Box-office failures that became cult classics

The death of cinema has been prophesied many times, but Covid appeared to be the death knell. Streaming during that period reached its peak and photos of almost empty cinemas painted a grim picture of the future. Seven years later, 2026 is shaping up to be the biggest year cinema has had in a decade. So far, the global box office has recorded revenues of up to $10 billion, and we still haven’t taken into consideration the Halloween-Thanksgiving period, when studios release major movies, and the lucrative Christmas season. Two major movies are scheduled to hit cinemas in December, Dune 3 and Avengers: Doomsday, which are expected to push the total beyond $12 billion. Here’s the thing, though: box-office earnings are not necessarily a good indicator of how good a movie is. So, to celebrate this golden year of cinema, here are cult classics that are today considered masterpieces but flopped when they first came out. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) Oh Tim Curry, you sweet, sweet prince. You have been loved for decades for your many roles, but perhaps most of all for The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Sure, Dr Frank-N-Furter and his wild bunch of musically inclined, sexually liberated characters were an acquired taste, and conservative US audiences gave the whole thing a hard pass. The movie didn’t even make back its budget during its original run. The film found its audience when, a year after its original release, cinemas began hosting midnight screenings, encouraging fans to come dressed as characters from the movie. This second life was all it needed to gain the cult masterpiece status it holds today. Blade Runner (1982) A studio executive’s worst fear is to finance a movie, see it through to completion, test it with audiences, get encouraging feedback and then watch the whole thing crumble simply because it was released at the same time as a much more successful film. Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner was released in the summer of 1982, and it was unfortunate enough to go up against the juggernaut that was E.T.. A cyberpunk movie about a dystopian future where hope is in short supply and no one can distinguish man from machine barely stood a chance. That, along with the fact that Harrison Ford was mostly known at the time for Star Wars and Indiana Jones, contributed to the movie barely making its money back. Despite mixed reviews and a disappointing run at the box office, fans kept watching the film and kept telling their friends, eventually giving it the recognition it deserved. Today, Blade Runner enjoys the success it never had upon release, becoming a franchise that has already spawned a sequel and a television series. Hocus Pocus (1993) But sometimes studio executives simply fumble the ball by not understanding their own product. Even today, if you are watching movies around Halloween, you are bound to stumble upon Disney’s 1993 hit Hocus Pocus. It is a movie about witches, people coming back from the dead and a story that takes place around Halloween in Salem, Massachusetts. So when do you think it was released? That’s right. July. On a $30 million budget, the movie made around $39.5 million, which was respectable but nowhere near what Hollywood considers a major success. It was promptly buried and largely forgotten. Until television came along. Staying true to its theme, Hocus Pocus came back from the dead, and the three Sanderson sisters became iconic when the studio realised that the best time to watch a Halloween movie was, surprisingly enough, Halloween. Who knew? The Shawshank Redemption (1994) It is almost unbelievable that a movie considered by many, yours truly included, to be one of the best ever made was a box-office disaster. Despite strong reviews, the movie made just $16 million during its original theatrical run against a budget of around $25 million. After receiving seven Oscar nominations, the movie was re-released and eventually brought its total to around $28 million. Still a flop. As it was released in the same year as Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction, many believed that timing was partly to blame. When the movie hit video shelves, though, people simply couldn’t get enough of it. Today, it is one of the most beloved films of all time and a living reminder that sometimes works of art deserve a second chance at making a first impression.