# Box Office failures that made big impacts on Pop Culture **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 29, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826 "2013-07-29T16:58:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![tomcar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/61 "2013-07-30T01:21:49Z")
Fight Club was a box office disappointment in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/62 "2013-07-30T01:41:07Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > > [@gaffa](#): > > > > The term was defined in the trailer and the TV commercials, which more people saw than the movie. It’s not like they had to see the film to know what a “bucket list” was. > > I am almost certain that this is exactly what the OP meant, not a counterargument at all. What we have her is failure to communicate. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/63 "2013-07-30T01:57:57Z")
> [@tomcar](#): > > Fight Club was a box office disappointment in the US. You broke the 1st rule! :D:p;) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/64 "2013-07-30T04:29:59Z")
Georges Melies’ “A Trip To The Moon”, which was made around 1900, features exactly that - a trip to the moon. They travel in a capsule that was shot out of a cannon. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/65 "2013-07-30T16:49:51Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > In 1997, Austin Powers made [fifty million](http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekly&id=austinpowers.htm) domestic in its first eight weeks, on a total budget of sixteen million. Is that bad? It was, as I wrote, a disappointment. I think Myers mentions on the commentary of the second movie that it was DVD sales that got the sequel made (could have been an interview, it’s been a while). I saw both the first and second films opening weekend - there were maybe 30 people there for the 1st one and most didn’t get it (my date included). ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/66 "2013-07-30T16:59:12Z")
Not many people saw Faye Dunaway’s\*\*\* Mommie Dearest \*\*\* movie\*, but everyone can quote the line “NO WIRE HANGERS!” \*Well, apart from gay guys with a thing for camp. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/67 "2013-07-30T17:04:49Z")
_The Shawshank Redemption_ earned just 16 million dollars in its initial release, plus another 9 million in a short return to theaters after being nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. It wound up being just the 51st highest grossing movie of 1994. It took off in popularity after being released on video and shown on cable TV - to the point that it became (and remains) the highest-rated movie on IMDB! It has definitely impacted pop culture. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/68 "2013-07-30T17:40:33Z")
**Citizen Kane** failed to earn back its costs on initial release. This was partly due to the boycott of it by Hearst papers. Of course, since then it as inspired generations of filmmakers and is frequently near, if not at the top, of most greatest films of all time lists. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/69 "2013-07-30T18:21:58Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Georges Melies’ “A Trip To The Moon”, which was made around 1900, features exactly that - a trip to the moon. They travel in a capsule that was shot out of a cannon. The film looks to be based in part on Jules Verne’s “From the Earth to the Moon” (Shot out of a cannon, shape of capsule) and H.G. Wells’ “First Men in the Moon” (actually landing on the moon, walking around without breathing gear, insect-like Selenites). When the capsule gets loaded into the cannon, this is done y a bevy of chorus girls. My first thought was “Jules Verne wouldn’t stand for _that_.” Then I read some of Verne’s plays and stage adaptations. He probably would have stood it. He might have written it. I’m not sure how big an impact Melies’ film had. Like a great many of his, it was virtually lost for a long period. After it was found people stuck it into several Verne and Moon flight films, but it’s not clear to me that it directly influenced anyone. In fact, it’s not clear to me that it was a “box office failure”. I have no idea how popular it was, or how you’d measure "box office’ before there effectively WAS a “box office” ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/70 "2013-07-30T19:13:46Z")
“Red snappah! Very tasty!” ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/71 "2013-07-30T19:38:02Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > “Red snappah! Very tasty!” “Nothing! There is nothing in the box! You’re stupid!” ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/72 "2013-07-30T20:00:11Z")
“I wanted a Rolex! A ROLEX!!” ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/73 "2013-07-30T20:19:07Z")
Why are you coming up with obscure quotes from Weird Al, etc? That’s not the OP. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/74 "2013-07-30T21:38:13Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > I’d nominate 1958’s “The Hidden Fortress” as a movie that’s had influence out of proportion to its receipts. > > Of course this is the Akira Kurosawa black-and-white inspiration for Lucas’s Star Wars mega-cultural-phenomenon. (I can’t actually find any information on how much money the 1958 movie has made, at either IMDb or Wikipedia. But I’d guess that the total is dwarfed by the moolah made on the Star Wars empire.) > > Sidelight on “The Bucket List” as a phrase: last summer, a beach-resort city commissioned a commercial that seemed to play on an endless loop throughout the state it’s situated in. The seductive-female voiceover asked, “What’s on _your_ summer bucket list?” and then recommended coming to this beach city. > > Apparently no one thought it odd to be telling viewers that they were going to die that summer. (And so, of course, they should high-tail it to the beach before the end arrived.) Meh, makes sense to me. Your list of stuff you want to do before the summer “dies”. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/75 "2013-07-30T21:45:44Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Meh, makes sense to me. Your list of stuff you want to do before the summer “dies”. Well, that’s creative (that it’s the summer that will die, not you), as is elfkin477’s surmise that the commercial-makers were adherents of the Mayan Prophecy. But, seriously. The commercial said, flat-out, “ **Your** [summer] **bucket list**.”\* They are dimbulbs. :mad: \*NOT “your **summer’s** bucket list”. Harumph! ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/76 "2013-07-30T21:56:50Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > Well, that’s creative (that it’s the summer that will die, not you), as is elfkin477’s surmise that the commercial-makers were adherents of the Mayan Prophecy. > > But, seriously. The commercial said, flat-out, “ **Your** [summer] **bucket list**.”\* They are dimbulbs. :mad: > > \*NOT “your **summer’s** bucket list”. Harumph! Nah. Your (life) bucket list is what you complete before your life ends. Your summer bucket list is what you complete before your summer ends. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/77 "2013-07-30T22:04:20Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Not many people saw Faye Dunaway’s\*\*\* Mommie Dearest \*\*\* movie\*, but everyone can quote the line “NO WIRE HANGERS!” > \*Well, apart from gay guys with a thing for camp. I did, and it was presented as a serious movie about child abuse at the time. Since people don’t generally go to movies like that as entertainment, that’s one reason why it flopped. I also heard that the DVD commentary was done by John Waters. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/78 "2013-07-31T00:39:17Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > Nah. Your (life) bucket list is what you complete before your life ends. Your summer bucket list is what you complete before your summer ends. Well, I suppose things can mean whatever people want them to mean. But wasn’t the whole point of the “bucket” in “bucket list” a reference to _kicking the bucket_? As in “dying”? Generalizing the meaning to ‘stuff I want to do’ in place of ‘stuff I want to do before I die’ seems rather a watering-down of the concept. Not that it matters a whole hill of beans (on Boot Hill or any other). ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/79 "2013-07-31T01:41:13Z")
**A Christmas Story** bombed at theaters, but it’s such a Christmas staple now that it’s pretty well-known. You’ll shoot your eye out, the bunny pjs, the Bumphuses dogs, tongue on the flagpole. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826/80 "2013-07-31T02:46:49Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > Well, I suppose things can mean whatever people want them to mean. But wasn’t the whole point of the “bucket” in “bucket list” a reference to _kicking the bucket_? As in “dying”? > > Generalizing the meaning to ‘stuff I want to do’ in place of ‘stuff I want to do before I die’ seems rather a watering-down of the concept. Not that it matters a whole hill of beans (on Boot Hill or any other). Well, I thought it was clever. Summer always zooms by faster than I think it will. I always have big plans for trips, work, projects and then poof, summer’s gone. Making a bucket list for summer, which comes and goes faster than any other season, seems like a clever way to express that feeling of time slipping through your fingers like summer vacation does. I guess “bucket list”, while it began obviously about death, morphs nicely into situations where the feeling that time is limited and chances to accomplish certain things come and quickly go is most acutely felt. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/box-office-failures-that-made-big-impacts-on-pop-culture/664826.md?page=5)