Not every movie that makes big bucks is an artistic achievement, and not every great movie has great ticket sales (unless Tom Holland and Zendaya are in the cast, in which case, expect $1 billion).
This has never been more true than in the streaming era. It takes a decent chunk of change (in this economy!), effort and time commitment to actually go to the movies versus waiting for whatever you want to see to hit Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Peacock, Paramount Plus or Disney+ so you can tune in while folding laundry, catching up on this week’s Wordles and pausing for all the bathroom breaks you want.
That said, I firmly believe the following 10 (OK, 11) movies deserved to be blockbusters with lots of butts in seats, but for one reason or another (bad timing, bad marketing, bad reviews and at times bad audiences have all played a role), bombed hard. Some of them got the props and eyeballs they deserved later on, while some remain underrated and under-viewed. Add these phenomenal films that were also box office flops to your queues and thank me later.
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10 Great Movies That Flopped at the Box Office
The Princess Bride (1987)
Robin Wright as Princess Buttercup and Cary Elwes as Westley/The Dread Pirate in “The Princess Bride” (1987)Act III Communications
Now one of the most beloved movies of all time and included in the National Film Registry, The Princess Bride (1987) didn’t turn a profit at the box office when it was released in theaters. It was home video that made it into the endlessly quotable cult classic it’s known as today.
The late, great Carl Reiner gave his son, late, great writer and director Rob Reiner a copy of the book The Princess Bride by William Goldman, and Rob had his heart set on adapting it to film—but said that at the time, it was “an impossible sell” to studios.
“The funny thing about it was that before I made Stand by Me—I had made Spinal Tap and The Sure Thing—I had a meeting with this executive at Paramount,” Rob Reiner recalled to Variety. “She said, ‘We love your films. What do you want to do next?’ I said, ‘Well, you don’t want to do what I want to do.’ She said, ‘No, that’s not true. I want to do what you want to do.’ I said, ‘No, no. You want me to do what you want to do.’ She said, ‘No, no. I want to do what you want to do. What is it?’ I said, ‘The Princess Bride.‘ She said, ‘Well, anything but that.'”
Thankfully, Norman Lear helped fund the project, and the combination of the story, script and cast—Robin Wright as the bratty Buttercup, Cary Elwes as the hunky hero Westley, Chris Sarandon as the cold and cruel Prince Humperdinck, the “inconceivable” Wallace Shawn as serpentine-turned-sweet Sicilian Vizzini, an unforgettable Mandy Patinkin as Inigo “You Killed My Father, Prepare to Die” Montoya, Billy Crystal as Miracle Max, an unrecognizable Christopher Guest as the Six-Fingered Man and the adorable 7’4″ Andre the Giant as Fezzik—went on to warm hearts and tickle funny bones for generations.
Related: The Best Princess Bride Quotes
Labyrinth (1986)
Jennifer Connelly as Sarah Williams and David Bowie as the Goblin King Jareth in “Labyrinth” (1986)Tristar Pictures
Labyrinth (1986) had some stiff competition at the box office its opening weekend: Juggernauts Top Gun, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Karate Kid Part II and even Rodney Dangerfield‘s Back to School were among the movies in theaters at the time. That said, it still flopped really hard. My personal theory as to why: Based on the haircuts and politics popular in 1986, it’s because everyone had absolutely garbage taste.
Labyrinth is a delightful adventure, full of precious Jim Henson puppets (my personal favorite is the charming, scarf-adorned worm), dark humor and David Bowie as the Goblin King Jareth. I repeat, David Bowie as the Goblin King. You don’t need to know any more than this to understand why it’s almost universally adored now, and if you do, look it up yourself. I’m too busy bopping along to “Magic Dance.”
Related: The 80 Best ’80s Movies, Ranked
Trick ‘r Treat (2007)
Quinn Lord as Sam in “Trick ‘r Treat” (2007)Legendary Entertainment
Now a beloved spooky season staple, Warner Bros. dumped Trick ‘r Treat (2007) straight to video in 2009 after pushing back its release date several times, showing that the company’s history of questionable choices predates David Zaslav.
In any case, the film one of the best and most festive horror-comedies ever released. From the simultaneously adorable and terrifying Halloween rules enforcer Sam (Quinn Lord) to the intertwining tales of werewolves, a murderous and Perry principal (a deliciously devilish Dylan Baker) and a man haunted by ghosts both literal and metaphorical (a classically cranky Brian Cox), Trick ‘r Treat is nothing but treats.
Related: 150+ Best Horror Movies of All Time, Ranked
Starship Troopers (1997)
Casper Van Dien as Johnny Rico in “Starship Troopers” (1997)Starship Troopers (1997) didn’t necessarily flop in the traditional sense for the time, but more in the vein of modern flops: It grossed $121 million, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at (especially back then), but its budget ballooned to more than $100 million thanks largely to its use of CGI animation.
Of course, the fact that so many people—including President Donald Trump and many who actually liked the movie—completely miss the point of Starship Troopers‘ satire didn’t help its numbers. Some critics believed the movie promoted fascism, xenophobia, colonialism and militarism, when really, the point that humanity was the villain simply soared right over their heads. You’d think the fact that there were so many Aryans from Argentina would be a clue, but alas, continued cuts to public education funding since the Ronald Reagan administration may have eroded most brains to be smoother than needed to appreciate Paul Verhoeven‘s irony.
Related: The Best War Movies of All Time
The Last Duel (2021)
Adam Driver as Jacques de Gris and Matt Damon as Sir Jean de Carrouges in “The Last Duel” (2021)20th Century Studios
Based on true events documented in the book The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval France by Eric Jager, The Last Duel (2021) was likely at least in part a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic: It was released in October 2021, when a lot of audiences were still reluctant to return to theaters, and it faced competition from Halloween Kills and Daniel Craig‘s final turn as James Bond in No Time to Die.
It’s a damn shame, because the movie is one of the rare, truly nuanced examinations of toxic masculinity, rape culture and violence. The Last Duel is told in a Rashomon style: Matt Damon wrote the vantage point of his character, Sir Jean de Carrouges, Ben Affleck (who also hams it up in the film as dirtbag nobleman Count Pierre d’Alençon) penned the script from the viewpoint of Jacques de Gris (played by a phenomenal Adam Driver boasting some seriously gorgeous tresses) and Nicole Holofcener wrote the scenes from the most tragic character, Marguerite de Carrouges (a perfect Jodie Comer).
Director Ridley Scott wisely leaves judgment up to the viewer as to what may or may not have really transpired, but later unwisely blamed millennial and our cellphones for the movie performing poorly at the box office. (Thankfully, Affleck was much smarter and kinder—or at least much more media trained—in his own reflections.)
Related: 12 Best Ben Affleck Movies (So Far)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Jeff Bridges as The Dude, John Goodman as Walter Sobchek and Steve Buscemi as Donny Kerabatsos in “The Big Lebowski” (1998)Gramercy Pictures
When you factor in marketing costs, The Big Lebowski barely broke even with its $15 million budget during its brief 1998 theatrical run. However, thanks in large part to one of the funniest scripts ever written, a cast that was chock full of future Emmy and Oscar winners (Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and John Turturro, plus frequent nominee Sam Elliott) and the power of memes, The Big Lebowski developed a massive cult following.
Just how massive? Well, it literally has its own festival, Lebowski Fest, in multiple cities every single year. It has its own religion, called Dudeism, with more than 200,000 ordained Dudeist “priests.” It inspired the name of not one, but two species of spiders.
Aside from the cult following it developed, The Big Lebowski also contributed something incredibly important to the global conversation as a whole: While some may point to its perceived critiques of the United States’ post-Reagan materialism, militarism and other sociopolitical issues, to me, it made it acceptable to be open and honest about how much I, too, f*king hate the Eagles, man.
Related: The Big Lebowski! Starman! We’re Rounding Up 10 of Jeff Bridges’ Best Roles
Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard in “Blade Runner” (1982)Warner Bros.
While these are obviously two movies, it’s doubly bananas that the latter didn’t do gangbusters in terms of ticket sales considering how iconic the former became.
Based on the 1968 Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the original Blade Runner influenced a slew of science fiction movies, shows and books released after its 1982 theatrical run. These include Ghost In the Shell (the manga, not the whitewashed Scarlett Johansson–Rupert Sanders film adaptation that pretty rightfully flopped), The Fifth Element, Altered Carbon, Cyberpunk 2077 and several elements of another of Harrison Ford‘s famous franchises: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, to name a few, each feature callbacks to Blade Runner.
Ana de Armas as Joi and Ryan Gosling as K in “Blade Runner 2049” (2017)Warner Bros.
Blade Runner 2049 was eerily prescient as well: Denis Villeneuve‘s 2017 film, which co-starred Ford and Ryan Gosling, literally featured Ana de Armas as an AI-generated holographic girlfriend.
If anything, Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049‘s biggest faults were that they were too ahead of their respective times.
The good news? There are more Blade Runner stories to be told onscreen: A Blade Runner 2099 series is coming to Prime Video in November 2026.
Related: 100+ Best Sci-Fi Movies of All Time, Ranked
The Thing (1982)
Kurt Russell as MacReady in John Carpenter’s “The Thing” (1982)Universal Pictures
Coincidentally, The Thing (1982) opened on the same day as the original Blade Runner and was similarly ahead of its time, but it bombed even harder.
There were a few reasons for that: For one, it was competing with the family-friendly (and now iconic) Steven Spielberg smash E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which depicted alien visitors as much more cuddly than John Carpenter did. Two, it was rated R. Three, it was the second adaptation of the 1938 novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, the first being the 1951 film The Thing From Another World, so audiences may not have had much FOMO if they sat this one out. Fourth, it was pretty much in development Hell for quite a while before it finally hit theaters, and fifth, some believed the bleak tone to be too dour for the period, during which the U.S. was in a recession and in the midst of the Cold War.
That’s too bad for them, because Carpenter’s film is an absolute masterclass in practical effects (especially for the time), building tension and mounting dread. Kurt Russell and Keith David are devastatingly and hauntingly believable in their nihilism, and Hell if they didn’t have a point.
Related: 30+ Best End of the World Movies, Ranked
Children of Men (2006)
Clive Owen as Theo “Theo” Faron and Clare-Hope Ashitey as Kee in “Children of Men” (2006)Universal Pictures
Another movie criticized for being too bleak was Children of Men (2006), perhaps only because we had no idea what the world would become just two decades later.
Rife with wars, refugees being put in camps, a totalitarian government, civilians being killed, endless propaganda and a global economic depression, is it any wonder why birth rates are down? In Children of Men, which takes place in a dystopian—gulp—2027, there is a worldwide infertility crisis at the root of most of humanity’s problems, and the human race is actually racing towards its own extinction.
With a cast that includes Clive Owen (robbed of an Oscar for this), Julianne Moore, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Caine and Charlie Hunnam, the true bleakness of Children of Men really depends on your own beliefs in the possibilities of a better world—and on your willingness to examine the one we’re in with a critical lens.
Related: Every Rob Reiner Movie, Ranked
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
Harry Shearer as Derek Smalls, Christopher Guest as Nigel Tufnel and Michael McKean as David St. Hubbins in “This Is Spinal Tap” (1984)Embassy Pictures
Quite possibly the funniest film of all time, This Is Spinal Tap (1984) bombed hard at the box office when it was first released. Why? Because, similar to what happened later with Starship Troopers, audiences were as clueless about the actual movie as Nigel Tufnel is about making sandwiches with miniature bread slices.
“People thought it was a real documentary,” director and writer Rob Reiner explained to AARP in September 2025 ahead of the release of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. “We were making fun of rock stars and documentaries. People didn’t understand it. We screened it in Dallas for the first time. People said to me, ‘Well, I don’t get this. Why would you make a movie about a band that nobody’s ever heard of? And one that’s this bad? Why don’t you make a movie about the Beatles or the Rolling Stones?’ I tried to explain, ‘Well, it’s satire.'”
To be fair, audiences may have been confused somewhat understandably: As someone who worked in the music industry, This Is Spinal Tap is so true to real life, especially on the road, that every scenario within it is actually 100% believable. There truly is a fine line between stupid and clever.
Related: ‘They’re Heeeeere!’ Our Picks for the 110 Best Movie Quotes of All Time
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