Some of the most beloved cult classic horror movies of all time were greeted with indifference by the movie-going public when they first hit theaters. There were several reasons that horror movies failed to make a dent at the box office, as horror is a genre that often leaves many audience members unsure of their ability to handle the subject matter.
There are other movies that have been released that had competition or similar movies released around the same time that doomed them to fail to make a mark at the box office. However, there has always been good news for horror as a genre because the box office is not always necessary for a scary movie’s overall legacy in history.
In the old days, it was the world of VHS and video rentals, as there were more horror movies discovered by people browsing the shelves of video stores than were found in theaters. These days, this would be the format of streaming services, where a person who subscribes to Netflix is more likely to view a horror movie than they are to buy a ticket and go in blind.
Thanks to these methods of discovery that come along even years after a movie flopped at the box office, fans have discovered some of the defining entries in the genre. In some cases, these movies didn’t become cult classics until over a decade later, and in other cases, they just needed to get out of theaters and find their rightful place on television in people’s homes.
Event Horizon (1997)
Paul W.S. Anderson became the master of video game adaptations, but before he started pumping out those regularly, he directed a terrifying horror movie called Event Horizon. This film cost $60 million to make and only made $421 million worldwide, which was a considerable loss.
A big reason for its failure at the box office was the dismissive negative reviews, with many calling it incoherent and derivative. One of the big problems with it seeming incoherent was the studio (Paramount) cutting it up before release, eliminating around 30 minutes of footage that offered some of the best horror.
However, the movie has since become a cult classic thanks to DVD and cable television over the years. Sam Neill’s transformation from a scientist and into a demonic vessel is unnerving and one of the best in the genre. Today, many horror filmmakers point to Event Horizon as an influence, and it remains a movie that many genre fans point to as extremely underrated.
Tremors (1990)
Tremors is a horror movie that only made $16.7 million on an $11 million budget, and it seemed that it would be a one-and-done thanks to that low box office take. However, this was a movie that thrived when it hit home video, and it ended up being a massive success on video rental shelves.
Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward were great in the lead roles, and their banter helped this horror-comedy hit all the right notes in an era where laughs and scares were becoming a lot more synonymous with each other. This movie also featured country music star Reba McEntire in her first major movie role and the catalyst for the film’s brilliant ending.
While its box office seemed to doom Tremors, the video rental success made it one of the best-selling VHS releases of 1990. It is not only a cult classic to this day, but it also spawned a franchise that includes seven Tremors sequels and a TV series.
Army of Darkness (1992)
The first Evil Dead movie was one of the earliest VHS success stories thanks to Stephen King’s recommendations and huge word-of-mouth as horror fans battled the censors during the Video Nasties era. That original movie, shot for next to nothing with college friends making it happen, led to a sequel/remake that is considered one of the best horror movies of all time.
Despite all that success, the third movie in the franchise was a colossal failure in comparison. Turning the horror franchise into a straight-up sci-fi horror comedy, Army of Darkness cost $11 million to make, and made $21.5 million at the box office. While not a loss at the box office, it was a huge disappointment for the franchise.
Despite that, Bruce Campbell continued to morph into one of horror-comedies’ best leading men, and his one-liners remain iconic to this day. “This is my boomstick” remains endlessly repeatable, and it eventually led to a TV series and two more spin-off movies, along with video games and comics. Army of Darkness is a genuine cult classic.
Grindhouse (2007)
In 2007, Quentin Tarantino teamed with Robert Rodriguez to create a love letter to grindhouse classics from the past. However, there was no chance for this to be a box office success thanks to its niche audience that consisted of fans of the two directors and people who loved these old bad movies.
Grindhouse featured two films, with Death Proof by Tarantino and Planet Terror by Rodriguez, and a series of fake trailers in between by directors like Edgar Wright and Eli Roth. In all, the movie cost $53 million to make and only made $25 million domestically, which guaranteed its box office failure.
Despite this, it has a large cult following, with fans loving what Tarantino and Rodriguez did out of love for the old video store low-budget films. The fake Grindhouse trailers even have a massive cult following of their own, with three of them, Machete, Hobo With a Shotgun, and Thanksgiving, all turned into movies on their own.
Dead Alive (1992)
Years before directing the Lord of the Rings movies, Peter Jackson directed the horror-comedy Dead Alive. Also known as Braindead, this is an outrageous splatter horror-comedy that might be one of the goriest films ever made. While it was a success in New Zealand, it was dismissed in its international release as “juvenile” and brainless “gross-out” entertainment.
The movie was about a mother and a son stuck in a touch spot when the mother is bitten by a rabid monkey and ends up transforming into a zombie-like creature. When the infection begins to spread, the son has to find a way to stop it. The final scene from the point of view of a lawnmower killing an infected monster is one of the most disturbingly hilarious scenes ever made.
Peter Jackson has called Dead Alive one of his personal favorites when it comes to his own movies and directors like Sam Raimi and Edgar Wright said that it has been a big influence on all splatter horror movies released since. Its joy at being gross has made it a cult favorite for all horror genre fans.
Slither (2006)
It seems almost hard to believe that James Gunn started his directing career with the horror movie, Slither. The man who is running the DCU and picking and choosing what movies Warner Bros. will release from DC’s catalogue, had a box office flop in his first directorial effort. The film cost $15 million to make and only made $7.8 million at the box office.
The cast was incredible, with Nathan Fillion and Elizabeth Banks as the protagonists and Michael Rooker, who later joined Gunn’s work on The Guardians of the Galaxy in the MCU, was the villain. Gunn, who got his start working for Troma, brought the gross-out sensibilities to this horror movie and it became an instant cult classic.
While people mostly avoided it at the theaters, it was a huge hit on home video, and it became a mainstay on light-night cable TV viewing, where its reputation began to grow bigger and bigger. Now that James Gunn is on top of the world in Hollywood, more people are discovering Slither, and it deserves all the attention it received.
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Ginger Snaps is one of the few great werewolf movies, sitting alongside modern titles like An American Werewolf in London and Dog Soldiers. However, it wasn’t because of its theatrical release, since it was a major box office flop. The movie made $572,000, and that was barely a percentage of its $4.5 million budget.
However, the story is what sticks out here, as the movie parallels lycanthropy with female puberty and adolescent experience. Katharine Isabelle is fantastic in her role as Ginger, the young woman who becomes a werewolf, while Emily Perkins is also strong as her sister Brigitte, who is there to protect her at any cost.
Despite making no money when it was originally released, it ended up with two sequels as audiences who discovered it on video wanted to see more. It was a Canadian film that has since found a large audience in other countries and remains a cult favorite thanks to its deeper themes.
Trick ‘r Treat (2007)
One of the best horror anthology movies of all time is also one of the best Halloween movies ever made. In 2007, Michael Dougherty directed the film Trick ‘r Treat, but the studio refused to release it and just held on to it until 2009, when they dumped it straight to DVD with no legitimate theatrical run. This meant it made no money until it started selling on home video.
That is where the movie became an instant hit in 2009, and it has since become a Halloween staple, with the little demon child, Sam, becoming one of the most popular Halloween costumes despite the studio burying it and never promoting it at all. This was a testament to the great stories and wonderful cast performances in this film.
Trick ‘r Treat had four interconnecting Halloween-night stories in a small town where dark secrets, murders, and revenge played out all across the town. It finally received a theatrical release in 2022, which is proof that its cult following was stronger than the studio ever believed it could have been.
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is an interesting production because it was a monumental box office flop that the studio didn’t know what to do with. However, instead of just giving up on it, the studio played around and sent it to college screenings, and when those were lackluster, it tried a new tactic of midnight screenings and that is where it hit it big.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show celebrated 50 years in theaters in 2025.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show went from being a box office flop to becoming the longest-running theatrical release in history, with it being in theaters for 50 years straight in 2025. The movie is a horror-comedy-musical about an alien transvestite who wants to create his own Frankenstein’s Monster as a companion.
The movie made almost nothing when released, but it has now surpassed $139 million at the box office over the last 50 years and it continues to be a cult classic screened all over the world at midnight shows.
The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter’s The Thing was released just two weeks after E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and that was what doomed it. 1982 was one of the best years ever for sci-fi movies, with E.T., The Thing, and Blade Runner all considered among the best of all time. However, only E.T. was a success, and its optimistic story doomed the more pessimistic horror tales from the other two films.
The Thing had it the worst. Its failure caused John Carpenter’s career to hit a roadblock, and he actually lost a job making a Stephen King movie as a result. It made $19.6 million on a $15 million budget, which was a huge disappointment. Even worse was that critics also hated the movie and bashed its horror and effects.
These complaints were the exact reasons that The Thing became a massive cult favorite, although it took over a decade before it happened thanks to cable networks starting to show it. Over 40 years later, The Thing remains the best example of a box office flop that ended up becoming one of the most beloved and influential horror movies ever made.
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