Animated Box Office Bombs That Are Actually Worth Watching
In the modern world, animated movies are big business for the major film studios. Projects like "Frozen II" or "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" can now make over $1.3 billion worldwide, while even original animated features like "Elemental" can crack the $486 million mark. The global appeal of these features has made them deeply important for major studios and turned them into reliable moneymakers for outfits like Disney and Universal. However, animated features are just as capable of falling short at the box office as any other type of movie. Sometimes, animated box office duds develop such a toxic reputation that they only become well-known for the dollars they lost for those same corporations.
Over the years, though, several classic animated films have emerged from the rubble of disastrous box office runs to establish legacies defined by more than just monetary elements. Among the best-reviewed animated features in history that also qualify as some of the lowest-grossing animated titles ever domestically, one finds titles like "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm," "Treasure Planet," and "Fantastic Mr. Fox," along with many others. Every entry in this crop of movies are well worth seeking out for their artistic merits even if they were initially overshadowed by just their performances in movie theaters. Let's take a peek at a bevy of such films ... animated box office bombs that are also must-see viewing.
The Iron Giant
It didn't take long for "The Iron Giant" to be deemed a historic box office flop. Just a few weeks into its theatrical run in August 1999, former president of production at Warner Bros. Lorenzo Di Bonaventura used "The Iron Giant" as an example of the financial risks studios take in making "smarter" motion pictures aimed at families. Making a dismal $31.3 million worldwide on a $50 million budget, the feature-length directorial debut of Brad Bird just didn't resonate with audiences initially. Of course, it's now common knowledge that this box office run did not reflect the overall quality of "The Iron Giant." In fact, "The Iron Giant" has endured over the decades for a reason: it's a truly special motion picture.
Right away, major critics back in 1999 recognized that "The Iron Giant" was sophisticated, emotionally powerful storytelling that anyone could enjoy. In the years that followed, the film's critical profile has only increased, thanks to Bird going on to helm a slew of beloved Pixar titles like "The Incredibles" and "Ratatouille." Decades after its release, outlets like The Los Angeles Times and Fatherly celebrated the feature for not just paving the way for Bird's career, but also opening up new narrative areas for American animated movies to explore. Thanks to its lasting influence on animated cinema, "The Iron Giant" has become well-known for far more than its box office shortcomings.
Titan A.E.
Filmmaker Don Bluth attempted to deliver animated movies with distinctly darker and more stylized animation than the default norms of animated Disney fare. He sometimes strayed away from those ambitions (as seen by his 1990s Disney knock-offs like "A Troll in Central Park" and the sort of based-on-a-true-story "Anastasia"), but the 2000 film "Titan A.E." closed off his directorial career with a movie that the Mouse House would never have touched with a 10-foot pole. This project was set in the distant future, decades after Earth has been annihilated. In this desolate landscape, a ragtag group of heroes must work together and evade evil alien forces to find the Titan, a spaceship that could help rebuild the destroyed Earth.
Not everything about "Titan A.E." works (its alien designs could have been more otherworldly, for one thing), but its ambition is impossible not to admire. Even when it came out, no less than Roger Ebert declared that the biggest set pieces in "Titan A.E." were marvels of what could only be accomplished in the medium of animation. That level of visual extravagance has led to many audience members holding "Titan A.E." near and dear to their hearts, with retrospective essays praising the film's important place in pop culture. There's also an entire cottage industry of YouTube videos dedicated to praising "Titan A.E." as a misunderstood classic, which is just the kind of happy ending that once seemed impossible for the film after its initial box office performance.
Surf's Up
When it hit theaters in June 2007, "Surf's Up" had the unfortunate luck of being the last in a line of then-recent penguin movies. "Happy Feet" had dropped into theaters seven months early, those monochromatic birds from "Madagascar" had become scene-stealing icons two years prior, and the 2005 documentary "March of the Penguins" was a pop culture phenomenon. Moviegoers mostly shrugged off "Surf's Up" as a cash-grab. That's an outright tragedy, though, since "Surf's Up" was actually an inspired comedy with several unique flourishes compared to other animated family movies of the same era.
The creativity of "Surf's Up" was initially recognized through a surprise Best Animated Feature Oscar nod back in 2008, a notable achievement that alone suggested this penguin movie wouldn't be forgotten after all. In the years that followed, "Surf's Up" has continued to grow in estimation, with outlets even referring to the project as "a classic" rather than just a box office dud. Its unique style of humor has also endured thanks to audio from "Surf's Up" (taken from a scene where master surfer Tank shows off his trophies) becoming a viral sensation on TikTok in the early 2020s. Gags and storytelling that didn't quite resonate with the mainstream in 2007 are exactly why "Surf's Up" has hung ten with viewers for so long.
9
America just wasn't ready yet for a post-apocalyptic animated movie about sentient rag dolls in 2009. A rare theatrical American animated film to score a PG-13 rating, "9" didn't light the box office on fire despite having Tim Burton's name attached as a producer. That's a shame, since "9" is an incredibly evocative experience in terms of atmosphere. The restrictions of making a CG-animated movie on a low budget (like the lack of background extras) accentuate the haunting emptiness of the movie's dead world. Like the best animated films, artistic limitations enhance the vibes of "9" rather than suffocate them.
Those kinds of flourishes and unique virtues have kept "9" from being totally forgotten in the years that followed its underwhelming theatrical run. At least one retrospective surfaced in 2023 that praised the artistic triumphs of director Shane Acker's project, while it was noted in 2020 that demand for a sequel was growing louder and louder thanks to the movie's cult following. Other modern-day elements like its solid Letterboxd score make it clear that "9" struck a chord with many moviegoers and that adult-skewing animated features don't just vanish even when they flop at the box office.
Treasure Planet
Few movies in history, animated or otherwise, were as notorious a box office bomb as Disney's "Treasure Planet." Losing a reported $85 million in 2002, "Treasure Planet" became Disney's biggest animated flop at the time and killed off hand-drawn animation at the Mouse House for the foreseeable future. The legacy of this motion picture in terms of pure dollars and cents is undeniably terrible. As a piece of art, though, "Treasure Planet" is a stirring work of animation that deftly blends hand-drawn and digital animation to create a quasi-futuristic vision of 19th-century society. Rather than choosing one medium of animation over another, "Treasure Planet" combines multiple means of visual storytelling to create a universe unlike any other in the Disney Animation canon.
Thankfully, all that visual panache has led to "Treasure Planet" becoming a downright beloved motion picture. Outlets as high-profile as The New York Times have published essays singing the praises of "Treasure Planet," especially in its glorious triumphs as a visual exercise. Other modern-day retrospectives lament how the film's box office failure seems to have inspired an era of cookie-cutter Disney animation visuals. A quick search on the internet is bound to uncover an essay waxing poetic on "Treasure Planet" as an underseen gem. Even after that historically bad box office run, the best qualities of "Treasure Planet" have ensured that it's, to quote its most famous original song, "still here" in pop culture.
Arthur Christmas
When looking at the posters for "Arthur Christmas," one would be forgiven for never thinking it could possibly be a movie from Aardman, the outfit responsible for "Wallace and Gromit" and "Chicken Run." After all, the North Pole denizens dominating "Arthur Christmas" don't resemble the default character designs of typical Aardman productions, even CG-animated projects like "Flushed Away." Perhaps adhering more to traditional Aardman visual sensibilities would have helped "Arthur Christmas" out at the box office. Failing to clear $150 million worldwide on an $85 million budget, "Arthur Christmas" was a lump of financial coal in the stocking for all involved in bankrolling this family movie.
Even if it came and went from theaters rather quickly, it didn't take long for "Arthur Christmas" to take off as a Yuletide cult classic. Some outlets praised "Arthur Christmas" for being ahead of its time in depicting generational cooperation, while one even went so far as to declare that "Arthur Christmas" was the best Christmas movie ever made just six years after its release. The kind heart and creative gags that fuel "Arthur Christmas" eventually found their audience long after this Aardman movie's box office run had drawn to a close.
Kubo and the Two Strings
Laika Entertainment's post-"Coraline" output has failed to draw much in the way of sizeable moviegoing audiences. "Kubo and the Two Strings" was no exception in its August 2016 theatrical run. Becoming the first of the studio's releases to make less than either $50 million domestically or $100 million worldwide, "Kubo and the Two Strings" was a major financial misfire on a $55 million budget. What a pity such a visually dynamic title couldn't draw in a bigger crowd: with "Two Strings," director Travis Knight didn't just deliver a stirring tribute to classic Japanese cinema, but something that could also stand side-by-side with those productions in overall quality.
While some of the titles on this list took decades to develop cult followings or reappraisals that recognized their virtues, the post-release popularity of "Kubo and the Two Strings" was confirmed just a few months after its release. The movie eventually secured two Academy Award nominations, one of which was for Best Visual Effects. This was only the second instance in history of an animated film making it into that category. Such a historic achievement preceded years of essays praising "Kubo and the Two Strings" and the film's enduring popularity. Even if "Kubo and the Two Strings" couldn't avoid Laika's post-"Coraline" box office curse, it still scored a great pop culture legacy.
Fantasia 2000
"Fantasia 2000" can't hold a candle to Disney's original "Fantasia." While the original film's majestic visuals still hold up to this very day, "Fantasia 2000" has some segments relying too heavily on spotty CGI elements to be perfectly timeless as a whole movie. However, to dismiss the feature because of its CG shortcomings or its underwhelming box office haul would be a mistake. There's still plenty of creativity in here to make "Fantasia 2000" worth a viewing. Even a short segment like "The Carnival of the Animals" (which takes this classic music and sets it to a story concerning a yo-yo-fixated flamingo) is jam-packed full of creative animation flourishes and vibrant energy.
Over the years, "Fantasia 2000" has managed to escape its predecessor's mighty shadow and establish a positive critical following of its own. A barrage of younger YouTube reviewers, for instance, who grew up on the title have taken to the internet to break down why "Fantasia 2000" deserves its time in the spotlight. Later reappraisals proclaimed that the follow-up proved to be an artistically satisfying continuation of the original "Fantasia." A flop when it first hit theaters, "Fantasia 2000" is one cinematic melody that's continued to ring through the ears of moviegoers everywhere.
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Normally, attaching the word "Batman" to your movie's title guarantees it some level of box office success. Unfortunately, the animated "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" (which was built from the world of "Batman: The Animated Series") flopped in its 1993 theatrical run. Even as live-action incarnations of Batman were scoring massive box office hauls, "Mask of the Phantasm" played to largely empty movie theaters. This was an ironic twist of fate given just how superb "Mask of the Phantasm" was, particularly in the way it dared to imagine that Bruce Wayne's psyche is just as interesting as any other part of Batman's lore.
Decades after it first debuted, "Mask of the Phantasm" has been declared the pinnacle of all "Batman" movies, while other retrospective reviews have praised the movie for delving so deeply into what makes Wayne tick as a human being. The cult following for "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" has become so pronounced that this movie even secured a theatrical re-release in 2018 to celebrate its 25th anniversary. It's hard to imagine other more initially lucrative entries like "Batman Forever" garnering that kind of honor. One of the lowest-grossing "Batman" movies ever, "Mask of the Phantasm" is also one of the Dark Knight's high points on the big screen.
Flee
Out of all the animated box office flops on this list, "Flee" has to be the most tragic. A documentary chronicling the life of Afghanistan refugee and queer man Amin Nawabi, "Flee" should have had the wiggle-room to leg out and play for months and months like past acclaimed docs of its ilk. Instead, surging COVID numbers at the end of 2021 and early 2022 led to the film's theatrical release getting stifled. Grossing just $338,754 domestically and a mere $2 million worldwide on a $3.4 million budget, "Flee" was a flop largely because of circumstances beyond its control.
Luckily, the movie is a remarkable work of documentary cinema so well-made that "Parasite" director Bong Joon-ho even listed it as one of his favorite films of 2021. He wasn't alone in singling "Flee" out for immense praise. This movie made history with its simultaneous Oscar nominations for Best Animated Feature, Best International Feature, and Best Documentary, while numerous outlets commended the movie as one of 2021's greatest cinematic achievements (animated or otherwise). With "Flee," writer-director Jonas Poher Rasmussen delivered the kind of unforgettable and universally-acclaimed filmmaking that endures well beyond any underwhelming box office figures.
A Town Called Panic
Running just 76 minutes, "A Town Called Panic" crams more gags into its brief runtime than you can shake a fist at. Don't be concerned if the Belgian stop-motion animated TV show it's based on (also called "A Town Called Panic") passed you by. Directors Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar conjure up a cacophony of inspired jokes in this production that do not require any pre-existing knowledge of the series. Everyone can laugh at gags like Horse promising to play the piano delicately before proceeding to just bang his head on the instrument and produce some strained musical notes.
This and countless other "A Town Called Panic" jokes have ensured that this French project has become a cult classic. No less than Roger Ebert declared "A Town Called Panic" one of the greatest animated movies of 2010, while retrospective pieces praised "A Town Called Panic" for its inventive absurdist humor. "A Town Called Panic" barely even received a theatrical release in North America back in 2010. However, its enduring place in the hearts of critics everywhere makes it apparent that it's worth taking a trip to this locale loaded with superb comedy.
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The first fully animated directorial effort from Wes Anderson, "Fantastic Mr. Fox" was released over Thanksgiving weekend 2009 with hopes that, thanks to the feature's PG rating and famous source material, "Fox" could become a much bigger box office player than past Wes Anderson movies. However, its $21 million domestic haul was slightly less than the Anderson box office disappointment "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" from five years earlier. On a $40 million budget, there was no way this Roald Dahl book adaptation could be considered profitable. By the same token, there's also no way one could classify "Fantastic Mr. Fox" as anything but a resounding creative success.
Years after it left theaters, "Fantastic Mr. Fox" is now heralded for delivering truly groundbreaking animation that mixed vintage influences with excitingly new visual flourishes. Retrospective praise hasn't just been heaped on the movie's visuals, though. Some outlets have called it Wes Anderson's greatest cinematic accomplishment, while others suggest that the movie's greatest strength lay in its deeply moving heart. Throughout every corner of the internet, every aspect of "Fantastic Mr. Fox" (from its lively voice-over work to the way it merges the creative styles of Dahl and Anderson) has garnered acclaim. That initially underwhelming box office is now a distant memory when it comes to the pop culture legacy of a cussing great movie like "Fantastic Mr. Fox."