# 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:** 7\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![MedellinMike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c6cbf5/32.png) [@MedellinMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MedellinMike)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/101 "2017-11-14T20:57:33Z")
Back in May I saw _Chuck_, grossed $320,725. It’s a film about Chuck Wepner and was ok. _Free Fire_ earlier this year grossed $1.8 million, had some problems but i generally enjoyed it. _Personal Shopper_, $1.3 million, very good. I see a lot of independent and foreign films that only gross in the $2-$3 million range. All per box office mojo, not sure how accurate they are with totals ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/102 "2017-11-14T22:03:16Z")
Pretty sure it was Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitters Dead. IMDB says it made $25 Million. Even adjusting for inflation that’s only $45 Million (and Tickets were much cheaper then so it would have made less). My group of friends and I were the only people in the theater. ---
**Author:** ![Enlightening\_Meditation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecc23a/32.png) [@Enlightening\_Meditation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enlightening_Meditation)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/103 "2017-11-21T03:01:06Z")
I saw _[Christmas on Mars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_on_Mars)_ at an obscure art house type theater upon release. I cannot even find a box office figure dollar amount $$$. It’s a decent movie, but the Flaming Lips should (and mostly have since) stick to music as their main art form. I saw _[It Might Get Loud](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Might_Get_Loud)_ in a legitimate large multiplex theater per my choice in Manhatten summer of 2009. Even for a musician like myself, this flick was quite boring. It only grossed about $1.8 million apparently. This may or may not be less than _Christmas on Mars_ grossed. I also saw _[House of the Dead](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_the_Dead_(film))_ during 2003 in a legitimate large multiplex theater (at the insistence of a date / prospective girlfriend) before I knew about Uwe Boll’s reputation. I thought that this one would be in the running for lowest box office total. However, to my shock and surprise, this film has grossed over $13 million worldwide. This was definitely the WORST film I have seen in a theater. ---
**Author:** ![SuperNelson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@SuperNelson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperNelson)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2017, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/104 "2017-11-26T18:00:16Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > I saw that, too - at the Majestic in Lexington, NE. I thought it was a fun film. I can see why it didn’t do well commercially, but it’s enjoyable enough. The “comic book guy as hero” motif might play better today. _Condorman_ must have been a Nebraska thing. I was 12, and most likely saw it at the Mazda in Aurora. I’m pretty sure this was the movie that turned me on to 911’s. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2017, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/105 "2017-11-26T20:54:40Z")
Probably _Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters_ - $5.5 million domestic box office. On top of that, one of the pivotal scenes near the end didn’t get shown because the film got out of frame somehow, and by the time somebody stopped it to fix it, it had advanced past the scene. ---
**Author:** ![jrbor76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9e8a1a/32.png) [@jrbor76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jrbor76)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2017, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/106 "2017-11-27T00:53:51Z")
For WWSP’s legendary annual trivia contest up here in WI, they always show a movie in the local cinema the weekend prior. Between 2005 (when I started watching the movies at the theater) and 2008 (the last year they showed fairly obscure movies\*), I saw (in order, followed by box office total via IMDb): 2005: _Martin & Orloff_ ($34,222 domestic gross) 2006: _Side Effects_ (does not have box office data) 2007: _Live Free or Die_ ($12,706 domestic gross) 2008: _Special_ (aka _Special, Specioprin Hyrdochloride (Rx)_) ($6,387 domestic gross) Although all four of those movies were part of the trivia festivities, they played to a full house for at least two weekend shows each up here. Side note: if you’re talking about wide-release movies that I saw in theaters, on original release, just for the sake of seeing, the lead spot probably goes to _Extract_ ($10.8M domestic gross), followed closely by _Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever_ ($14.3M domestic gross). \*PS: since 2009, the PTB that determine the trivia contest movie have chosen classics to show in the cinema _Casablanca, Dr. Strangelove, You Can’t Take It With You, 3 Godfathers_ (the John Wayne classic), _Singin’ in the Rain, American Graffiti, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Blues Brothers,_ and _Duck Soup_, respectively. I can’t be positive, but I’m sure none of them even come close to making the list. ---
**Author:** ![Annoying\_Buzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Annoying\_Buzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annoying_Buzz)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2017, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093/107 "2017-11-27T01:12:48Z")
Most of the crap movies I went to see were still big-budget crap, so my low-earning theatre-going was mainly arty or non-US films. Cache - $3.6 mil Atame - $4.0 mil Orlando - $5.3 mil [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-you-saw-in-the-theater-had-the-lowest-box-office-total/801093.md?page=5)