15 Movies That Flopped In Theaters (That Were Actually Incredible)
“The Thirteenth Floor. It’s a movie about living in a simulation, but it released the same year as The Matrix, and that movie stole all of the novelty of that premise. Turns out, 1999 was just a banger year for that kind of story. I love The Matrix, but The Thirteenth Floor is also in its own right absolutely amazing, mind bending, and suspenseful.” — F-Rank_Adventurer
“The Shawshank Redemption. Earned only $16 million during its initial theatrical run. Many reasons were cited for its failure at the time, including competition from the films Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump, the general unpopularity of prison films, its lack of female characters, and even the title, which was considered to be confusing for audiences. It went on to receive multiple award nominations, including seven Academy Award nominations, and a theatrical re-release that, combined with international takings, increased the film’s box-office gross to $73.3 million.” — Technical-Split3642
“Treasure Planet. Pitted against Harry Potter’s initial release and spoiled the twist villain in the movie previews.” — t0k0l0v3r
“Rise of the Guardians. It was gorgeous with a wonderful plot and amazing characters, but it flopped hard.” — Resident-Clue1290
“Clue. Tanked at the theaters, but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t like it these days.” — ComesInAnOldBox
“Dredd. That movie was solid. Tons of action, insane effects, absolute brutality, and as I found out it was also a faithful adaptation? I mean, Dredd never took his helmet off in the movie, that surprised me. You’d think an actor like Karl Urban, the god damn Billy Butcher, would require to show his face. Really good movie. Deserves a sequel.” — GuyFromDeathValley
“Tremors. While it got popular in the home video market, it flopped in theaters and out of the 7 Tremors movies, is the only one that got a theatrical release.” — Few_Transition_708
“John Carpenter’s The Thing, probably all because it released right after ET. That and people weren’t ready for that dose of nihilism and bleakness in their movies yet.” — Bog2ElectricBoogaloo
“Idiocracy. The movie release was purposely sabotaged by studios because of how it portrayed various brands. Eventually turned into a cult hit anyway because it’s hilarious.” — Giantorange
“Stardust. A wonderful version of a great book. Neil Gaiman is one of the great modern authors.” — vipros42
“Constantine didn’t do well in theaters but it was actually really good and has more of a cult following now!” — CoryBlk
“Mystery Men. Poked fun at things like the MCU and Avengers movies before those things existed.” — mcmnky
“The newer Dungeons and Dragons movie. Right after their open licence debacle, lots of people including myself refused to see this movie. Turns out they did a KILLER job with it. I was very impressed.” — T3hArchAngel_G
“Office Space. Great movie, terrible marketing that completely missed the point of the actual film.” — ConstableBlimeyChips
“Emperor’s New Groove. It flopped in theaters and it took years for it to work up to its current popularity. What a gem.” — Viper_595