Note to the reviewer: as can be seen in the list of images added at the end of the text, I tried to insert illustrative photos of the films throughout the article and also in the featured image. However, no specific images were incorporated into the text.
Since its emergence at the beginning of the 20th century, movie theater as we know it today has become a breathtaking attraction.
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Over time, this market grew and many of the thousands of films released to date have become pop culture classics.
However, not everything is rosy. In reality, every film is a business in which a large amount of money is invested in production and promotion. If it doesn't captivate the public enough, the production could end up generating losses.
In this sense, some films did so poorly at the box office that the studios that produced them literally went bankrupt. The reasons? Well, possibly the scripts were poorly written or the directions were poorly handled.
In the next topics, you will find three examples of these works that almost no one has seen. Keep reading!
The film “The Chosen”, directed by Philip Kaufman and adapted from Tom Wolfe's book of the same name, portrays the transformation of an obscure North American military project into NASA.
Costing US$27 million, the super production grossed just US$21 million worldwide, which meant a huge box office failure.
According to experts, this was due to its long duration of 3 hours and 10 minutes and the strong competition from films such as “Na Hora da Zona Morta” and “Sob Fogo Cerrado”, also released at the end of the decade 1980.
Produced by The Ladd Company, founded by Alan Ladd Jr., the film represented a major setback, leading to the separation of Warner Bros. and difficult years for the company. After a brief resurgence, The Ladd Company permanently ceased operations in 2007.
Despite being one of the most beloved films by Americans for decades, “You Can't Buy It” also failed at the box office.
In the film, the benevolent George Bailey, played by James Stewart, decides to commit suicide. At the same time, an angel named Clarence, played by Henry Travers, finds him to dissuade him from this radical decision.
The film was distributed by RKO and produced by Liberty Films. In fact, Liberty was founded by the quartet composed of Frank Capra, David Tannenbaum, William Wyler and Samuel J. Briskin.
In updated values, the production cost around US$36 million and raised a paltry US$3.3 million, which was an almost unbelievable failure. Despite this, the film was well evaluated by critics and the public, having even been nominated in the Best Film and Best Director categories at the Oscar subsequent.
Due to box office failure, Liberty Films struggled and was sold to Paramount in 1947. Just four years later, in 1951, the company was completely dissolved.
To finish our list, we have an even more significant failure than the previous two. We are talking about “Cut Throat Island”, which had a production cost of US$115 million and grossed just US$10 million.
Produced by Carolco Pictures and directed by Renny Harlin, the film was intended to be a version classic adventure classic in the style of Pirates of the Caribbean, but failed miserably in that attempt.
Among the reasons for this failure were problems in the production, such as the withdrawal of Michael Douglas, who would play the main character. In his place was Matthew Modine.
Additionally, cost increases took the film's budget from $60 million to a final $115 million.
This setback led to the bankruptcy of Carolco Pictures, known for having produced famous films such as “Terminator” and “Basic Instinct”, among many others.
According to information from Hollywood, the company was already facing serious financial problems and “Cut Throat Island” would be a kind of last resort. The move did not work out and Carolco was sold to 20th Century Fox in 1996, before being dissolved.
Graduated in History and Human Resources Technology. Passionate about writing, today he lives the dream of working professionally as a Web Content Writer, writing articles in several different niches and formats.
