# What movie you saw in the theater had the lowest box office total? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 9, 2017, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093 "2017-11-09T02:34:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/81 "2017-11-10T20:00:46Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Have you seen “49 Up”? I have. It’s the worst one of the series - even worse than “14 Up”, which is extremely racist. Was it that the children were racists or that the documentarians was racist? It has been a while since I’ve seen any of the Ups. Someone should start a thread. ---
**Author:** ![Clawdio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d07c76/32.png) [@Clawdio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clawdio)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/82 "2017-11-10T20:03:50Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > I never see anything that wasn’t seen by a lot of other people! Yay! > > I can’t help but think that if the lowest grossing film you ever saw is Pi, or Spanking the Monkey you got to get out more, and maybe the movie industry would be in a little better shape. Those are really famous movies notwithstanding the box office. And documentaries aren’t supposed to have big box office anyway. > > Crumb, basketball diaries, I shot andy warhol, Gimme Danger? These are famous movies too, written up everywhere and reviewed. > > I think maybe the term box office has a shifting meaning over time? Fair enough, but for me I basically check the listings for the 3 or 4 local indy theaters (or big chains too) every week and see if anything catches my interest. More often than not I go, and I try to avoid reviews most of the time. Also the occasional niche documentary or non-standard screening (i.e. local deals or one time screenings or panel type things). That’s about the extent I’m willing to go to see a movie. I’m not really into the art of movie making, I just like watching them. Seeing movies “smaller” than most of the ones listed here in the theater would require more effort than I’m usually willing to put in. And I am probably not sophisticated enough to _get_ them anyway. There is the local micro-theater with limited seating and a small screen, but I’m just not that into it unless it’s something I really want to see (in which case it’s probably a viewing of something that is not in it’s first run anyway). ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/83 "2017-11-10T22:56:24Z")
> [@Clawdio](#): > > Fair enough, but for me I basically check the listings for the 3 or 4 local indy theaters (or big chains too) every week and see if anything catches my interest. More often than not I go, and I try to avoid reviews most of the time. Also the occasional niche documentary or non-standard screening (i.e. local deals or one time screenings or panel type things). That’s about the extent I’m willing to go to see a movie. I’m not really into the art of movie making, I just like watching them. Seeing movies “smaller” than most of the ones listed here in the theater would require more effort than I’m usually willing to put in. And I am probably not sophisticated enough to _get_ them anyway. > > There is the local micro-theater with limited seating and a small screen, but I’m just not that into it unless it’s something I really want to see (in which case it’s probably a viewing of something that is not in it’s first run anyway). There is such a cross section of the world here I can forget that not everyone was a hipster in a college town as a kid. I actually went to see the African Queen at the Brattle (The Bogart revival of the 60s) and King of Hearts at the Central Sq in Cambridge, (ran for years and years) back in the day, both of which are fairly healthy footnotes in the history of showing movies in the US. But it’s not rare for people to have seen lots of small movies if they are in a city or go to school for it, or just grew up in the post punk indie environment. Nobody in my cohort would think it was strange. But the business of going to the theater is changing. I don’t know if box office measures anything anymore. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/84 "2017-11-10T23:35:26Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Was it that the children were racists or that the documentarians was racist? It has been a while since I’ve seen any of the Ups. Someone should start a thread. The interviewers were, and it didn’t matter that one of the kids is black. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/85 "2017-11-11T00:08:45Z")
We might be coming into an era where most people have forgotten that in the not too distant past, shitty movies went into theaters and we went to watch them because we didn’t have the internet yet. The further back you go the shittier the movies could get. And I’m sure there are some movies with 0 or negative box office. There’s no winner. Citing gimme danger is weird. I just got it at the library and it’s great. It isn’t very old, and the subject matter just happens to be a guy who never sold 1000 records when he was making them (The first three) and has been the picture in the dictionary next to lou reed of the cult guy who is influential over time (translation : No box office whatsoever for a few decades for Iggy. Sales had nothing to do with who heard those records and what happened next) The box offices of movies about warhol or iggy or crumb are kind of irrelevant. They are cultural events. I haven’t seen them all. But you are aware of them by reading the press generally or, at least you used to when we had a weekly printed alternative press, like the one that SD started in. The movies were well regarded and won awards against the competition. That isn’t small. In fact for the docs that was the big success longed for and attained. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/86 "2017-11-11T00:37:29Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > Anyone see Breaking Glass with Hazel O’Connor from 1980? I think I might have. It says it grossed $2,471 domestically. This has to be wrong. Saw it in a theater in Kansas City, ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/87 "2017-11-11T01:02:40Z")
I’ve seen a crap-load of small theater art-house stuff, so too many to mention or easily remember. The most recent, which was actually pretty good, was **Colossal**. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2017, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/88 "2017-11-12T21:36:36Z")
Japanese story. $4,520,000 AUD at the Au box office. (Probably about 3M USD). Won the AFI award for best picture in 2003 – this was the movie that killed the AFI awards. After this turkey, winning the Aus Film Institute best picture award was the kiss of death. Saw it in a big commercial theatre with about 3 other people. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2017, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/89 "2017-11-12T22:19:50Z")
I saw Truly, Madly, Deeply, which grossed US$1.5 million. Co-star was Alan Rickman, but not nearly as funny as Galaxy Quest. ---
**Author:** ![Dancer\_Flight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dancer_flight/32/7601_2.png) [@Dancer\_Flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancer_Flight)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2017, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/90 "2017-11-12T22:31:15Z")
I saw _Code 46_ at the TIFF screening. It grossed under $200K in the states. -DF ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2017, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/91 "2017-11-12T23:32:08Z")
Probably **Liquid Sky** which, at $1.7m, ironically was the highest-grossing indie film of 1983. That’s total gross though; I’m not sure how to carve out the US-only gross. And it only cost $500,000 to make, so they presumably did okay out of it. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/92 "2017-11-14T01:56:41Z")
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away I knew a guy who was friends with the schlockmeister Andy Sidaris, so he always had little parts in Andy’s movies. They kind of all run together for me, but I think [Malibu Express](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089539/) kind of sums them all up. IIRC I saw this one in a theatre in Times Square. Later on Sidaris sold these movies to cable and so made something, I guess, but geez … how much could he have made? $1.98? My friend is not hard to spot in these movies, he’s always the doofus. (He also played the doofus in at least one movie for North Carolina auteur Earl Owensby – look him up sometime – so I guess he was typecast.) They’re so bad they’re kinda good, you’ll laugh. I do, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/93 "2017-11-14T02:20:32Z")
I attended the 1968 Algiers Film Festival of pictures from socialist countries. Can’t remember any specific films, but there were probably some that have even slipped through the IMDB net, like made in Angola or someplace. All screenings were in conventional big screen houses. I saw “V gorode S.” on a big screen in Romania, and I’m the only person to write a review of for IMDB, so it must be pretty obscure. Cant find any details. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/94 "2017-11-14T02:20:42Z")
In 1988 I saw _Vice Versa,_ starring Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage and a father and son who switch minds due to a magical artifact. According to Wikipedia it grossed $13,664,060 at the box office in the United States. My friend and I were the only two people in the theater when we saw it. I also saw _My Stepmother is an Alien_ in that same year which grossed $13,854,000 at the box office. There were more than two people in the theater this time. So _Vice Versa_ wins in this particular case. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/95 "2017-11-14T13:10:26Z")
> [@motu](#): > > [Laser Blast (1978)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077834/) > > “Alien creatures kill a mutated alien creature in the California desert. Its remains, and the high-tech laser gun and power source accidentally left behind, are found by an ostracized teenager. However, the power source causes the teenager to mutate too, and he goes on a murderous rampage” > Cheap, cheesy movie trying to catch some of the late 70s Sci-Fi popularity. They even blow up a Star Wars billboard! It has some bad stop-action alien creatures but the “stick your entire arm in the gun” gun is an image I have never forgotten. Oh, and it has Roddy McDowall I saw that (most of it anyway) a few weeks ago. It’s one of the handful of \*MST3K \*offerings Netflix streams. I was figuring poor Roddy must have been desperate for a paycheck. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/96 "2017-11-14T17:49:41Z")
Back in a year that I now conclude must have been 2003, I decided to see if I could go to at least one movie every single weekend. That lead to some particularly poor choices, including: _The Trip_ - $306,567 _XX/XY_ - $104,130 I also saw and enjoyed the 2001 Scott Baio movie _The Bread, My Sweet_, which made a respectable $1,023,156 ---
**Author:** ![Clawdio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d07c76/32.png) [@Clawdio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clawdio)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/97 "2017-11-14T19:12:01Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > We might be coming into an era where most people have forgotten that in the not too distant past, shitty movies went into theaters and we went to watch them because we didn’t have the internet yet. The further back you go the shittier the movies could get. And I’m sure there are some movies with 0 or negative box office. There’s no winner. > > Citing gimme danger is weird. I just got it at the library and it’s great. It isn’t very old, and the subject matter just happens to be a guy who never sold 1000 records when he was making them (The first three) and has been the picture in the dictionary next to lou reed of the cult guy who is influential over time (translation : No box office whatsoever for a few decades for Iggy. Sales had nothing to do with who heard those records and what happened next) > > The box offices of movies about warhol or iggy or crumb are kind of irrelevant. They are cultural events. I haven’t seen them all. But you are aware of them by reading the press generally or, at least you used to when we had a weekly printed alternative press, like the one that SD started in. > > The movies were well regarded and won awards against the competition. That isn’t small. In fact for the docs that was the big success longed for and attained. Sheesh. The OP simply asked what movies we had seen in the theater that had the lowest box office totals. I’m sorry I brought up **Gimme Danger** , I had no idea it wouldn’t live up to your standards of acceptable answers to that simple question. I promise I wasn’t trying to make any larger point about the film industry, or advertising, or the cultural impact of these films, or anything else. I simply tried to think of movies I remembered seeing in the theater that probably had low box office returns and then googled what their box office was. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/98 "2017-11-14T19:24:32Z")
> [@GoodOmens](#): > > I’m pretty confident that Pi was the lowest for me. I did see Elvira: Mistress of the Dark in a theatre as well (my high school girlfriend wanted to see it), which was 5.6 million. Where did you see Pi? I saw it at the Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak, MI. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/99 "2017-11-14T19:28:36Z")
I’ve seen lots of art movies over the years that probably didn’t earn much. I’ll pick one and go with “The Living End” which earned $692,585. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/100 "2017-11-14T20:07:47Z")
A friend of mine and I saw the 1974 version of The Great Gatsby in a big theater, which was later subdivided into a multiplex. We were about 15, and bored out of our minds. We two were the only people in the theater. We had to wait for one of our parents to pick us up (this was decades pre-Uber), so we had to stay in the theater. We wandered all over the place, saw where every exit went. Awful, dull movie. I think we were there to see another movie, but after we were dropped off we found out we were too young to get in unaccompanied. I looked it up on IMDB and am shocked that is had more box office than its budget: $26.5M in, versus an estimated $6.5M spent. I can assure you it didn’t make dime one of profit in the Stanley-Warner theater in Paramus, NJ that afternoon. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093.md?page=6)