The thriller genre is one of the most exciting avenues in cinema. It is made up of some of the films considered to be the best of all time, from Fight Club to The Silence Of The Lambs. They’re often able to mix tension and drama with genuine fear, while providing us with one of the best things cinema is capable of: the twist.
Many thrillers are pumped with such a huge budget that it is almost impossible for them to bomb, but every now and again, we see a thriller with a great story miss out on a good box office return. We’ve found ten box office bombs that deserve a second chance.
Mulholland Drive
Thanks to being most well-known for The Elephant Man, David Lynch is quite used to churning out films full of surrealism and weirdness. Mulholland Drive certainly doesn’t divert from this, and we are left with a cult classic that most people can barely make heads or tails of. As such, its very small profit margin suggests he could give it another shot to help us make sense of its existence.
Children Of Men
Out of nowhere, Alfonso Cuaron was hired to direct the third Harry Potter film. Despite only staying on for that one film, he brought a new level of darkness and quality to the franchise, and the film is often considered the series’ high-point.
His action thriller Children Of Men lost money at the box office, but was and loved by critics.
The Master
The fact that Pau Thomas Anderson was able to attract Joaquin Phoenix, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams to his psychologically driven film obviously didn’t have much impact on how much money it was able to draw in. Its story, that of a war veteran effectively being drawn into a cult, is an interesting one that didn’t get enough attention thanks to the film losing so much money.
Fight Club
One of the greatest films started life as a bit of a failure. Directed by David Fincher (who has an incredibly impressive CV of films, including Gone Girl) and starring Ed Norton and Brad Pitt, the film only made slightly more than its huge budget.
Now, it isn’t quite a bomb, but considering the expectations the studio had, Fight Club was considered a bit of a disaster. Of course, it went on to become a well-loved cult classic, and we’d love to see the film rebooted via one of the two sequels original writer Chuck Palahniuk wrote.
Zodiac
Eight years after Fight Club, David Fincher released his mystery thriller Zodiac and it took on a life much like that of Fight Club: huge stars (Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhaal) and a massive budget, but with barely any return on what the studio was aiming for. Unlike Fight Club, it met incredibly positive reviews and is often considered one of the best films of the 21st century.
You Were Never Really Here
It isn’t exactly the most well-known Joaquin Phoenix films in the world, but You Were Never Really Here managed to land some incredible reviews (and saw Phoenix himself lauded for his performance).
The idea of a film centering on the manic situation he ends up in after a life of rescuing kidnapped girls is a clever one, but it only drew in $7.4 million at the box office.
Donnie Darko
The only film that can convincingly work its way onto a list of both thrillers and horror films is Donnie Darko. It might not be considered horror by definition, but certain scenes will stay in your mind for years. What it certainly can be considered as is a thriller, and a genius one at that. It made a very small amount of money as it wasn’t advertised thanks to the depiction of a plane crash and the unfortunate 9/11 adjacent timing. It certainly needs a second chance.
Basic Instinct 2
Of course, the first Basic Instinct film was a huge hit around the world. By the time the sequel came around, nobody really seemed to need a sequel. The result was pretty simple: no one went to see it.
Overshadowed by the incredible V For Vendetta and an Ice Age film, the series
hit a brick wall with this failure and the planned third sequel was scrapped.
Mother!
One of Jennifer Lawrence’s many (mostly quite successful) attempts to have herself regarded as a serious dramatic actress after The Hunger Games didn’t do brilliantly at the box office. It might have had a huge, very relevant star attached, but the horror-drenched psychological thriller was wasted.
Zyzzyx Road
Zyzzyx Road has an interesting position in this list as its box office failure was basically intentional. It made just $30 at the box office, as it was only released to one theatre and viewed by five people. This was simply because the director had to fill out of a certain quota of distribution to meet the Screen Actors Guild requirements.