They're considered classics now, but they bombed upon arriving at the box office. For this list, we’ll be looking at the biggest box office disasters from Hollywood’s classic era.
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00:00 Speaking of money, I almost forgot to tell you.
00:02 How much?
00:03 Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 classic Hollywood movies that bombed at the box office.
00:11 George, I am an old man. Most people hate me, but I don't like them either, so that makes it all even.
00:18 For this list, we'll be looking at the biggest box office disasters from Hollywood's classic era.
00:23 Some found their audience in later re-releases, while others nearly brought their makers to financial ruin.
00:28 But they all failed to meet expectations. We're only counting flicks made before 1980.
00:33 Did these box office losers deserve better? Let us know in the comments.
00:38 Although it's become a well-regarded classic, this musicalized Roald Dahl adaptation, starring Gene Wilder as a menacing chocolatier, didn't make much money in its first theatrical run.
00:53 So you get nothing! You lose! Good day, sir!
00:59 On a $3 million budget, it only made $4 million, which is not much of a profit at all.
01:04 While it wasn't a disastrous flop, relative to the talent behind it and its current reputation, it had shockingly little traction in theaters.
01:12 He'll be made into marshmallows in five seconds!
01:14 Impossible, my dear lady. That's absurd! Unthinkable!
01:17 Considering its weirdness, it's not hard to imagine it didn't click with audiences right away.
01:22 Like many movies that suffered the same fate, it was almost lost in limbo before finding a new life on television and home video.
01:29 In 1969, the big-budget Hollywood musical was already on the way out.
01:43 Hello, Dolly! probably burned up whatever gas the genre had left.
01:47 I'll discreetly use my own discretion. I'll arrange for making all arrangements. I'll proceed to plan the whole procedure.
01:56 The uplifting show about a turn-of-the-century New York matchmaker thrilled audiences on Broadway.
02:01 On the big screen, they pretty much couldn't give tickets away.
02:05 90% of the people in this world are fools, and the rest of us are in great danger of contamination.
02:10 Times were changing, and the movie was dated before the ink on the contracts was dry.
02:14 It didn't help matters that though colossally talented and fresh off an Oscar win,
02:18 Barbra Streisand was too young for the role of a middle-aged widow.
02:22 Compared to other movies released in the same year, it did good business.
02:26 But those movies didn't have a nearly $25 million budget to earn back.
02:31 Money, pardon the expression, is like manure.
02:35 It's not worth a thing unless it's spread around, encouraging young things to grow.
02:43 He talks to animals, which is fitting, because the movie was a turkey.
02:48 Critics and audiences were not charmed by this two-and-a-half-hour musical fantasy starring Rex Harrison.
02:53 With a budget topping out at $17 million,
02:59 its paltry $9 million at the box office was a major disappointment for everyone involved.
03:05 Even the live animal performers apparently weren't fans.
03:08 They couldn't stop doing their business on the set or on the people working on the film.
03:12 Absolutely fascinating.
03:14 There's no doubt about it, animals are much more interesting than people.
03:18 Despite failing to please virtually anyone,
03:20 20th Century Fox managed to campaign hard enough to get Dr. Dolittle nine Oscar nominations.
03:26 They must have figured if they couldn't earn profit or praise,
03:29 they could at least get a little prestige for their money.
03:32 But really, people are awfully nice.
03:33 What are you going to do with them?
03:35 Well, we could make ourselves a couple of nice overcoats for a start.
03:41 With an all-star cast, gorgeous and expansive sets, and a London premiere,
03:46 the fall of the Roman Empire ticked a lot of boxes.
03:49 These are not the frontiers Rome wants.
03:52 Rome wants and needs human frontiers.
03:58 Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper declared that it would make millions.
04:02 She was technically correct.
04:04 It made $4.8 million, to be exact, against a $16 million budget.
04:09 I say no!
04:11 We are Romans, warriors, and let's rid our minds of this poisonous idea.
04:19 This little-remembered epic doesn't actually depict the fall of Rome,
04:23 but a succession crisis that threatens to incite the fall of Rome.
04:27 False advertising aside, though, it's a three-hour movie that critics called
04:31 "an incoherent and empty experience."
04:33 The failure of the film bankrupted its production company,
04:36 and in retrospect, barely registers as more than a blip on most of its major actress filmographies.
04:42 Given its reputation, it would be fair to assume that one of the reasons this one has stayed relevant for so long
04:57 is because it made a boatload of money.
04:59 That assumption would be wrong.
05:03 The Wizard of Oz closed out its first theatrical run at a loss of over $1 million for MGM.
05:09 Still, the studio wasn't too badly hurt, considering another epic they co-produced that year,
05:14 Gone With the Wind, was making a killing in theaters.
05:17 Stellar reviews are what kept Oz from being termed a failure.
05:26 Only in its re-release did it earn MGM any profit.
05:30 Subsequent TV broadcasts helped cement its place in the Hollywood canon.
05:34 By the late 1950s, Alfred Hitchcock had entered pop culture in ways no film director ever had.
05:56 His movies were practically a brand all their own.
05:58 Every week, television audiences saw him introducing short stories of the macabre on his Alfred Hitchcock Presents series.
06:05 But his 1958 film, Vertigo, was altogether too weird for contemporary audiences.
06:23 Expecting the concise thrills of Rear Window or Strangers on a Train,
06:27 what they got was an arguably Freudian psychological thriller
06:30 that appealed more to European art critics than classic Hollywood.
06:33 It's now considered by many to be one of the best films ever.
06:37 In 1958, it barely made back its budget and was considered a financial and artistic misstep.
06:43 "It's a sanch. I look up, I look down. I look up, I look down."
06:49 "Look, Daddy, teacher says every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wing."
07:00 If you roll your eyes when this holiday classic comes on every December, you're not alone.
07:05 Writer-director Frank Capra was known for a specific brand of idealism
07:09 that may have struck post-war American audiences as a little too naive.
07:12 Considering what they'd been through, it also got under the craw of bankers
07:16 who were not at all thrilled with the movie's unscrupulous villain, Mr. Potter.
07:19 "Your worth more dead than alive.
07:22 Why don't you go to the riffraff you love so much and ask them to let you have 8,000?
07:28 You know why? Because they'd run you out of town on a rail."
07:32 It's a Wonderful Life just barely earned back its budget.
07:35 The movie's ubiquity on TV was due in large part because the copyright lapsed in the 1970s
07:41 and TV stations could broadcast it. Thus, a Christmas classic was born.
07:45 "Hey, hello, Bedford Falls!"
07:48 "Merry Christmas!"
07:52 Yet another masterpiece that didn't get its due in ticket sales.
07:58 This one, however, had a helping hand.
08:01 When word got around that Orson Welles was modeling his movie after the life of William Randolph Hearst,
08:06 the controversial but powerful newspaper magnate pulled his resources.
08:10 "Really, Charlotte, people will think..."
08:13 "What I tell them to think."
08:15 He banned any mention of Citizen Kane in his own papers.
08:19 Furthermore, he had every Hollywood executive, gossip columnist, and theater owner who owed him a favor
08:25 or had something to hide contribute to the blackout.
08:27 "You provide the prose poems, I'll provide the war."
08:31 "That's fine, Mr. Kane."
08:32 "Yes, I rather like myself."
08:33 "Welles, I came to see you about this campaign of yours."
08:36 Welles remained a target of Hearst's papers long after the movie eked out the smallest of returns at the box office.
08:42 Like many other movies on this list, its reputation and box office performance only grew with theatrical re-releases and TV broadcasts.
08:50 "I might have been a really great man."
08:52 "Don't you think you are?"
08:54 "I think I did pretty well under the circumstances."
09:02 After he made the smash hit Dracula for Universal, MGM tasked director Todd Browning with making a similarly horrific movie for their studio.
09:10 "For one who has not lived even a single lifetime, you are a wise man."
09:16 Trouble started when the director cast real sideshow performers with physical disabilities in the film.
09:22 However, while the movie treats the characters with empathy, the audience reaction was anything but empathetic.
09:28 "Their code is a law unto themselves. Offend one, and you offend them all."
09:38 Test screenings and initial exhibitions saw people running out, disgusted by the movie and the physical differences it portrays.
09:45 The reviews were downright scathing, and MGM pulled freaks from theaters before its scheduled run was complete.
09:52 Since then, it's found its audience and has received a warm and welcome re-evaluation for its relatively humanizing portrayal of disabled people.
10:00 "Have I not told you, God looks after all his children."
10:06 Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
10:10 Bringing up Baby, this now classic screwball comedy flopped in its initial release.
10:16 "Hold on, children! Hold on! Don't let go! Don't let go!"
10:20 "David, now put on some!"
10:22 The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Before its legendary midnight showings, it made pennies at the box office.
10:28 "Well, how about that? Well, babies, don't you panic!"
10:35 The Conqueror. John Wayne as Genghis Khan. Need we say more?
10:39 "I would speak further, but, uh..."
10:44 "Japay! Wait outside!"
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11:03 Cleopatra. Many movies have had far more disastrous performances at the box office, but none of them needed to hit with audiences more than Cleopatra.
11:12 "I will not be told where I can go and where I cannot go!"
11:16 "It's not as obvious as nothing that you want of me."
11:18 "Except my throne."
11:20 Plagued by production issues, a ballooning budget, and Elizabeth Taylor's myriad illnesses, the historical epic nearly tanked 20th Century Fox before it was even released.
11:30 Considering the headaches, heartaches, and backaches it took to make, only excessive profits could make it all worthwhile.
11:36 Yet, despite being the year's highest grosser, it was still a huge loss for the studio.
11:41 "You ask for one third of the Roman Empire!"
11:43 "Put it another way, I give to you two thirds."
11:49 "Most generous."
11:52 Only after several years and a TV broadcasting deal did the movie break even.
11:56 Since then, Cleopatra's production has become a legendary tale of Hollywood hubris.
12:01 "An exalted rank, attained not without certain, shall we say, sacrifice."
12:07 Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo.
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