The most delightful flops of 2016?

[Leslie Dame]

Movies that didn't live up to expectations, either crashed at the box office or were panned by critics. I'm casting a vote for:



What are your "guilty pleasures" of 2016?

[The Great Owl]

Mainly because I worked as a background extra for the film, and I'm prominently on the screen for a good second or two.

[kemcha]

The Fifth Wave. Was supposed to be a new YA movie adaption franchise. It failed.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Mainly because I worked as a background extra for the film, and I'm prominently on the screen for a good second or two.

Ooh, cool!

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by kemcha

The Fifth Wave. Was supposed to be a new YA movie adaption franchise. It failed.

I liked The Fifth Wave as well. Not great, but solidly engaging nonetheless.

[DanTheMan]

The 5th Wave was still a better YA film than Allegiant, and I really wanted to like Allegiant since I'm one of the few who thought Insurgent was a solid sequel and unfairly crapped on.

[Buscemi]

Five posts in and no one's said the movie that should end the post.



In a few years, people will be calling it one of the best action films of the decade.

[Monroville]

Originally Posted by Buscemi

Five posts in and no one's said the movie that should end the post.



In a few years, people will be calling it one of the best action films of the decade.

I agree. I had a LOT of fun with this, thanks in large part to Sharlto Copley. Yeah, the plot is pretty basic, but all things considered I thought the pace was good (fast when it needed to be, yet knew when to slow down be it for exposition via Copley or just to take a break between the rollercoaster hills). I was also surprised that in spite of the vertigo it caused on numerous occasions, I still had a clear frame of mind in regards to the action choreography.

I pretty much agree with what Brad says:

Midnight Screenings - Hardcore Henry - YouTube

[wonderer99]

Oh God seriously, 2016 was (in my humble opinion of course) full of films that were either much better than what most people said they were or they just did not do well at the box office but deserved to.

There were a few genuinely bad films for sure but films like The BFG were wonderful and deserved better. Films like Ghostbusters and Independence Day Resurgence were better film than the internet will have you believe. Two perfect examples of modern, cynical audiences tearing things apart for the hell of it. I thought Gods of Egypt was a genuinely bad film but one I also enjoyed quite a bit. It was throwaway fun. The only real disappointment for me was Alice sequel which was just tired and lazy. To be honest I thought 2016 was pretty OK but I know I am in the minority there. 2016 was disheartening for me not for the quality of the movies but the reception that audiences gave movies in general this year. It seems people are getting more and more frustrated and critical of the type of big budget movies they used to consume without question before and yet still not give their time to great, smaller films such as Midnight Special.

[Buscemi]

I find it bizarre that Midnight Special didn't go wide. Has this been released in the late 90's, it would have gotten 2,000 theatres opening weekend. It seems like Warner Bros. had no idea how to release it, having sat on the film for two years, then planning a Thanksgiving wide release that never happened, and finally burying it in March with its widest run being just under 600 theatres. You think with Mud's box office success, some money would have been put into a bigger run (and Warner Bros. would have focused on markets where Mud played well, I live in a market where Mud opened right away and played for months but Midnight Special didn't arrive here until over a month into its run).

And around the same time, you had Paramount constantly changing the release platform of Everybody Wants Some!!. The original plan was to go wide right away, then it was changed to a limited release followed by a wide expansion two weeks later, and finally the wide release was scrapped completely. Did Paramount not see that Boyhood made $25 million (and probably more on home video, in which Paramount saw much of that money) and this one had wider appeal? A more capable distributor (Focus should have picked this one up) would have opened in 1,000-1,500 theatres and had big ad buys during Spring Training and on Opening Day of the MLB season.

But of course, this is the same Paramount that dropped The Little Prince and let it sink into Netflix obscurity, dumped millions into Zoolander No. 2 and Ben-Hur, continues to do business with the walking corpse that is Lorne Michaels and his often-slapped together over a few days movies (since SNL doesn't have any more good characters), and is trying to force a Cloverfield franchise in the same way that Lionsgate forced Divergent onto people. They make some of the decisions Sony has made lately seem like genius moves.

[Talleyrand]

The Neon Demon is one of the greatest films ever made, and did not recoup its budget.

I don't know how much more Nocturnal Animals is projected to grab (I'm no expert on these matters), but it's an excellent film (the real performance from Amy Adams of the year).

I think 13 Hours underperformed, and it was pretty great.

Blood Father is an amazing film, and it looks like it did not do too well despite rave reviews. That's especially disconcerting given that I was hoping to see more Gibson in general (two roles as token two-bit bland bad guys 3 years ago is underutilization).

I guess War Dogs is considered a flop. Too bad, too, because it's pretty great.

[dommie]

Not sure if these were flops or just underperformed but I liked them anyway:

Blood Father (barely made it to theatres so I guess that would be a flop).
13 Hours
The Finest Hours
The Nice Guys

Hell or High Water did not make that much money and did not hang around very long. Hacksaw Ridge has shown some box office legs as it is still in theatres and still selling tickets, however it is not setting any records. For my money, so far, these are the two best pictures of the year. Granted, I have not yet seen La La Land, Silence, Rogue One, or any of the Christmas releases.

[levcore]

Gods of Egypt and Ghostbusters spring to mind.

The Finest Hours and BFG were both really good too.

[Mahatma]

Originally Posted by Talleyrand

The Neon Demon is one of the greatest films ever made, and did not recoup its budget.

Seriously,it is not.

[HEYYOGUYS]

I'm shocked no one has mentioned Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. It was easily in my top 3 movies this year. I absolutely loved it and was very disappointed to see it flop. More people need to give it a shot.

[levcore]

Originally Posted by HEYYOGUYS

I'm shocked no one has mentioned Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. It was easily in my top 3 movies this year. I absolutely loved it and was very disappointed to see it flop. More people need to give it a shot.

Yeah Popstar was brilliant, hilarious movie.

[THS]

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is actually a damn-good, and extremely hilarious flick. I Loved it, but comedy is a very subjective genre.

I also support the love for Gods of Egypt. Although, I could never explain what it is about the flick that I actually like, I found it extremely enjoyable. There's a strange charm about it, as if it wears its shame on its sleeve.. Kinda like one of the Fast/Furious flicks. Regardless of how ludicrous it is, I was entertained throughout (This coming from a guy who went into it expecting to loath it).

[Adam_ME]

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping was definitely the best bomb I saw this year. A legitimately funny movie that deserved a much better fate at the box office. That's a tough genre though. The music mockumentary. CB4 disappointed. Fear of a Black Hat(another really funny movie) tanked. Even This is Spinal Tap didn't exactly make a lot of money in its initial theatrical run.

Honorable mentions go to The BFG, The Nice Guys, and The Light Between Oceans. BTW, some of the examples cited in this thread were not bombs. The 5th Wave likely turned a profit for Sony(albeit a small one) given its relatively low budget. I'm also pretty sure War Dogs came close to breaking even for WB and will eventually make them a little bit of money after home video, digital, and cable.

[wonderer99]

The Light Between Oceans was an OK film, well acted but it's main flaw was that it was just so unbelievable as a concept. Michael and Alicia did well with what they had and made it watchable but the material was always going to be a hard sell logically. It would have been better imo if they

[Show spoiler]had not lost two children themselves, one literally just before a baby washes up on the shore

I thought Eye in the Sky was pretty unappreciated also. Quite a tense little movie.

[Adam_ME]

Originally Posted by wonderer99

The Light Between Oceans was an OK film, well acted but it's main flaw was that it was just so unbelievable as a concept. Michael and Alicia did well with what they had and made it watchable but the material was always going to be a hard sell logically. It would have been better imo if they

[Show spoiler]had not lost two children themselves, one literally just before a baby washes up on the shore

I thought Eye in the Sky was pretty unappreciated also. Quite a tense little movie.

Eye in the Sky is one of the best films of 2016. Although apparently the Hollywood Foreign Press Association never got the memo based on the Golden Globe nominations. But it was not a bomb. It made more than twice its budget at the box office worldwide.