I forgot who said it, might have been Roger Ebert, but in a film review they brought up the fact there hasn’t been a successful film with the word “Adventures” in it not aimed at kids since the 1950s. Thinking back he might be right, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, the Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, the Adventures of Pluto Nash. Some might be cult classics but they definitely all bombed at the box office.
To expand that, has there been a successful TV show with the word Adventures in it? The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones was infamously always low rated and had to be retooled (with multiple title changes) at various points until cancelation. The only one I can think of is The Adventures of Superman and that’s more of a legacy title.
Adventures of Baron Munchausen - budget 47, gross 8 Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert - budget 2, gross 30 Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle - budget 76, gross 35
Tintin and Priscilla are the only successes I can find. And fwiw, from memory I would have said the name of the movie was just Priscilla Queen of the Desert.
ETA: prompting me to rewatch Priscilla this afternoon, so thanks! Great movie.
“My Adventures with Superman” is a currently airing anime-inspired series and as far as I can tell it’s doing well with critics and viewers.
Adventures in Babysitting did well in the box office, but a sitcom spinoff failed to take off. Also, there was apparently a forgettable 2016 Disney channel remake.
The Adventures Of Barry McKenzie was certainly profitable.
This was the first Australian film to surpass $1 million at the national box office, and it led the Australian box office in 1972. The film recovered its $250,000 budget within a few months of release.
I don’t have any info about global earnings. There was certainly some sort of international release - I saw it in London.
Elisabeth Shue deserves far more credit than she’s given for making a slate of marginal ‘Eighties and ‘Nineties films watchable. (Cocktail? Link? Soapdish? Heart and Souls? Trigger Effect? The Saint? Palmetto?)
Adventures in Babysitting, however, is seriously overlooked, and why Ferris Bueller’s Day Off gets so much applause while this film is overlooked is beyond explanation.
It was released in December 1972 and was the highest-grossing film of 1973, earning over $125 million worldwide. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards and went on to win two Oscars
A sequel was made some about six years later, so one might say they were Poseidon Adventures.
Side note: I know it’s sometimes referred to as S.O.S. Poseidon, but the original title for the release was Poseidon Adventure,.
I understood that reference. And that fellow grew up to play Kingpin (after playing Edgar (and the Edgar suited alien), and the guy who makes L&O:CI too offputting for me)