Hollywood has a long history of making great films to mixed financial success. The unfortunate reality is some films bomb at the box office only for fans to realize their greatness years later. Many films will get negative reception only for a subsequent director's cut to show what could have been.
Box office numbers are typically the determining factor in whether a film will manage to land a sequel. When some flops gain a dedicated cult following, sometimes studios will revisit them for a second chance. Just because a film doesn't turn a profit doesn't change its quality.
10 Event Horizon
Event Horizon is one of the most underrated science fiction and horror movies in history and, like many great flops, was completely panned at the time of release. It followed the crew of a spaceship as they salvaged and investigated the lost ship, the Event Horizon. Their mission was a journey into a cosmic hell.
Event Horizon earned a disappointing $27 million against its $60 million budget, with many claiming it as a rip-off of films like 2001: A Space Odyssey. While it may have been inspired by previous films, it stands as a cult classic and an example of cosmic horror done right.
9 The Iron Giant
The Iron Giant has earned a reputation as an iconic kids' movie that many hold up against the likes of Toy Story, Ice Age, and Shrek in its quality. The film follows a young boy, Hogarth, who discovers the Iron Giant, a robot of enormous stature who fell to Earth.
The Iron Giant was a not-so-subtle rebuke of war and militarism, with the titular hero discovering he was built to be a weapon, only to reject his purpose. The movie, despite being an animated classic with many today, only made $31 million against a $70 million budget at the time.
8 The Suicide Squad
Despite an overwhelmingly positive reception, fans may be shocked to learn that James Gunn's The Suicide Squad is actually the DCEU's biggest flop. Earning just $171.7, it even fell behind other disappointments such as Birds of Prey and the much worse first Suicide Squad film.
It's ironic that what is one of the DCEU's highest-rated films is also its least commercially successful. All the same, it's an excellent film and one of many that fell victim to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as being caught up in a film studio that was in disarray. Its popularity can be seen in the success of Peacemaker.
7 Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm
Despite the films of the DCAU being widely regarded as some of the best DC Comics-inspired content available, it has been almost entirely direct-to-video. This was largely because the release of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was a box office flop, earning a meager $5.6 million.
Mask of the Phantasm was tied in with Batman: The Animated Series and gave Bruce Wayne a compelling love interest. It's also widely regarded as one of the better examples of showcasing Batman's skills as a detective. The film was great, but fans just didn't show up.
6 The Abyss
The Abyss is the black sheep of James Cameron's career when it comes to box office pull. A rare flop for the director, it followed a team of scientists as they made contact with a unique form of alien life beneath the sea.
The Abyss boasted a strong cast, not to mention James Cameron at the height of his directorial fame. The Abyss' failure is especially odd considering it debuted around the same time as Cameron made True Lies and Terminator 2.
5 Mission To Mars
Brian DePalma's Mission to Mars was based on a mission to the red planet that went awry, requiring a new team of astronauts to rescue any survivors. After a perilous and costly descent to Mars, the group found one of their friends only to make a shocking discovery of the planet's past.
Mission to Mars wasn't billed as a fast-paced action epic nor the type of horror story typical of space films at the time. Rather, it was a slow-building drama sci-fi. The film is excellent, with great performances from Gary Sinise, Tim Robbins, and Don Cheadle, but audiences weren't particularly interested.
4 Kingdom Of Heaven
Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven is one of the director's best films and a testament to his skills in the area of historic epics. While the film wasn't as big a flop as others, its lackluster performance of $220 million against $130 million was an incredible disappointment for the veteran director.
Kingdom of Heaven follows a young knight, Balian de Ibalin, as he joined a group of knights in the Crusades on their journey to Israel. As far as both knight stories and historic epics go, the movie stands high in quality and casting, with the likes of Liam Neeson and Orlando Bloom in key roles.
3 It's A Wonderful Life
It's A Wonderful Life is considered a Christmas classic for today's audiences, but its initial release was much less optimistic. It follows a man, George Bailey, as he contemplates his life and value around Christmas, with the film showing how things would be different if he weren't around.
It's A Wonderful Life is a staple of pop culture as well as cinema, and is the source of countless homages and parodies. However, it only made $2.3 million at the box office. The Frank Capra classic vanished for decades until the film lapsed into the public domain. TV networks could air it for free for a time, and its ubiquitous presence on the airwaves every December gave it a second life as a holiday classic.
2 Dredd
Dredd suffered from several issues that prevented its 2012 release from being a hit. With a campy Stallone movie from the '90s, poor word of mouth, and low name recognition at the time, the film grossed a mere $41 million against a budget of $50 million.
It wasn't until years later when comic book movies hit their peak and fans developed a taste for hard-hitting gritty action movies like John Wick that Dredd gained its fan base. While the future of the franchise is in doubt, its noticeable cult following is rumored to be earning the film a TV show spin-off.
1 Blade Runner
Both Blade Runner and its 2049 sequel are widely regarded as peak science fiction films, especially of the cyberpunk sub-genre. The first film follows Deckard, a Blade Runner charged with bringing down murderous replicants, synthetic beings created by the Tyrell corporation.
Unfortunately, both installments of the franchise just didn't rake in enough at the box office to be considered successful projects. Despite so much going for them, from a great director to phenomenal castings, there just aren't enough fans to make Blade Runner a profitable endeavor.