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- Kubo and the Two Strings
- Focus Features
Looking back and reflecting on Hollywood flops has become one of the internet's favorite pastimes. If Tinseltown bigwigs can fail while having all the money in the world and talent to spare, the rest of us can put our failures into stark perspective. If one genre has seen its fair share of blockbuster failures over the years, it is the fantasy film.
Especially after Lord of the Rings revitalized Hollywood's interest in the genre in the early 2000s, fantasy became a go-to staple of the summer release window. But moviemaking is always a gamble, and sometimes the roll of the dice isn't kind to the studios who put up the capital in the first place. So, go ahead and vote up the underrated fantasy films audiences missed the first time around.
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Looking back, Stardust sure seemed like a surefire hit. It's based on a Neil Gaiman novel. It's directed by Matthew Vaughn of Kingsman and X-Men: First Class fame. It stars Homeland's Claire Danes and Daredevil's Charlie Cox in the lead roles. It has a supporting cast filled with big names like Peter O'Toole, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Robert De Niro. How did this one not become one of the biggest hits of 2007? It's hard to say, but it definitely has become a cult classic in the years since.
When it came out in theaters, Stardust didn't have enough clout to even earn $40 million at the American box office. That combination of creative talent and name recognition would make Stardust a hotly anticipated flick in today's media market. It might even have been turned into a limited series for a streaming service. Instead, it'll live on in the memory of the devoted fans who turned it into a beloved cult film over the past two decades.
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For years, The Black Cauldron was the unwanted stepchild of Walt Disney Animation Studios. Locked away like the company's beloved Cinderella, this 1985 movie was the most expensive animated movie ever made at the time of its release. Did all that money translate into box-office success? No. No, it did not. The Black Cauldron proved to be such a disaster for Disney, the Mouse House decided not to release it on home video until 13 years later, in 1998.
Can you imagine that today? What if they decided not to put Lightyear on Disney+ until 2035? Does that make any kind of sense? The Black Cauldron may not be a masterpiece, but it has the prerequisite Disney polish and is much darker than most of its animated counterparts from the legendary company.
Underrated?Had Reign of Fire been released in 2012 instead of 2002, it would've most likely been a major box-office success. A post-apocalyptic dragon-fighting movie featuring the likes of Matthew McConaughey, Christian Bale, and Gerard Butler in the lead roles? That sounds like a blockbuster that prints money right there! The names of the two lead characters are “Quinn Abercromby” and “Denton Van Zan.” Come on! That's delightfully dumb!
Alas, Reign of Fire struggled to even make just over $42 million at the American box office. Relegated to cult status, Reign of Fire would become a DVD favorite thanks to its near-constant status as bargain bin fodder in Walmarts and Best Buys across the country. A true B-movie with a blockbuster budget, Reign of Fire is worth it for the film fan who likes their fantasy futuristic and grimy.
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Let's give it up to Laika real quick. The stop-motion animation studio has made five films since forming in 2005, and all of them have been pure delights. Whether it's the dark tale of Coraline or the light-hearted Sasquatch story in Missing Link, Laika always brings the goods. 2016's Kubo and the Two Strings was no exception, earning near-universal acclaim upon release. Unfortunately for both Laika and Focus Features, Kubo and the Two Strings wasn't as financially successful as their earlier joint efforts.
For whatever reason, the magical fantasy epic only brought in around $48 million during its United States theatrical release. With the voice talents of Charlize Theron, Ralph Fiennes, and Matthew McConaughey, not to mention an incredible story of a boy and his magical instrument, Kubo and the Two Strings certainly deserved better than what it got.
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A co-production between Walt Disney Studios and Paramount Pictures, Dragonslayer is a mostly forgotten fantasy epic first released in June 1981. Although Peter MacNicol became a television mainstay on the back of Ally McBeal, Numbers, Veep, and Chicago Hope and has proven himself in cult classics like Ghostbusters II, Addams Family Values, and Bean, he has never proved to be a box-office draw.
He is eminently likable as a young wizard in Dragonslayer, but that wasn't enough to turn the movie into a hit as it raked in less than $15 million at the American box office. That being said, Dragonslayer is a delightful little film with Academy Award-level special effects from Industrial Light & Magic. How many movies have a 40-foot-tall, fire-breathing hydraulic dragon in them? The list isn't long!
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Wouldn't you know it, Terry Gilliam shocked the entertainment world and made a movie that struggled to find a mainstream audience. Yes, it's astonishing that the creative mind behind Brazil, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus alienated general audiences with his unique stylistic sensibilities. When a director's most profitable film is one as bonkers as 12 Monkeys, you know the rest of his filmography is going to be buck wild.
1988's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is no exception. A notorious bomb that crashed and burned in theaters, this fantasy epic is exactly what you'd expect from Gilliam in his pomp. It's eclectic. It's unabashed. It's exactly the kind of big-budget bonanza you'd want from the former Monty Python man.
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Something Wicked This Way Comes was the product of a Walt Disney Company that was truly floundering in the early 1980s. Struggling with their creator's legacy after his untimely passing and a creative dearth in the years that followed, Disney was throwing everything at the wall to see what stuck. This 1983 fantasy film, based on the Ray Bradbury novel of the same name, also suffered from production issues that had become commonplace at the Mouse House.
This meant the budget ballooned and the paltry $8+ million it earned at the box office certainly wasn't enough to cover the costs. Something Wicked This Way Comes would become a forgotten gem of early-'80s cinema. With a dark story that's also suitable for children and a dynamite cast featuring the likes of Jonathan Pryce, Jason Robards, Diane Ladd, and Pam Grier, this is one creepy trip worth taking.
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2018's Mortal Engines has to be one of the most expensive directorial debuts ever made. It wasn't as outrageously expensive as 2019's Dark Phoenix - made by first-time director Simon Kinberg - but this steampunk fantasy adaptation did cost over $100 million to make. And, unlike that particular X-Men film disaster, Mortal Engines wasn't a sequel in a profitable franchise.
Helmed by first-timer Christian Rivers, Mortal Engines doesn't totally work, but it is home to some truly spectacular visual design. Sometimes that is all you need to enjoy a fantasy film, if we're being honest. Alas, Mortal Engines proved to be a box-office bomb that only managed to scrounge up around $15 million in the United States when it came out in theaters after years in development hell.
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Made for $75 million, 2011's Immortals struggled at the United States box office, grossing just over $83 million. The movie's international return helped it become somewhat profitable, but it's easy to see the visually impressive movie making more money had it been released just a few years later.
Henry Cavill would make his debut as Superman two years later in Man of Steel, and being able to sell the movie on the back of an international star instead of a British unknown would've been helpful. The story is a mish-mash of Greek mythological nonsense, but the visual design is something worth seeing at least once.
Underrated?- 10
Unlike most works in Roald Dahl's bibliography with overtly dark undertones like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, and The Witches, his 1982 book The BFG is delightfully charming. The insidiousness is still there, but its darker elements are hidden a bit more. It's not that Dahl's other work isn't enjoyable for kids, it's that The BFG is genuinely appropriate for all ages.
When it came time for a big-budget adaptation of the source material, a filmmaker known for suitably endearing movies was chosen to bring it to life: Steven Spielberg. It was a match made in heaven as The BFG was an all-ages adaptation that parents could safely take their kids to see. Compare that with Tim Burton's version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, for example. The problem is that few parents in the United States took their kids to see The BFG in theaters. Made for $140 million, the 2016 film grossed just $55 million in America upon release.
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Peter Pan was a multi-studio, big-budget flop that followed in the wake of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It was supposed to be a bombastic, genre-defining picture that served as the must-see family event of 2003. Although it garnered solid reviews, it ended up making less than $50 million in the United States against its $100 million budget, certifying it as a major money-loser at the time.
That being said, there is a whole lot to like about Peter Pan. Jason Issacs shines as Captain Hook, Jeremy Sumpter serves as a solid Peter Pan years before showing up on Friday Night Lights, and the movie is of far better overall quality than other blockbuster adaptations like Hook and Pan. Oh, and any movie featuring a score from nine-time Academy Award nominee James Newton Howard can't be all bad…
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Final Fantasy continues to be one of gaming's biggest franchises more than 30 years after the first entry in the enduring series was released in 1987. The immense success of the video games caused the series' development studio, Square, to think they could branch out to film production. As such, Square Pictures was created, and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was released in 2001.
Unfortunately for both Square Pictures and its parent company, The Spirits Within cost an eye-watching $130+ million to make and brought in just a fraction of that at the box office. Though the movie's animation style can seem dated by today's standards, it was genuinely cutting-edge at the time. The story is mostly gobbledygook, but there is a certain visual splendor that makes it worth revisiting two decades later.
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After his directorial debut, Attack the Block, was a cult favorite in 2011, certain segments of the filmgoing community were excited to see what Joe Cornish would come up with next. What that ended up being was 2019's The Kid Who Would Be King, a delightful throwback fantasy film safe for families to enjoy together. Despite stellar review scores across the board, The Kid Who Would Be King was a major loser for 20th Century Fox at the box office.
It's a shame as this is exactly the kind of kids' movie Hollywood doesn't make anymore. It features a colorful cast of young actors at its core, with Rebecca Ferguson hamming it up as the main villain and the great Sir Patrick Stewart himself as Merlin. It's hard to fathom how this one failed to strike a chord.
Underrated?- 14
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The Fall is what happens when you give an inventive director carte blanche to do whatever they want on a project. After Tarsem Singh's 2000 effort, The Cell, became a surprise hit, the Indian director was given even more creative freedom. This brought the indescribable The Fall to life for a truly disastrous release in 2006. Thankfully, The Fall found a second life on home video and has become a cult favorite in the years since.
It's got Lee Pace strutting his stuff before Pushing Daisies, The Hobbit films, Halt and Catch Fire, and the MCU all changed his career. But what is The Fall? It's not easy to explain concisely. Ostensibly, it's a movie about a stuntman telling a fantastic story to a young girl in a 1920s hospital. In reality, it's much more complicated than that and defies traditional explanation. Just watch it if you like visual splendor and don't mind messy storytelling.
Underrated?
