Rocky Horror Picture Show released in 1975. It did well at a select few locations but poorly everywhere else. That wasn't great news for many of the actors since it was their first big role, including Tim Curry. Thankfully, it didn't stay that way long. The film was eventually revived by theaters who invented ways for the audience to participate, which made it a cult hit.
People absolutely loved interacting with the film by throwing popcorn, singing (and dancing) to the songs, and whooping at certain parts. It became popularized as a midnight movie. Even now, Rocky Horror Picture Show is acted out on stage at some theaters and played in movie theaters on special events.
When Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! released in 1965, it was dismissed as exploitive by a few critics (including some of the larger ones). This wasn’t great for the film since the critics were highly respected. People just decided it was trash. Thankfully, time has helped this movie gain an intrigued audience and better reviews.
Guess listening to the critics has always been a bad move! Admirers like how the movie places a strong woman in a typical male role. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is known for swapping gender roles and the quotable dialogue. Turns out, this critical failure had something to it. Now it's regarded as a very important and influential film.
Dazed and Confused is a victim of awful marketing. Movies require a lot of advertisement to be seen, especially in the ‘90s! This poor movie made a mere $918,127 on opening weekend (according to Wikipedia). While that’s not as bad as some of the movies on this list, it certainly wasn’t enough to label it a success.
Not only does this film have a killer soundtrack, but it also has one of the best casts in history. We’re talking Matthew McConaughey – who steals the show, by the way – Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, Adam Goldberg, and Posey Parker. Now, it’s a quintessential coming-of-age movie that everyone has to see at least once.
What?! Willy Wonka bombed? You read that right. Despite nominations for an Oscar and a Golden Globe, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was not a commercial success for Paramount Pictures. The company was actually so unhappy with how it performed that they decided not to renew the copyright. This allowed Warner Brothers to buy the rights, which they used for numerous TV airings.
Thanks to this strategy, the film quickly became a classic children's film. Could you imagine if WB didn’t pick it up? Funny enough, when it first debuted on TV, it also had some problems. It came on at the same time as a football game between the Raiders and Redskins. The game ran long, so the first 40 minutes were cut.
These days, we all know Shawshank Redemption is one of the best movies ever created. In fact, the movie listed as the number one movie of all time on IMDB, but it certainly didn’t start out like that. It’s genuinely crazy to think that Shawshank was a box office flop when it first released.
The first weekend it came out, the film earned around $727,000 in 33 theaters, which is an average of $22,040 per theater. Not exactly a winner. A year later, it was nominated for seven Oscars. It may have struggled at first, but if there’s any movie that’s clawed its way up from the bottom, it's this one.
By all accounts, Barbarella was a total flop. Critics hated it, and it only made around $2.5 million the year it released. That's not as bad as some of the other movies on the list, but the movie cost something like $9 million to make! That's not the success execs wanted to see.
Jane Fonda stars as futuristic heroine Barbarella in this fantasy science fiction film based on a French comic book. It did better in European audiences, but it didn’t become iconic until later. Jane Fonda’s sexy outfits (and the film itself) eventually became famous when the space-craze began. Thanks, Star Wars!
If you weren’t born in the ‘80s, you would never guess Blade Runner initially flopped. When people talk about well-made sci-fi, Blade Runner is the first thing mentioned after the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises. Then there’s the whole fact that they did a sequel in 2017 of the film. So, what gives?
Apparently, when it first came out, it was misunderstood. Everyone thought they were going to get Indiana Jones in a flying car. Instead, they got a lot of special effects with a massive budget (at the time). It didn’t make its money back initially, but it did win two Oscars. That must have helped because it’s now a cult classic.
The Thing is the story of an alien parasite that wreaks havoc on researchers in Antarctica by assimilating its victims. Though it is now highly regarded, John Carpenter's science fiction horror film performed below studio expectations because of competing films and surprisingly poor reviews – and by “poor reviews,” we mean seriously savage.
Audiences and critics alike claimed that the movie had flat characters, a "drab visual sense," (according to Looper) and a relentlessly bleak tone. Today, we can look back and know why Carpenter decided to make those moves, but back then? No one really dug those decisions. Critics had an especially fun time bashing it. Well, who’s laughing now?
Out of most of the films on this list, this one might be the only one that makes a little sense. Although, it’s still hard to believe that this classic Christmas film was a box office flop, but It's a Wonderful Life lost over half a million dollars for RKO Pictures.
That’s mostly because moviegoers found the subject matter too dark for such a cheery holiday. However, it found new life in 1974 when its copyright was not renewed, and the film became part of the public domain. This led to TV airings and numerous home releases that turned it into a hit.
A strange premise perhaps limited Donnie Darko's success at the box office, but what really hurt the film was that the trailers featured a plane crash. Normally, that’s all fine and dandy, but Donnie Darko was released theatrically on October 26, 2001. It’s probably not a huge shocker that people didn’t flock to theaters to see a plane crash six weeks after 9/11.
On top of that, the movie was criticized for featuring a firearm being wielded by a teenager. The world was still reeling from the Columbine disaster in 1999, so tons of people weren’t pleased about that either. In the end, it still gained a lot of fans. It leaves the viewer with a lot of things to wonder. Particularly, why are we wearing our stupid man suits?
Black comedy is one of those things that are hit or miss – usually being a big ol’ miss. Heather fell victim to that. Audiences just didn’t know how to perceive it, which is an odd thing to claim, but you’ll know what we mean. In this precursor to Mean Girls, Christian Slater and Winona Ryder deal with high school archetypes and murder.
The premise made people uncomfortable, and that’s putting it lightly. The movie just focuses on death in the most uncomfortable ways. After poor box office returns, the film found success in the world of video rental through word-of-mouth. Now, it’s one of the best cult classics that’s ever been made.
Dune, a box office flop? Absolutely. Don’t let the fact they remade it tell you otherwise! The movie only made nearly $31 million. That wasn’t even enough to cover the $40 million budget it cost to make Dune. That made it a massive disappointment. Writer and director David Lynch blamed producers.
He claimed they stifled his artistic vision. Fans of the novel and science fiction fans in general still found reasons to turn it into a cult classic, though. The fact that Sting is in it definitely helps! Now, people are curious whether the remake will suffer the same fate as the original.
Poor Tim Curry can’t catch a break. When it was released, Clue didn't even break even. It had a budget of $15 million but only brought in $14.6 million. Anyone who has seen the film knows that there are several different endings. The theaters split up these endings where you had to go to different places to see them all.
Talk about “gotta catch up all!” People didn’t know which one to go to, so they just didn’t see it at all. Soon afterward, it was more or less forgotten, but it didn’t stay that way, thankfully. In the years since then, it's become a cult classic, with fans praising the cast for their camp, slapstick performances.
Who knew Fight Club flopped? When people think of the words “Cult Classic,” they think of Fight Club. Go to any bachelor pad or high school film class and you’ll find a giant photo of Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and a bar of pink soap. But no matter what you do, don’t talk about Fight Club.
The promotional posters and general marketing didn’t connect with people. Edward Norton blamed the studio for being reluctant. Eventually, it was given a second chance, and it was a major hit, especially with younger audiences. Maybe it was a case of wrong place, wrong time? Whatever the reason, it’s one of the most popular movies out there.
Today, Office Space speaks to us in a way that hits a little too close to home. Back when it released, people didn’t really like it. Backers found Office Space difficult to market. We have no idea why. It practically markets itself, but whatever. The first weekend, it made a mere $4.2 million.
Like most movies, it went from the theater to the video store, and there it did extremely well. Over time, the actors started to get recognized more. People were giving the film the respect it deserved. Anyone who has ever worked at a large company with its own culture and procedures finds this cult classic hilarious.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas has a hard start from the beginning. Over 25 years, people tried to make it. In the ‘70s, they tried to get Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando to do it. Then, it was Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. Finally, in the ‘90s, it went to Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro. However, producers completely missed the mark budget-wise.
It was only supposed to cost $5 million, but that bloated up to $20 million. Well, it only made $13.7 million at the box office. However, the film became a cult classic when it was released to DVD and home viewers were able to enjoy the crazy, drug-fueled antics of Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo.
Ender’s Game is one of those books that has had a cult following since its publication in 1985. The movie took 28 years to get onto the big screen, a problem not helped at all by the problems the author caused. It finally made it onto the big screen in 2013, but it only surpassed its budget by $15 million, a relatively small number in Hollywood.
There are half a dozen reasons why the movie failed. Poor cast and awful marketing were terrible, but there were a few things we couldn’t look past in the 21st century – particularly Scott Card’s opposition to homosexuality and the legalization of same-sex marriage. Several people boycott the movie altogether, and the bad PR made it an absolute flop.
Nowadays, Pumpkinhead is viewed as one of the best creature films of all time on top of it being an amazing horror movie. However, movie distributors didn't believe in Pumpkinhead. So, it wasn't widely marketed or released. Without good marketing, people didn’t go see it. All-in-all, this horror flick only made $4.4 million.
It didn’t even release to a lot of theaters, so no one had a lot of hope. Some even went bankrupt waiting for the movie to come out. Horror fans, however, love the vengeful monster featured in it. The film has spawned into video sequels, comic books, and a cult following.
Sid and Nancy should have done well. It really should have. It had great actors, and even critics praised it. The issue? It was beyond a box office failure. It only made $2.8 million at the box office. That’s almost embarrassing. The punk rock Romeo and Juliet surprisingly didn’t break even.
A bigger issue was that they didn’t talk to John Lydon – aka Johnny Rotten. He was angry that the movie was made without talking to him. Maybe his anger toward the film made fans flock to it, but we’re guessing it was because it was a good film, true or not.
This is another dark humor movie that did not quite enamor audiences like it would have today. The black comedy, an obsession with death, and an intergenerational romantic relationship turned audiences of Harold and Maude very much off. Critics also weren’t too happy with Roger Ebert giving it one-and-a-half stars.
Since then, the reputation of the movie has certainly exploded. Now, it has an 85% Rotten Tomatoes score. Younger generations appreciated the humor and found it absolutely hilarious. Today, Harold and Maude sits at number 45 on the list of top 100 American Comedies by the American Film Institute. Way to go!
When a director and film execs fight, it’s never good. Just take a look at the complete disaster that’s Suicide Squad (2016) – not that that movie will ever be on this list. Director Terry Gilliam battled with film executives over editing and scenes in his unique science fiction masterpiece, Brazil.
Even though few people had seen his original vision at the time, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association awarded it their Best Picture in 1985. Brazil is so influential that other films have drawn inspiration from it, including Dark City (1998), The City of the Lost Children (1995), and Tim Burton’s Batman (1989).
Everybody loves Michael Cera. That’s basically a proven fact. (If you don’t believe us, go watch Arrested Development). Scott Pilgrim vs. The World took a hugely popular graphic novel and turned it into a movie. It’s a great film, but not many people have heard of it. That’s not what anyone in the movie biz likes to hear.
At the box office, Scott Pilgrim made a measly $49.3 million, and that didn’t even cover the budget. There was no real issue with this film other than marketing. People just had no idea it existed. It’s good, funny, and one of a kind. If you do find someone who has seen this movie, we can almost guarantee that they love it.
Okay, this one is a big disappointment – the fact it’s on this list, not the movie itself. The 1999 movie Iron Giant is a staple of classic animated movies. Well, at least ones that don’t center around princesses. It was produced by one of Pixar’s most successful directors. It should have done well by all accounts!
Ah, no. Sadly, it didn’t. The movie strayed too far from convention – lack of princesses, we guess – for it to be initially successful. It made less than half of its budget back. Regardless, it’s funny, heart-warming, and touching. No movie will make you cry at the word “Superman” like Iron Giant.
Why can’t people just get along when making a movie?! Disagreement between film companies led to a limited release and a barely break-even status for this British science fiction film. What’s even worse is that critics destroyed it. Ebert said it was “so preposterous and posturing, so filled with gaps of logic and continuity, that if it weren't so solemn there'd be the temptation to laugh aloud.”
Yeah, okay, dude. A cult following has developed in the years since, mostly due to the star of the film being David Bowie. It took a while, but it finally has the appreciation it deserves. Rolling Stone now ranks it second on the top 50 sci-fi films of the ‘70s, and Empire places it at 42 on its list of 100 best British films.
You know that any movie with a title this long will either be absolutely terrible or too artistic for the general populous to enjoy. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford falls into the second category. It stars Brad Pitt. Like his other films Seven and Inglorious Basterds, it pushes the limits of what we’re used to seeing in movies.
At the box office, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford only made half of its already small budget, but it did make its way onto many “Best Movies” lists. Whatever the issues, it became a cult classic and has a 77% Rotten Tomatoes Score. Take that, naysayers.
Despite the star-studded cast (Paul Rudd, David Hyde Pierce, Amy Poehler, and Bradley Cooper), moviegoers and critics alike were not fans of Wet Hot American Summer when it was released in 2001. That was a pretty big surprise since it sold out all four screenings at the Sundance Film Festival. What gives?
Even today, Rotten Tomatoes puts it at a 38%, and Metacritic ranks it 42 out of 100. Then there were those like Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman who gave the film an "A," and named it one of the best films of the year. Time has been kind to this satirical film about summer camp – it's developed a cult following of devoted fans and received both a prequel and sequel thanks to Netflix.
Children of Men features a world with a horrifying premise: no one has been able to have children in decades. Think Handmaid’s Tale except less religious and more apocalyptic. The movie focuses on the first woman to become pregnant in years, and a man who is desperately trying to save her and her child.
It hardly made any money in the office, but the critics loved it. All that praise did the movie some good. People gave it a shot, and they loved it – duh! It’s an excellent film. It was brought up recently, as well, with the world in its current state. Some commentators claiming that the movie is “prescient.”
Today, we know Ed Wood to be one of the movie greats, but back then, not so much. Plan 9 had some issues coming out at first, and when it finally did, it was shown alongside Time Lock. That movie was pretty unimpressive and is only remembered for being an early on-screen appearance of Sean Connery.
Later that year, it wasn’t treated any better. It was called a “co-feature,” aka a B-movie. A lot of that has to do with the media often saying Plan 9 from Outer Space is the worst movie ever. Today, it’s a cult classic. The science-fiction horror piece and features aliens resurrecting Earth's dead.
The book The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a modern classic unlike any other. Seriously, go by your local bookstore on your way home from work and snag a copy. Like any book-to-movie with an established following, standards were high. In a new turn for Hollywood, the film managed to meet those standards.
It won more Academy Awards in 2011 than any other film that year (11) and added another Golden Globe to the producer’s collection. Sadly, the film barely exceeded its budget. That doesn’t change the fact that fans lauded it as one of the best book-to-movie films ever made, and we respect that.
Treasure Plant could have been one of Disney’s masterpieces, but it was a total flop for several reasons. First, Disney failed in advertising. They didn’t want the movie to succeed because it was expensive to make. It used technology that was being phased out in favor of cheaper, faster CGI (the stuff we see today). In the trailer, it gave away the major plot points.
On top of that, viewers knew that they didn’t have to physically go see the movie. If they really wanted to see it in theaters, they could wait for it to be on VHS a few months later – this was all due to the release date. As the final death knell, Disney released it at the same time as Harry Potter and its own blockbuster, Santa Clause 2. This movie is the amazing tale of Treasure Island designed by the legendary Ron Clements and John Musker (the geniuses behind Moana and Princess and the Frog).
The Room is easily one of the worst films ever made but also one of the most enjoyable. The cult classic packs a ton of unintentional laughs. The now cult classic film was written, produced, executive produced and directed by the virtually unknown Tommy Wiseau. The film had a budget of $6 million but made only $1,900 at the box office – initially.
Tommy Wiseau extremely melodramatic love story was panned by critics and remains so to this day, holding a 23% Rotten Tomatoes score. Now it’s seen by its cult fans as a film that’s so bad it’s good with plenty of people purchasing copies on home video and seeing it in theaters where showing. A fictionalized comedy film about the movie was released in 2017 called The Disaster Artist, starring James Franco.
The Big Lebowski is by no means a terrible film. It was made by auteur film directors Joel and Ethan Coen. Joel Coen, whose name is attached as director, is a four-time Oscar winner and has been nominated 15 times in total. But unlike many of their films, The Big Lebowski is all about the laughs.
The black comedy film starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman and Steve Buscemi had a budget of $15 million but it didn’t make that back so quickly as it opened in sixth place at the box office with $5.5 million initially, getting obliterated by Titanic at the time. But love for the film has only grown with time and with showings over the years and worldwide grosses considered, it has now made $46.7 million.
Troll 2 was a comedy horror film that was marketed as a sequel to the 1986 original film, and yet there were no connections to that film whatsoever. I mean, the movie doesn’t even feature any trolls. The plot centers around a family being chased by vegetarian goblins who want to turn them into plants in order to eat them.
Yes, for real. Made by an Italian-speaking crew, the film was plagued with language barrier problems and the resulting film was poorly received. It has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 5%. With a budget of $100K, it may very well have made its money back at this point as a cult classic but it certainly was no classic at the time.
Citizen Kane is considered by many film critics to be one of the best movies ever made and arguably the best film ever made, particularly when you consider all of the film innovations brought by Orson Welles and the influence the film has made over the past century. It received nine Academy Award nominations but only received one for its screenplay.
As critically successful as the film was and is, however, it was a box office flop. It had a budget of $839,727 and has earned $1.6 million only after re-releases. Orson Welles unprecedented filmmaking has made it a cult classic that is well-appreciated by film historians and students of film, as it is a must-see for all of them.
Wizard of Oz is now an iconic film that has been appreciated by generation after generation after its initial release. Some of us have perhaps seen it more times than we can count. But the film wasn’t always so successful. Upon its initial release, the 1939 film earned only about $3 million.
For the studio it was a failure, because it cost them $2.8 million to make. Since then, of course, it has generated plenty of revenue via home video releases and re-releases. After re-releases over the years, the film has earned about $29.7 million. It is beloved by critics and audiences alike.
Vertigo is considered to be not just one of Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest films but simply one of the greatest films of all time, period. The psychological thriller and film noir masterpiece was not only a box office dud but it also wasn’t as well-received as some of Hitchcock’s other films. It was only nominated for two Academy Awards and it didn’t win either of them.
In terms of money, it wasn’t seen as a success because it cost around $2.5 million to make and it only just broke even upon its initial release. After the fact, however, it has managed to earn $7.3 million. As for the films reception, it holds a 94% Rotten Tomatoes score from critics and a similar audience score as well.
Highlander is a must-see cult classic. The British action-adventure fantasy film was directed by Russell Mulcahy and stars Christopher Lambert, Roxanne Hart, Clancy Brown, and Sean Connery. The film was followed by two sequels, the second film of which is considered to be one of the worst films ever made.
But despite having sequels, the first film performed poorly at the box office. It grossed just 12.8 million worldwide at the box office but had a budget of $19 million, so it didn’t even make that amount back. Critically, it was not well-received either. Nevertheless, it now has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 70%.
If you’ve been on the internet for any length of time, you’ve at least heard of The Boondock Saints. The 1999 cult classic is an action thriller that was written and directed by written and directed by Troy Duffy. It stars Sean Patrick Flanery and The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus as fraternal twin brothers Connor and Murphy MacManus.
The two brothers become vigilantes after killing members of Russian mob in self-defense. The film may have a cult following now, but upon it’s initial release the film earned only $30,471 at the box office. It had a budget of about $6 million. Nevertheless, appreciation for the film has grown over the years. Following its cult success, there was a sequel, The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day.
The 1997 science fiction film Event Horizon directed by Paul W. S. Anderson starring Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill had a ton of potential but performed poorly, particularly in the wake of Titanic. The film had a budget of $60 million but earned just $42 million at the box office – and that was the worldwide total.
Critically, it has not been well-received either. It currently has a 29% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Nevertheless, the film has a cult following that undoubtedly has to do with the film’s unique take on sci-fi with the film being conceived as a haunted house-type story in space.
Idiocracy is a science fiction comedy starring Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard and Terry Crews. In the film, an Army librarian and a prostitute named Rita take part in a hibernation experiment that has them awaken in a dystopian world that has been dumbed down by commercialism and mindless television, making the Army librarian the smartest man on Earth.
The social satire pokes fun of our own world through the lens of a science fiction one. However, due to poor marketing and the fact that the film was not even screened for critics, the film did poorly at the box office. With a budget as high as $4 million, it made only $495,303.
Jupiter Ascending is a fairly new cult classic, having been released in 2015. The space opera was written, directed and produced by the Wachowskis who gave us The Matrix. It stars Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, Sean Bean, and Eddie Redmayne. But despite its many young stars, the film wasn’t able to captivate audiences – at least not as much as studios had hoped.
Although the film earned as much as $183.9 million at the box office, it’s estimated to have cost an upwards of $210 million. Critical reception also left much to be desired as it holds a 28% Rotten Tomatoes approval score. Audiences have warmed up to the film in recent years though and it now has a cult following.
A Christmas Story is the timeless tale of a child’s Christmas adventure in the 1940s. This fine film was funded by MGM for $4.4 million, and it set box office records with 69.6 million in revenue. Despite its release over 38 years ago, it remains a holiday classic for many families year after year.
Perhaps it's the appeal of the underdog story and wild fantasy of a young boy in a singular sparkling moment, or perhaps it's as simple as remembering what the season is all about. Whether you shoot your eye out or not, Ralphie's memoir has made the list. It’s Christmas time, after all!
Dredd is a science fiction film written and produced by Alex Garland, based on the comic book Judge Dredd. As an enforcer of the law, he’s the judge, jury and executioner in a dystopic metropolis. There was a film back in the ‘90s starring Sylvester Stallone but this is not that same film.
For all intents and purposes, this was a remake and it starred Karl Urban from the Lord of the Rings and Star Trek. While it was much better received than the Stallone version, it was not financially successful. The budget for the film was estimated to be as high as $45 million but sadly for the studios, it could only draw in $41.5 million at the box office. But now, it’s becoming a cult classic.
The 2006 film Slither was a science-fiction, black comedy and horror film all wrapped in one. It was the directorial debut of James Gunn, the man behind the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, as well as HBO’s Peacemaker. This film was little-known, however, and a box office failure to say the least.
Favorable reviews from critics have ultimately led it to become a cult classic but that couldn’t remove the box office stench. It had a budget of $15 million but upon its release, it only earned $12.8 million. Nevertheless, it cemented a place for James Gunn in Hollywood who is quickly becoming one of the most sought-after directors in the business.
Dark Star is not a great film and not very well made. As a precursor to Star Wars though, you have to applaud the effort. Directed and produced by John Carpenter, it’s not his best film. It’s a very poor attempt at the next 2001: A Space Odyssey and many critics could see right through it.
The special effects on this have aged badly enough that the movie is really a so-bad-it’s-good-type deal. Nevertheless, the film holds a Rotten Tomatoes score of 78%. But anybody that has seen Star Wars is not going to be very impressed by this film. It had a budget of $60,000 and how much it made exactly is not known.
Speed Racer is an action-comedy film based on the 1960s anime series of the same name - written and directed by the Wachowskis, of course, who once again have managed to churn out a cult classic. The all-star cast included Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, and Lost’s Matthew Fox.
While studios hoped the movie would gain traction fast, it was a huge box office blunder. And the only thing speedy about its release was how quickly it vanished from theaters. The movie was made with a budget of $120 million but it only managed to draw in $93.9 million.
Distributed by Warner Brothers, Death to Smoochy was a dark comedy film from the mind of Danny DeVito who directed the film. It starred Robin Williams, Edward Norton, Catherine Keener and DeVito himself. The film is about a disgraced former children’s show host who attempts to sabotage his replacement.
The film did poorly in terms of critic approval as well as box office performance. It was made with a budget of $50 million but only made $8.3 million of that back. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a critic approval score of 42%. Still it has managed to garner a cult following, particularly amongst fans of the actors involved.
Newsies is the cult film for those who love all things musical. The musical historical comedy-drama was produced by Disney with a story based on the New York City Newsboys' Strike of 1899. It received mixed reviews and was a box office disaster for Disney. But again, that hasn’t prevented a cult following from happening.
The film stars a very young Christian Bale, as well as Bill Pullman, Ann-Margaret and Robert Duvall. It was made with a budget of $15 million and Disney only managed to make $2.8 million on it. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie only has an approval score of 39% with a critical consensus that reads: "Extra! Extra! Read all about Newsies instead of suffering through its underwhelming musical interludes, although Christian Bale makes for a spirited hero."
Hocus Pocus is the pinnacle of cult classics. This comedy film starring Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker is a must-watch for most families at Halloween time. It tells the story of a high school boy, his sister and friend as they try to stop a trio of witches, they accidentally resurrected.
This hilarious, and heartwarming at times, the story has had a cult following since it was released but it was panned by critics and performed only modestly at the box office. It had a budget of $28 million and earned $45.4 million at the box office but that’s all the money since its initial release. In the beginning, Disney was said to have lost around $16 million but thanks to home video releases and broadcasts, they’ve undoubtedly made that all back since.
Labyrinth has a cult following for two huge reasons: Jim Henson and David Bowie. The musical fantasy film from Jim Henson Starred David Bowie as the Goblin King alongside a young Jennifer Connelly. With David Bowie and Muppets, you couldn’t think things would go wrong but for the studios they did.
The film had a budget of $25 million and managed to earn only $12.9 million in the United States. Reviews were also mixed at the time but it now has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 74%. Nevertheless, it has been a huge success on home video and DVD with plenty of related merchandise available to this day.
