1997 Box Office Flops

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  1. Will any of these films be added to the list at some point?

    Metro
    Absolute Power
    Paradise Road
    Trial and Error
    She’s So Lovely
    The Game
    The Ice Storm
    Most Wanted
    The Rainmaker
    Amistad
    Deconstructing Harry
    An American Werewolf in Paris
    Kundun
    Mr Magoo

      • Wait, are we really going back even further? Sweet.

        So many movies from that year at least around $20M in budget (even more if we consider movies closer to $15M but I doubt that would happen). The Juror, White Squall, Mr Wrong, Muppet Treasure Island, Before and After, Mary Reilly, Unforgettable, Ed, Two Much, Diabolique, Sgt Bilko, James and the Giant Peach, Mrs Winterbourne, Mulholland Falls, Flipper, Heaven’s Prisoners, The Arrival, Eddie, The Phantom, Kazaam, Multiplicity, Fled, The Frighteners, The Adventures of Pinocchio, Chain Reaction, Matilda, Escape from LA, Jack, Alaska, The Fan, The Island of Dr Moreau, Solo, The Stupids, Bogus, Last Man Standing, Extreme Measures, The Glimmer Man, The Chamber, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Michael Collins, Dear God, Larger Than Life, Mars Attacks, Ghosts of Mississippi, My Fellow Americans, The Evening Star, & The People vs Larry Flint. 45 potential write-ups…

        Down Periscope, Up Close and Personal, Executive Decision, Spy Hard, Dragonheart, The Cable Guy, Striptease, Kingpin, Tin Cup, That Thing You Do, The Ghost and the Darkness, & Daylight are debatable too.

    • I had to look that one up, I have no memory of it whatsoever! Yeah, it appears to be a small picture and I’m trying to leave most films off the site that cost under $20M.

    • Masterminds was cheap, yes. The total overseas numbers for Mimic are very hard to find and what I’ve found so far has been about $20M from its run, but there were still markets left to open with that number. It definitely underperformed, but it was probably a break even type of picture.

  2. Do you think The Wiggles Movie is a good candidate for this list? From what I read, its rather large budget ($31M) did not seem to break even in theatrical release, although I found nothing on box office receipts.

    • Never even heard of that one! Just looked it up and that budget figure is in not in USD. The trades from the day also never listed the budget anywhere. If I find any more info, I’ll post it.

    • The $46m budget floating around seems crazy. I saw a few figures around $7m but nothing from the trades of the day.

    • How about these:

      Tomorrow Never Dies
      Mouse Hunt
      As Good As It Gets
      Jackie Brown
      An American Werewolf in Paris
      The Postman
      Mr. Magoo

      • Tomorrow Never Dies and As Good as It Gets will definitely not make it on this site. The Postman and Mr. Magoo definitely well make it on the site.

      • Neither will Mouse Hunt or Jackie Brown. MH made $122 million worldwide off a $38 million budget, while JB grossed $74 million worldwide off a budget of $12 million.

    • Thanks! As for Metro, the budget was $40M not the $55M figure that has circulated and it grossed $74.4M worldwide. It’s a disappointment for sure, but close to a break even movie by 1997 standards.

    • Absolute Power grossed $82M worldwide. Like most of Eastwood’s productions, it came in under budget and finished filming early and was expected to cost just over $40M. This was more a break even type of movie.

  3. Ok 1997! Here is what we got throughout this year on what will be on this site.

    January: Metro, Fierce Creatures, Shadow Conspiracy
    February: Dante’s Peak, Dangerous Ground, Rosewood, Blood and Wine, Smilla’s Sense of Snow
    March: The Devil’s Own, Cats Don’t Dance
    April: Double Team, That Old Feeling, McHale’s Navy, Volcano
    May: Warriors of Virtue, Fathers’ Day, Gone Fishin’, Trial and Error
    June: Buddy, Speed 2: Cruise Control
    July: Wild America, A Simple Wish
    August: 187, Free Willy 3: The Rescue, Event Horizon, Steel, Mimic, Excess Baggage, Hoodlum, Kull the Conqueror
    September: Fire Down Below, A Thousand Acres, The Edge
    October: U-Turn, Most Wanted, Seven Years in Tibet, Red Corner, Switchback
    November: Starship Troopers, Mad City, The Man Who Knew Too Little, One Night Stand, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
    December: For Richer or Poorer, An American Werewolf in Paris, Kundun, Mr. Magoo, The Postman

      • The ad spend must have been astronomical for Murder at 1600, 22 years on and I still remember that there were a ton of commercials for that.

        I also remember Song 2 by Blur being in the Starship Troopers commercial. Heinlein rolling in his grave.

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