It may be hard to imagine that such now-iconic film comedies as “Office Space,” “Dazed and Confused,” and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” were box office flops when they were released, but grew to become recognized as classics over time. This happens more often than some people think, however. (These are the biggest movie flops in Hollywood history.)
To compile a list of now-classic comedies that bombed at the box office, 24/7 Tempo defined as a classic any comedy with audience scores and Tomatometer ratings of at least 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, an online movie and TV review aggregator. We then drew international box office and production cost data from The Numbers, an online movie database owned by Nash Information Services, and historical theater ticket prices from the National Association of Theater Owners. We considered any film that earned less than 200% of its reported production budget to have been a flop when released.
The films were then ranked based on the difference between the number of positive Rotten Tomatoes audience reviews (a rating of 3.5 or more out of 5) for each film as of February 2022 and the estimated number of tickets sold worldwide for the film during its initial theatrical release. The difference represents the gulf between a film’s current popularity and its initial reception. (Information on directors and stars, when included, comes from IMDb, an online movie database owned by Amazon.)
Click here to see 25 box office bombs that became comedy classics
Why these films, now considered some of the funniest in cinematic history, tanked in theaters at the time of their release is anyone’s guess. Maybe it was poor marketing; maybe the release date was inopportune; maybe the potential for foreign sales was overestimated; or maybe the box office receipts were respectable but production costs were too high. (Flop or hit, these are the best comedies based in true stories.)
Whatever the reasons, these films have more than made up, in both critical and popular acclaim, for their initial failures at the box office.
25. Happiness (1998)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 89% (41,756 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 81% (48 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $11.2 million (1.2 million tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $5.9 million
> Directed by: Todd Solondz
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24. Repo Man (1984)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 78% (31,827 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 98% (46 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $6.3 million (684,524 tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $4.1 million
> Directed by: Alex Cox
23. Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 77% (140,200 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 79% (197 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $38.8 million (4.2 million tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $39.5 million
> Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
22. Down by Law (1986)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 94% (22,383 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 87% (31 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $3.5 million (387,062 tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $2.7 million
> Directed by: Jim Jarmusch
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21. Igby Goes Down (2002)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 80% (44,342 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 75% (134 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $8.7 million (950,371 tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $14.2 million
> Directed by: Burr Steers
20. Freeway (1996)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 76% (22,515 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 77% (43 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $612,379 (66,854 tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $6.2 million
> Directed by: Matthew Bright
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19. Buffalo ’66 (1998)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 88% (34,157 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 77% (60 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $4.6 million (507,592 tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $2.9 million
> Directed by: Vincent Gallo
18. Waiting for Guffman (1996)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 91% (41,610 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 91% (55 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $6.1 million (661,310 tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $8.3 million
> Directed by: Christopher Guest
17. Ghost World (2001)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 84% (73,554 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 93% (162 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $14.2 million (1.6 million tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $8.9 million
> Directed by: Terry Zwigoff
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16. Adaptation. (2002)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 85% (188,786 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 91% (211 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $51.4 million (5.6 million tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $29.2 million
> Directed by: Spike Jonze
15. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 93% (49,745 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 92% (117 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $6.1 million (661,952 tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $9.7 million
> Directed by: John Cameron Mitchell
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14. Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 79% (55,732 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 79% (105 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $2.4 million (257,396 tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $1.6 million
> Directed by: Don Coscarelli
13. Bottle Rocket (1996)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 79% (61,613 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 85% (66 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $844,477 (92,192 tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $10.4 million
> Directed by: Wes Anderson
12. Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 84% (105,777 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 81% (138 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $15.0 million (1.6 million tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $16.6 million
> Directed by: Craig Gillespie
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11. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 78% (271,973 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 77% (135 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $59.4 million (6.5 million tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $35.7 million
> Directed by: Ken Kwapis
10. Ed Wood (1994)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 88% (107,299 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 92% (65 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $13.1 million (1.4 million tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $40.4 million
> Directed by: Tim Burton
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9. The Savages (2007)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 75% (135,344 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 90% (172 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $14.2 million (1.5 million tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $12.0 million
> Directed by: Tamara Jenkins
8. Rushmore (1998)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 91% (186,244 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 90% (105 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $37.3 million (4.1 million tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $19.5 million
> Directed by: Wes Anderson
7. Tremors (1990)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 75% (240,282 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 86% (44 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $36.2 million (3.9 million tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $21.7 million
> Directed by: Ron Underwood
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6. Almost Famous (2000)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 92% (325,177 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 89% (174 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $80.5 million (8.8 million tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $102.0 million
> Directed by: Cameron Crowe
5. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 87% (203,542 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 86% (182 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $24.0 million (2.6 million tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $21.4 million
> Directed by: Shane Black
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4. Paris, je t’aime (2006)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 84% (192,613 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 86% (112 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $7.2 million (790,090 tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $18.2 million
> Directed by: Gurinder Chadha, Sylvain Chomet, Joel and Ethan Coen, Isabel Coixet, Gérard Depardieu, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuarón, and more
3. Dazed and Confused (1993)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 90% (236,467 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 92% (62 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $17.6 million (1.9 million tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $15.3 million
> Directed by: Richard Linklater
2. Office Space (1999)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 93% (325,914 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 80% (102 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $22.0 million (2.4 million tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $18.1 million
> Directed by: Mike Judge
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1. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 85% (366,538 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 80% (44 reviews)
> Worldwide box office, adj. for inflation: $10.6 million (1.2 million tickets)
> Est. production budget, adj. for inflation: $5.4 million
> Directed by: Jim Sharman
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