LAST RESORT, from 1986. Charles Grodin ‘starred’ in this dreadful unfunny pile. He was in his period of doing some funny Johnny Carson appearances in which he’d be a very difficult guest, so my friend and I went. Afterwards, we’d found that we’d BOTH wanted to walk out, but stayed because of the other.
I CANNOT find the box office take for this. Box Office Mojo lists other movies by this name, but not the Charles Grodin one. This has to be the least successful movie, in wide release, that I’ve seen at the theater. I certainly hope so. It was produced by Roger Corman’s wife. It was not as funny as most Corman movies, but it was almost as well made.
I went to see Bubba Ho-Tep on the big screen, but it only went to 25 theaters and made $1.2 million.
I’ve seen Pi and Hobo With A Shotgun in repertory cinemas, and Visitor Q in a festival. Visitor Q understandably did a bit better in its country of origin, IMDB places it around ¥7,000,000 (a bit over $60K USD.) It gets tougher to get figures the smaller the film is.
My best guess for an American film is I Pass For Human (2004) which I saw in the smaller theater at FanTasia, IMDb says its budget was $35K, rated 5.4 and only 36 reviews. No box office returns are quoted.
For some Quebec films that played at Festival du nouveau cinéma I may have seen the entire worldwide theatrical run of one showing
I’ve seen Pretty Village, Pretty Flame, but not in theaters. Colombian Dog Eat Dog from 2008 looks really familiar too, but unless IFC showed it at a festival in Montreal, I probably heard about it precisely because of the engineered poor box office. These are reasonably competent films though, and both have many more IMDb reviews than 36.
I really want to see Zyzzyx Rd now:D
I can edit my answer to $0 for USA box office, since I saw Hector Babenco’s final film My Hindu Friend. IMDb gives box office for Brazil and mentions an international première at Montreal World Film Festival Sep. 3 2016. AFAIK it hasn’t yet opened in the US which is especially shocking and sad for film lovers. Gene Kelly would surely have much less of a problem with Babenco’s tribute to Singin’ In The Rain than Malcolm McDowell’s.
‘I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle’ not sure what it grossed, but I’ve never met another person who saw it. I saw it on the night of the England v Germany World cup semi final as I hate football and wanted to escape. I was the only person in the cinema.
I can’t find it now, but another of those low budget vampire movies a few years ago had a cinema gross equivalent to 12 viewers. The Director said in an interview that he took a date to see it, so 2 of those were him.
Probably the French-German “psychological horror film” Possession 91981), the only name most people would likely know from this was Sam Neill, who hadn’t yet been in Reilly: Ace of Spies (let alone Jurassic Park) and was pretty unknown in the US. For me, the draw was the special effects work by Carlo Rambaldi. The film seemed pretty damned incoherent, and the theater was empty when I saw it. Only half a million people saw it in France. It grossed only a million in the US, but has since developed a cult following.
I’ve seen many others listed in this thread, but after their general release, on video. But I saw Possession in the actual theater.
I’ll add Orlando, which made $5.3m on a $4m budget in 1992. Hated every second of that movie, but was desperately enamoured with the gentleman who invited me, so I put up with it.
I saw Spanking the Monkey in the theater. It made a whopping $1.3 million and never developed a cult following. Very strange movie IIRC.
I also saw the infamous Leonard Part 6 with Bill Cosby that made 4.6 million. I actually thought it was part of a series (it wasn’t). I didn’t think it was THAT bad at the time but I was just a young teenager.
Not counting the IMAX theatres at the Museum of Science, film festivals and other such locations, I’m surprised to see that the lowest I can find is Lost in Yonkers at $9M.
I only average about 1.5 movies a year in theatre, so most are huge blockbusters that literally almost everyone is going to see.
I thought Like Water for Chocolate would be the lowest, but it raked in $21m.
My parents dragged me to Truffaut’s Shoot The Piano Player when it came out. It was a critical hit but “bombed” at the box office, no figures available.
I think the lowest for me is The Center of the World, $1.09 million U.S. gross. (The Center of the World (2001) - IMDb). My intern suggested we go see it together. It was very awkward for both of us when the lead actress inserted a lollipop into her vagina. Neither of us saw that coming.
My runner up is Yi Yi, A One and a Two…, $1.14 million (Yi Yi: A One and a Two... (2000) - IMDb). At least between these two films, the better film trounced at the box office.
There’s probably a film festival movie I’ve seen with a lower gross but I’m drawing a blank thinking of titles. I’ll try to think of others.
I saw it in the theater at the time and loved it (I was 6-7) but have not heard of it since then. Without your post, I might have thought I had hallucinated the whole experience.
The Wrecking Crew, a superb documentary about 60s LA session men. Earned about 800 grand. I actually saw it before it was officially released, in Tacoma of all places. Movie producer Denny Tedesco shipped it around special screenings around the country to raise money for an official release.
I also saw that in the theater and also liked it alot. But I also saw the 2002 version of Pinocchio directed by and starring Roberto Benigni, which Box Office Mojo says made $3.7 million domestically. (In my defense, I wanted to take my then eight-year-old nephew to the movies and it was the only kids’ movie I could find at the time. And I fell asleep for much of it.)
π and Hamlet are serious movies. The theaters were reasonably full here.
However, and the same theater (Phoenix Camelview, the (now gone) art house theater) I saw A Friend of the Deceased, which is listed as making under $150K. And it doesn’t seem to be available on DVD. I liked it.
I saw one mainstream movie where I was the only one in the theater, but I can’t remember what it was. Wonder how it did.
The St. Francisville Experiment. I went to a preview screening at the Avon theater in Decatur, IL. Troy Taylor, who more or less plays himself in the picture, was given permission to pre-screen it in his hometown. It never made it to theaters - and for good reason! I started laughing at the awfulness about five minutes in. (Ryan’s exposition on why she qualified as a historian put me over the edge in a hurry.) By the time it was over, the whole room was laughing with me. It was so bad it defies description.
