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(Mental Floss)   Eleven movies that made less than $400 at the U.S. box office. There are no missing zeroes in this headline   (mentalfloss.com) divider line
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    More: Fail, humans, U.S., box offices, indieWIRE, Johnny Depp, Tom Sizemore, IFC Films, Blair Witch  
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11479 clicks; posted to Entertainment » on 04 Nov 2014 at 6:13 AM (7 years ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



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Confabulat
2014-11-04 1:32:07 AM  
Weirdly I just watched The Marsh this weekend on one of those late night movie channels doing Halloween stuff. It was sort of dull and I didn't pay a lot of attention, but it wasn't horrible I don't think. Probably the case for most of these movies. Forest Whitaker was doing his best poor man's Sam Jackson.
 
fusillade762
2014-11-04 2:54:56 AM  
More like 11 movies that shiatty marketing and distribution deals.
 
BlueFalconPunch
2014-11-04 6:25:33 AM  
Link isn't working for me, can someone share the list?

\Knows The Room won't be on there, somehow that managed to net $1800 during is prestigous box office run.
 
Fizpez
2014-11-04 6:31:13 AM  

fusillade762: More like 11 movies that shiatty marketing and distribution deals.


Ive got to agree - I mean some of those movies actually had a known actor and were shown for a week at one theater - sounds to me like someone was pissed off and met the absolute bare minimum to meet a legal requirement for distribution.

You could probably show 90 minutes of static but if it was at 5000 theaters you'd still make millions.
 
abhorrent1
2014-11-04 6:40:45 AM  
the thriller-which stars Tom Sizemore and Katherine Heigl-only played in one theater. But it played in that theater for an entire week! By the time its run had ended, six people had seen it for a grand total of $30 in ticket sales

I take it Katherine Heigl didn't have a nude scene?
 
Pazuzu Smith-Jones
2014-11-04 6:53:51 AM  
I half expected Dylan Dog to be on there. That film got a very bad rap, and it wasn't half bad. Brandon Routh either slept with the wrong guy, or didn't sleep with the right guy, is my theory.
 
batlock666
2014-11-04 6:55:37 AM  
Noel Clarke got his revenge for Storage 24's box office when he bombed Section 31.
 
Intelligent_Donkey
2014-11-04 7:03:22 AM  
What did Manos: The Hands of Fate make?
 
Schmerd1948 [TotalFark]
2014-11-04 7:07:13 AM  

Intelligent_Donkey: What did Manos: The Hands of Fate make?


Clay pots?
 
Jizz Master Zero
2014-11-04 7:07:43 AM  
Dimension was the king of One Week Wonders. They did From Dusk Till Dawn 2 and 3 as Direct to Video movies, but they were guaranteed a theatrical release. Dawn 2 played some theater in, I think, New York for a few days, and Dawn 3 had a "premiere" that was open to the public.

The Crow: Salvation was geared up for a big theatrical release with a heavily promoted soundtrack like the first two, trailers and posters all over theaters, then...nothing. Suddenly, just to satisfy a contractual obligation, it played one show a night for a week in Oregon before disappearing DTV. I seem to remember the same thing happening to the next one, The Crow: Wicked Prayer: one show only to satisfy a contractual obligation, then gone to video store heaven.

Hellraiser: Revelations and Children of the Corn: Genesis, much like Roger Corman's Fantastic Four, were made solely to hold on to the rights. To meet Guild rules, they showed once in LA as an "open" cast and crew screening (the public could buy tickets). I've heard before that the respective directors and a few reps from Dimension were there, and that was about it.
 
Three Crooked Squirrels [TotalFark]
2014-11-04 7:16:41 AM  
In that first trailer, was poor Katherine Heigl menaced by the threat of  . . . steak?
 
Silverlock
2014-11-04 7:52:15 AM  
I wonder if Quintet (1979 Paul Newman/Robert Altman bomb) should be in this list. I had a part time job back then at a theater were this stinker opened and closed on the same day after an entire audience came streaming back out to ask for their money back. I don't think it lasted more than week nationwide.
 
abhorrent1
2014-11-04 7:54:47 AM  

Three Crooked Squirrels: In that first trailer, was poor Katherine Heigl menaced by the threat of  . . . steak?


Of the tube variety?
 
bearded clamorer [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2014-11-04 7:58:07 AM  

BlueFalconPunch: Link isn't working for me, can someone share the list?


1. ZYZZYX ROAD (2006) // Gross: $30
2. STORAGE 24 (2013) // Gross: $72
3. DOG EAT DOG (2009) // Gross: $80
4. THE OBJECTIVE (2009) // Gross: $95
5. THE GHASTLY LOVE OF JOHNNY X (2012) // Gross: $117
6. PRETTY VILLAGE, PRETTY FLAME (1998) // Gross: $211
7. PLAYBACK (2012) // Gross: $264
8. INTERVENTION (2007) // Gross: $279
9. TROJAN WAR (1997) // Gross: $309
10. THE MARSH (2007) // Gross: $336
11. APARTMENT 143 (2012) // Gross: $383
 
Mugato [TotalFark]
2014-11-04 8:11:26 AM  
"Movies that open in one theater with not marketing don't make much money"

ricromero.jpg

What a dipshiat article.

Jizz Master Zero: Hellraiser: Revelations


WTF was that? I saw it on Netflix and couldn't believe what I was looking at. It had a mini-me Pinhead, ffs. Even Doug Bradley, who did all the sequels that weren't even written as Hellraiser movies but shoehorned in Pinhead wouldn't do Revelations.

Why couldn't they make a decent Hellraiser film after the 3rd (and part of 4)? Granted it's a little more complex than Jason or Michael Myers but still. But I digress.
 
Catlenfell
2014-11-04 8:16:43 AM  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k_iafjurhs

While it has no relation to the film, Zzyzx Rd by Stone Sour is a pretty good song.
 
booger42
2014-11-04 8:20:26 AM  
Not one of those films was made by Bobcat Goldthwaite, who has been quoted as saying
"I make files that gross, literally hundreds of dollars."
 
Kerr Avon
2014-11-04 8:32:49 AM  

Fizpez: fusillade762: More like 11 movies that shiatty marketing and distribution deals.

Ive got to agree - I mean some of those movies actually had a known actor and were shown for a week at one theater - sounds to me like someone was pissed off and met the absolute bare minimum to meet a legal requirement for distribution.


I think it's related to Union minimum pay scales which allow  a lower minimum if there is a "Release" of the movie and I'm guessing that 1 week in 1 theatre counts as "Release" for that clause to  apply.
 
Fano
2014-11-04 8:35:00 AM  

bearded clamorer: BlueFalconPunch: Link isn't working for me, can someone share the list?

1. ZYZZYX ROAD (2006) // Gross: $30
2. STORAGE 24 (2013) // Gross: $72
3. DOG EAT DOG (2009) // Gross: $80
4. THE OBJECTIVE (2009) // Gross: $95
5. THE GHASTLY LOVE OF JOHNNY X (2012) // Gross: $117
6. PRETTY VILLAGE, PRETTY FLAME (1998) // Gross: $211
7. PLAYBACK (2012) // Gross: $264
8. INTERVENTION (2007) // Gross: $279
9. TROJAN WAR (1997) // Gross: $309
10. THE MARSH (2007) // Gross: $336
11. APARTMENT 143 (2012) // Gross: $383


Interesting how many of them were made after 2000. I think that confirms the "bad distribution" hypothesis, since any squalid wet fart of a youtube video could make as much if you charged a nickel.
 
asquian
2014-11-04 8:43:27 AM  

bearded clamorer: BlueFalconPunch: Link isn't working for me, can someone share the list?

1. ZYZZYX ROAD (2006) // Gross: $30
2. STORAGE 24 (2013) // Gross: $72
3. DOG EAT DOG (2009) // Gross: $80
4. THE OBJECTIVE (2009) // Gross: $95
5. THE GHASTLY LOVE OF JOHNNY X (2012) // Gross: $117
6. PRETTY VILLAGE, PRETTY FLAME (1998) // Gross: $211
7. PLAYBACK (2012) // Gross: $264
8. INTERVENTION (2007) // Gross: $279
9. TROJAN WAR (1997) // Gross: $309
10. THE MARSH (2007) // Gross: $336
11. APARTMENT 143 (2012) // Gross: $383


Figures. The lowest one. Movies based on video games always seem to fail.
https://archive.org/details/arcade_zzyzzyxx
 
TheJadedJester
2014-11-04 8:48:54 AM  
I have seen The Ghastly Love of Johnny X. I was hoping it was a riff on The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra or It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...it isnt like either of those movies. It is a weird movie though that some folks might like it in a weird cult film sort of way.

/only movie on that list that I saw.
 
Cormee
2014-11-04 8:49:28 AM  
Hah! I know the female lead from Storage 24, Antonia Campbell Hughes, lovely looking girl, but very quiet and a bit dull, alien-like and very skinny. We used to go out in the same group of people every Saturday night for a year or two. Her bio says she was born in 1982, not a chance in hell that's true.

img.spokeo.comView Full Size
 
ChrisDe
2014-11-04 9:07:50 AM  
Hollywood accounting. Actors were probably to be paid on points and net profits.
 
PirateKing [OhFark]
2014-11-04 9:34:39 AM  
I quite liked Storage 24. I think I even paid for it on Amazon Instnat video.
 
dletter
2014-11-04 9:37:04 AM  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zzyzx
 
Confabulat
2014-11-04 9:46:03 AM  

Mugato: "Movies that open in one theater with not marketing don't make much money"

ricromero.jpg

What a dipshiat article.

Jizz Master Zero: Hellraiser: Revelations

WTF was that? I saw it on Netflix and couldn't believe what I was looking at. It had a mini-me Pinhead, ffs. Even Doug Bradley, who did all the sequels that weren't even written as Hellraiser movies but shoehorned in Pinhead wouldn't do Revelations.

Why couldn't they make a decent Hellraiser film after the 3rd (and part of 4)? Granted it's a little more complex than Jason or Michael Myers but still. But I digress.


If you do a quick Google News search on Hellraiser you may get some answers.
 
Candy Colored Clown
2014-11-04 9:47:45 AM  

Mugato: "Movies that open in one theater with not marketing don't make much money"

ricromero.jpg

What a dipshiat article.

Jizz Master Zero: Hellraiser: Revelations

WTF was that? I saw it on Netflix and couldn't believe what I was looking at. It had a mini-me Pinhead, ffs. Even Doug Bradley, who did all the sequels that weren't even written as Hellraiser movies but shoehorned in Pinhead wouldn't do Revelations.

Why couldn't they make a decent Hellraiser film after the 3rd (and part of 4)? Granted it's a little more complex than Jason or Michael Myers but still. But I digress.


I'm thinking Hellraiser, the original, is due for a remake.
 
Jorn the Younger
2014-11-04 9:49:06 AM  
It spent a week in just one theater in New York, where it earned a grand total of $95. But there's a little bit of conflicting info here: While sources like  Box Office Mojo list this as its only box office take, IMDb's stats show that it earned slightly north of $2 million when it was released in L.A. one month later.

So the title of TFA should really be "11 movies that made less than $400 so long as we ignore the millions of dollars the movie made"

I like Noel Clarke, so I may check out Storage 24.

I've seen Trojan War, actually a fairly entertaining flick, for it's genre.  And while Will Friedle may indeed have been in Boy Meets World, he'll always be Terry McGinnis to me.
 
Jorn the Younger
2014-11-04 9:53:14 AM  

Cormee: Antonia Campbell Hughes


You posted her picture and I knew I'd seen her somewhere- on seeing that she was in an episode of MI-5, I immediately remembered the episode (I both love and hate when my brain does that)

But I have no trouble believing she's 32; is your incredulity because you think she's younger than that, or older?
 
Mugato [TotalFark]
2014-11-04 9:55:10 AM  

Candy Colored Clown: I'm thinking Hellraiser, the original, is due for a remake.


Last I heard Clive Barker is doing one.
 
frepnog
2014-11-04 9:58:14 AM  

Candy Colored Clown: I'm thinking Hellraiser, the original, is due for a remake.


they have been kicking it around for years.  it tends to go nowhere mostly because the original dude that played Pinhead is pretty much what people think of when they think Hellraiser.

Think of it like this - The Nightmare on Elm Street remake was actually a pretty good movie on its own merits but no one could get around Robert Englund not being Freddy.

We don't NEED a Hellraiser remake.  It can't do anything but suck.
 
NYRBill
2014-11-04 10:02:40 AM  

dletter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zzyzx


Fark user imageView Full Size
 
xria
2014-11-04 10:04:22 AM  
Surely rather than total gross, it should be average gross per theatre, or maybe average gross per showing, if we wanted to know movies that people didn't show up for, rather than just movies that had some fake one theatre release for some contractual or marketing reason.
 
jaybeezey
2014-11-04 10:06:05 AM  
watched storage 24 on netflix one night. I've seen worse, not a lot, but i've seen it.
 
mjbok
2014-11-04 10:08:42 AM  

BlueFalconPunch: \Knows The Room won't be on there, somehow that managed to net $1800 during is prestigous box office run.


The Room probably makes that much every month.  Most big cities have at least one showing of it every month and it is usually sold out.

It's initial run was a flop, but in the long run it has probably become very profitable.
 
productivity_zero
2014-11-04 10:11:37 AM  
For some reason I thought Cabin Boy would be on that list.  A group of friends and I saw that in the theater, and when we were raving about it while leaving, the manager told us we could see it again for free, as many times as we wanted while it was still showing (and he was working).  We were the only five tickets sold for that movie in all of Rhode Island, apparently.
 
Mugato [TotalFark]
2014-11-04 10:13:15 AM  

frepnog: they have been kicking it around for years.  it tends to go nowhere mostly because the original dude that played Pinhead is pretty much what people think of when they think Hellraiser.

Think of it like this - The Nightmare on Elm Street remake was actually a pretty good movie on its own merits but no one could get around Robert Englund not being Freddy.

We don't NEED a Hellraiser remake.  It can't do anything but suck.


The difference is that Freddy has personality. Pinhead really doesn't. Really any Brit who can do stoic and menacing can play the part. Anyway, the original guy's still alive. Also, remake Freddy's makeup wasn't very good. And they used him for the Mortal Kombat character, those pricks.

If Clive Barker's involved in the Hellraiser remake, it can certainly not suck.
 
MithrandirBooga
2014-11-04 10:16:41 AM  
Fizpez:
You could probably show 90 minutes of static but if it was at 5000 theaters you'd still make millions.

So you've seen the latest Avengers movie too?
 
SirDigbyChickenCaesar
2014-11-04 10:17:47 AM  
 I liked The Objective.

/there I said it
//feel much more free now
///nope, just forgot my pants again...dammit
 
Confabulat
2014-11-04 10:20:11 AM  

frepnog: Candy Colored Clown: I'm thinking Hellraiser, the original, is due for a remake.

they have been kicking it around for years.  it tends to go nowhere mostly because the original dude that played Pinhead is pretty much what people think of when they think Hellraiser.

Think of it like this - The Nightmare on Elm Street remake was actually a pretty good movie on its own merits but no one could get around Robert Englund not being Freddy.

We don't NEED a Hellraiser remake.  It can't do anything but suck.


Dude. I told you to Google News it. I'd submit a damn link to Fark but Clive Barker is talking a lot this week about this. And his opinions on Nightbreed are worth the read.
 
frepnog
2014-11-04 10:20:33 AM  

Mugato: Clive Barker's involved in the Hellraiser remake


He writes good books.  I can't think of many films he has done that didn't suck.
 
Mugato [TotalFark]
2014-11-04 10:24:20 AM  

frepnog: Mugato: Clive Barker's involved in the Hellraiser remake

He writes good books.  I can't think of many films he has done that didn't suck.


Nightbreed, like Hellraiser would have been really good with better production values. As it is it's not bad. I liked Candyman. Can't think of anything else he did as a film.
 
trotsky
2014-11-04 10:44:31 AM  
I actually dug The Objective. It did a good job of building up to the end and portrayed Afghanistan as this place where so much is still mysterious while also having an aura of death.
 
dletter
2014-11-04 10:52:30 AM  

NYRBill: dletter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zzyzx

[img.fark.net image 440x531]


I didn't notice any supervillians in the list, you should go update it.
 
PirateKing [OhFark]
2014-11-04 10:53:27 AM  

productivity_zero: For some reason I thought Cabin Boy would be on that list.  A group of friends and I saw that in the theater, and when we were raving about it while leaving, the manager told us we could see it again for free, as many times as we wanted while it was still showing (and he was working).  We were the only five tickets sold for that movie in all of Rhode Island, apparently.


You some kind of fancy lad?

/THESE PIPES ARE CLEAN!
 
Mulchpuppy
2014-11-04 10:59:35 AM  

Mugato: frepnog: Mugato: Clive Barker's involved in the Hellraiser remake

He writes good books.  I can't think of many films he has done that didn't suck.

Nightbreed, like Hellraiser would have been really good with better production values. As it is it's not bad. I liked Candyman. Can't think of anything else he did as a film.


Same would apply to Lord if Illusions.  There's a fantastic movie in there somewhere, but you have to wade through some fairly questionable casting choices to find it.

I really enjoyed the heck out of Midnight Meat Train as well, though Barker was only a producer on it.
 
Cormee
2014-11-04 11:01:20 AM  

Jorn the Younger: Cormee: Antonia Campbell Hughes

You posted her picture and I knew I'd seen her somewhere- on seeing that she was in an episode of MI-5, I immediately remembered the episode (I both love and hate when my brain does that)

But I have no trouble believing she's 32; is your incredulity because you think she's younger than that, or older?


Older, it was about 10 years ago I used to hang around with that group, and I'd have thought back then she was at least 26. I could be open to correction as I never asked her age. She's a complete waif, couldn't step outside in a breeze, which I think gives the impression she's younger than she is. She's a Jack-of-all-trades, has dabbled with being an artist, a model, and now she's an actress, she seems to be sticking with the acting longer than the other two. I fancied the pants off her for a while I have to say, but she was very quiet and rarely spoke to anyone except two of her female friends. She was mad into a great artist, Joby Hickey, who would join the group occasionally, that's really all I knew about her romance-wise.
 
stpickrell
2014-11-04 11:01:20 AM  

Intelligent_Donkey: Manos


The Wiki says it debuted in one of El Paso's landmark-type theaters and then played the El Paso-Las Cruces drive-in circuit for a few weeks afterwards. I wouldn't be surprised if it actually broke the $500 or even $1,000 mark during its initial run if the premier had a few dozen paying customers (who paid maybe $5 a head) and then a few hundred people paying (what, a buck or two per car)?

Of course record-keeping was worse back then and the entire distribution model was different.
 
BlueFalconPunch
2014-11-04 11:08:59 AM  

mjbok: BlueFalconPunch: \Knows The Room won't be on there, somehow that managed to net $1800 during is prestigous box office run.

The Room probably makes that much every month.  Most big cities have at least one showing of it every month and it is usually sold out.

It's initial run was a flop, but in the long run it has probably become very profitable.



More than that most likely. Theres no arguing that after word of its sheer mindnumbing awfulness started to spread it gained some noteriety. But the fact remains, during its intial release and run in 2003 (one theater, for one night), it still managed to net $1800. Or, only managed to net $1800, because it was actually promoted in San Francisco (unlike these fine films...)

/ Oh hi Mark...
// You're tearing me apart Lisa!
/// Ha-ha, what a story Mark...
 
frepnog
2014-11-04 11:23:56 AM  

Mugato: Nightbreed, like Hellraiser would have been really good with better production values.


Yeah I remember seeing Nightbreed and thinking then "this might not be bad if they had some money to spend on it".
 
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