Ad Astra and Other Critically Acclaimed Movies That Bombed at the Box Office

Despite how well stories can connect with people, from a Business perspective, cinema is often left at the mercy of the box office to find success. While thousands of movies find theatrical release, very few of them earn profits (it is said that 80 per cent of movies in the industry lose money). And sure enough, many, if not most, of those movies are terrible and were deservedly box office bombs. However, a few failed to make a splash at the box office but are in reality great movies to watch and even regarded as masterpieces in some cases.

The films on the list include Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) and Fight Club (1999). Both were great book-to-movie adaptations. Directed by two well-known filMMAkers, they were released with readymade fan bases (of the books).

So why did they bomb? Why do good movies fail at the box office? There can be a variety of reasons. One is a lack of known faces in the cast. Great actors are not necessarily great movie stars. For instance, as good an actress as Anya Taylor-Joy is, she is simply not a box office draw right now. This is why Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga has been such a disappointment for Warner Bros.

Similarly, Martin Scorsese, as legendary a filMMAker as he rightly is, has a distinctive, auteurist style of making movies that a typical moviegoer wanting to kill a couple of hours in a theatre might not appreciate.

Then, the economics of Hollywood can be stupefyingly complex. A typical big release needs to gross two-and-a-half times the budget just to break even. Also, the production budget does not include marketing and promotion costs, which can run into several million dollars for movies based on recognisable IP (intellectual property).

Even so, cinema is an art form and like all art, it is the act of making it that counts. The movies on this list prove that box office haul doesn’t always determine a film’s legacy or value. Cinematic excellence can transcend the lack of financial success.

Note: All box office figures are according to Box Office Mojo unless specified otherwise.

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