic was simply too weird to ever be a runaway hit. The complex, grimy and fiercely original sci-fi from writer/director duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead clearly didn’t have designs on four-quadrant success. But, with leads as charismatic as Jamie Dornan and Anthony Mackie, and a hook as intriguing as a time-travel-drug, Synchronic should have dragged in well over the modest $1.5 million it earned against its estimated budget of $4 million. Despite the film’s financial failure, it remains one of the most compelling pieces of time-travel science fiction to be released this century and deserves to be seen by as broad an audience as possible.

4

‘Malignant’ (2021)

Box office: $34.9 million

Annabelle Wallis as Madison Mitchell sits in a kitchen barefoot and looks scared in Malignant.
Image via Warner Bros.

Madison (Annabelle Wallis) and her abusive husband Derek (Jake Abel) have had difficulty conceiving. After another health set back, Derek assaults Madison, rendering her unconscious. When she wakes up, she finds that there is an intruder in her home, and Derek has been killed. After this troubling incident, Madison begins having dreams and visions about attacks and murders, and is shocked to learn that the visions she has are actually coming true.

After dominating the horror film scene for two straight decades, James Wan decided to get weird with Malignant, and thank goodness he did. The 2021 horror film is campy, gory and just ridiculous enough to turn a corner and become amazing. Unfortunately, Malignant was far less successful than Wan’s previous horror films and came a few million short of recouping its budget. But, Wan’s adoration for horror cinema is on full display in Malignant, and the director makes excellent use of dolly zooms, steady wide shots, bombastic practical effects and other technical flourishes that were pioneered by his predecessors.

3

‘Possessor’ (2020)

Box office: $911,180

Andrea Riseborough as Tasya Vos sits on a couch and looks stressed in Possessor.
Image via NEON

Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough) works as a high-level assassin without ever having to truly meet her targets. Brain implants and high-tech machinery enable Tasya to inhabit the bodies of others. Through her work, she inhabits people close to her targets and uses their bodies to kill her victims. After the crime, she disconnects, and an innocent person goes down for the murder. Despite her effectiveness, her grasp on her own identity is becoming tenuous, and violence dominates her thoughts.

Cynical, aloof and viciously violent, Possessor was destined to flop at the box office. But its earnings are in no way indicative of its quality. The film, directed and written by Brandon Cronenberg, pulls no punches in its exploration of the relationship between technology and detachment. The movie’s financial failure speaks to the double-edged sword of streaming and home-media release. While the theatrical experience is one of humanity’s greatest achievements, some films, like Possessor, simply aren’t pleasant to watch on a giant screen surrounded by strangers. While streaming is changing the film distribution landscape, and threatening cinematic traditions, it also enables even the most confrontational and challenging work to find an audience over time.

2

‘The Last Duel’ (2021)

Box office: $30.6 million

Jacques le Gris and Jean de Carrouges on horseback facing each other in The Last Duel.
Image via 20th Century Studios

In medieval France, a community is thrown into turmoil when the wife of a knight accuses his friend of rape. Marguerite (Jodie Comer) tells her husband, Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) that while he was away from the home, a squire, and friend of Jean’s, Jacques le Gris (Adam Driver) came to the home and assaulted her. More concerned with his reputation and Marguerite’s status as his property, Jean challenges Jacques to a judicial duel. The events leading up to the duel are told thrice from the perspectives of each of the characters.

Films come and go, and despite the box office receipts, a great movie will live on to be rediscovered and reexamined in time. Even though financial success and artistic success have little to do with each other, seeing a film like The Last Duel fail financially stings a bit more than usual. In addition to having an A-list cast and Ridley Scott in the director’s chair, The Last Duel is an utterly enthralling piece of filmmaking that explores the suffocation and powerlessness inherent in the female experience throughout history. Not only is the film an excellent example of a historical epic, it is also a bittersweet and painful examination of one woman’s lived experience, through her own eyes, and the eyes of the powerful men around her.

1

‘Waves’ (2019)

Box office: $2.6 million

Tyler puts his head against his girlfriend, Alexis, standing in the ocean in Waves.
Image via A24

Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) is a popular senior at his high-school and competes on the wrestling team. Despite his success, his strict father, Ronald (Sterling K. Brown) has high standards and pushes Tyler to achieve at a high level. This pressure is part of the reason Tyler hides a serious injury from his team and family, and abuses his father’s painkillers to get by. Meanwhile, Tyler’s sister Emily (Taylor Russell) is soft-spoken and shy. Despite her sweet nature, she falls under the radar in her own family, and her brother’s accomplishments and failures dominate their lives. After a traumatic time for the family, Emily begins to come out of her shell.

Written and directed by criminally underrated filmmaker Trey Edward Shults, Waves seemed to be entirely overlooked when it was released in 2019. The small film is a spectacular dissection of an American family and is furiously propelled by its frenetic camera and wall-to-wall soundtrack. Evocative, devastating, relatable and perfect, Waves is without a doubt one of the best films of its decade, and Shults is a filmmaker to watch.

NEXT: 15 Box Office Flops That Are Actually Worth Watching


Source link

Tags
Photo of cnnradionews staff cnnradionews staff Send an email 2 days ago
0 11 minutes read
Photo of cnnradionews staff

cnnradionews staff

Related Articles

Owen Is Back in Action To Stop “All-Out War”

Owen Is Back in Action To Stop “All-Out War”

3 hours ago
After Nearly a Decade, One of the Most Underrated Magical Girl Anime of All Time Is Finally Back

After Nearly a Decade, One of the Most Underrated Magical Girl Anime of All Time Is Finally Back

4 hours ago
Jesse Eisenberg Recalls His Early Run-In With ‘A Real Pain’ Co-Star Kieran Culkin on a 2009 Rom-Com

Jesse Eisenberg Recalls His Early Run-In With ‘A Real Pain’ Co-Star Kieran Culkin on a 2009 Rom-Com

8 hours ago
The Beginning to His Death – Hollywood Life

The Beginning to His Death – Hollywood Life

9 hours ago
Back to top button