Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Box Office Flops - More Than You would think

There's something oddly satisfying about visiting a big-budget movie flop. Whenever we learn about these ambitious, special effects-laden extravaganzas heading down in flames we obtain a strange sense of schadenfreude.

But why? Does it stem in the proven fact that we're feeling manipulated, almost exploited, through the movie industry? Perhaps. After all, movie studios make lots of coin from tweaking our emotions, whether it is through adrenaline-filled action films or mawkishly tear-jerking weepies.

Perhaps the best reason behind our guilty pleasure at visiting a big-budget movie flop is always that we're feeling like we won a battle. We caught Hollywood attempting to pull a quick one by releasing a poor movie and seeking to hype it anyway -- and that we weren't fooled. Gotcha. Better luck the next time.

That's all fine and dandy, but there has been many excellent movies through the years that, for reasons uknown, didn't make it big time in the box office. Hey, just because a film didn't make lots of money on its release doesn't make it bad -- after all, Citizen Kane barely made enough to pay for the price of a wooden sled on its original release. It wasn't until its re-release and tv syndication it became perhaps the most critically acclaimed movie ever.

So, here is a take a look at two movies that did not meet expectations on the release, but later continued to disprove the critics:

Fight Club

Despite eventually just as one enormous cult hit, Fight Club performed poorly on its release. With a financial budget of $63 million it took just $37 million in the Us box office. On its release the film drew mixed critical reactions, aided by its violent nature. One much talked about critic described it as being "a film with no single redeeming quality, which may need to find its audience in Hell", and the flop cost the Entertainment Chief of Twentieth century Fox his job.

Despite a tepid reception, Fight Club continued to show a little profit in the global box office before exploding in popularity within the DVD market, becoming one of the best-loved films of the 90s. Today you would be challenged to locate a young man's DVD collection that did not boast a Fight Club DVD.

Shawshank Redemption

One of the renowned box office flops of latest years, The Shawshank Redemption, with different Steven King novella, emerged from the might of Forrest Gump in the box office. Audiences preferred Hanks' feel great vehicle over this depressing prison drama and, although Shawshank garnered 7 Oscar nominations, this area office take was pathetic.

This all changed when the movie was launched on video. Bolstered through the Oscar endorsements Shawshank became the most rented video of 1995, starting with become our 2nd favorite movie ever based on an online Movie Database poll.

The moral of the story, it appears, is you should probably think hard before dismissing a film depending on its box office success. Movies will always be at their most enjoyable when seen on the giant screen, which means you shouldn't lose out on the opportunity to discover their whereabouts because they were meant to be seen simply because the audiences can't tell a Hollywood gem from fools gold. After all, fundamental essentials same individuals who made Ernest Would go to Jail the amount one movie in the opening week. Would you have confidence in them?

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