Box Office Bombs That Somehow Became Cult Classics

It may be considered one of the all-time classic films today, but The Shawshank Redemption didn't attract much attention when it was first released. This wasn't due to bad reviews; on the contrary, Shawshank was praised by most contemporary critics. The main issue the film had gaining traction in theaters was due to the competition—it opened in only 33 theaters over its first weekend, and by time it had a wider release in its fourth week, it was pitted in a losing battle against more popular releases like Pulp Fiction, The Specialist, and The River Wild. It ended up only making $28 million in theaters, against its $25 million budget.

Although it was nominated for seven Academy Awards—without any wins—and it became a success in the video rental market, it wouldn't be until 1997 that The Shawshank Redemption really came into its own. That year, Ted Turner acquired Castle Rock Entertainment (and the rights to Shawshank), and subsequently started playing it almost daily on his flagship channel, TNT. Turner's marketing ploy worked, and the movie gained legions of fans. The Shawshank Redemption would eventually go on to earn recognition as an all-time great, consistently topping the IMDb "Top 250" list since 2008. It was added to the U.S. Library of Congress' National Film Registry in 2015.

If it hadn't been for now-defunct video rental chain Blockbuster, The Boondock Saints never would have stood a chance. The film did abysmally during its original theatrical run, primarily due to an extremely limited release. In the wake of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, violence in films was a touchy subject in Hollywood and for theater owners. As a result, The Boondock Saints was only shown in five U.S. theaters upon its release, earning just $30,000 domestically. It did a little better internationally, but the total gross earnings of $411,000 didn't come anywhere close to recouping the $6 million budget.

Thankfully for the cast and for writer/director Troy Duffy, Blockbuster Video came to save the day, striking a deal with distributor Indican Pictures to distribute Saints on video as a "Blockbuster Exclusive." The movie soon gained a massive cult following, bringing in over $50 million in DVD/Blu-ray sales. It became so popular that it spawned a sequel in 2009, and rumor has it that a television series based on the Saints is also moving ahead—without the original stars, Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flannery.

Not even the combined star wattage of Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne could keep Event Horizon from sinking at the box office. This suspenseful sci-fi film received unfavorable reviews when it was first released, and earned an abysmal $26.7 million at the box office—losing over $30 million along the way. While theatrical audiences were turned off by the prevalent gore in the film, it eventually found its niche among sci-fi fans on the home release market. Our only regret is that we will likely never see the director's cut: the footage removed from the theatrical version was reportedly scrapped by the studio, and the only remaining copy is on VHS.

John Carpenter's The Thing faced an uphill battle: Steven Spielberg's E.T. had been released just two weeks before, and it debuted the same day as Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. As a result, The Thing only made $3 million during its opening weekend and went on to gross only $19 million during its theatrical run. Compared with a budget of $15 million and poor contemporary reviews from critics, The Thing was a definite failure for Universal Pictures.

But as would later prove to be the case with Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China and They Live, a disappointing theatrical run wasn't the end for The Thing. It would eventually find a major following among horror fans, becoming yet another cult classic on Carpenter's resumé. It's been named among the scariest films of all time and has spawned numerous other works—including a novel, comic books, a video game, and an ill-advised 2011 prequel (directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.) that had no chance of standing up to the original.

Even though it essentially had a built-in fanbase from the original Judge Dredd comic books and the 1995 film starring Sylvester Stallone, 2012's reboot Dredd didn't perform well at the box office. Overall, the movie managed to pull in just $41 million from theatergoers around the world, against a budget of $50 million. It's hard to understand exactly why Dredd bombed; the reboot had a positive critical reception, while 1995's Judge Dredd was panned by critics and still managed to earn over $110 million. It seems that at least some of the blame can be placed on the marketing for the movie. While reports indicate that over $25 million was spent to advertise Dredd, lead actor Karl Urban told Den of Geek that there was "zero audience awareness" about the movie when it was released.

Whatever the reasons for its theatrical failure, nothing could keep Dredd down once it hit the home market, where it became an instant success. Dredd sold 650,000 copies the first week it was available on DVD and Blu-ray. As of 2017, its total video sales earnings have climbed to top the $20 million mark. Now a cult favorite with sci-fi and action fans, Dredd may have finally gained the street cred it needed to get a sequel—which is reported to be in the works as a television show.

Filmed in just 28 days by debuting writer-director Richard Kelly, Donnie Darko is a psychological horror/sci-fi film that tells the story of the title character as he searches for the cause and meaning of his apocalyptic visions. Filmed with a small budget of only $3.8 million and nearly sent straight to home video by the distributing studio, Darko debuted with a limited theatrical release on only 58 screens domestically; its international release was delayed for almost a year because of the September 11 attacks. Theatrical audiences in the U.S. weren't quite sure what to make of the movie's odd aesthetic and mind-bending plot, but it found a more receptive audience overseas, and after its arrival on DVD, it gained cult status. (The sequel, however, is another story.)

Mike Judge must have some sort of "cult movie" magic about him. Making his return to feature-film directing after the frustrations of 1999's Office Space, Judge used Idiocracy to show viewers a horrible (yet hilarious) vision of our future filled with massage-parlor coffee shops and an expletive-laced, monster truck rally-esque system of law. Unfortunately, the movie never had a prayer after the studio mothballed it for years, failed to market it, and only released it to 130 theaters. While Idiocracy only made $495,000 at the box office, it became another of Judge's home video sensations, earning another $9 million in DVD rentals alone.

It may be the movie with the longest-ever theatrical run, but The Rocky Horror Picture Show most definitely bombed during its initial release. Although it was based on a popular stage musical, the film adaptation only earned $21,245 in its opening weekend. Disappointed with the premiere, the studio pulled the movie from several other locations around the country. For most films, that would have been the end of the story. But one Fox advertising executive had a brilliant idea: start showing The Rocky Horror Picture Show at one of the popular "midnight shows" at the Waverly Theatre in New York City, where it proved an instant hit.

After several months of late-night showings with a party-like atmosphere, one of Waverly's TRHPS regulars—mild-mannered Kindergarten teacher Louis Farese—started to shout improvised lines back at the screen. The midnight showings soon spread to other theaters around the country, along with the habit of shouted audience "call-backs." Eventually, dedicated fans began to form "shadow-cast" performance troupes—acting out the film in costume on stage as the movie plays on the big screen behind them. Within a year, Rocky Horror went from a box-office bomb to a cult sensation that's still going strong more than 40 years later.