If a film has a cult following now, was it failure?

[OddBeMe]

cult movies usually made sh*t at the box office.

Yes, no box office success - no hit

No, not a failure.

[DamnSam]

Box office way too much driven by trends

Tons of movies flopped in the box office bc the trend year wasn't right

Plus, the box office doesn't account for critic out of political or other views

As example, brokeback mountain was a hardcore flop in the boxoffice
Then a few years ago, they remade the movie, but they changed one thing of the story... instead of gay heath ledger cowboy, they made it that red-haired from Harry Potter as lesbian cowgirl... conversations and scenes are 95% the same
Guess what, hit the boxoffice like a bomb...

Things like that show clearly that not the movie is bad, people are just still homophob as fck...

Masses flopped caused by other better movies... think about all the movies which flopped just because the new Marvel movie came out last ten years

[MTC29]

Cult films can be profitable. One of my favorites is Warriors, from 1979. The film made a bunch of money, but it was savaged by the so called critics- including Siskel and Ebert (skinny guy and fat guy) who panned the film upon it's release.

Besides the film itself, the leading song on the sound track, "In The City" by Joe Walsh, has stood the test of time.

[Rachel794]

It entirely depends on the movie or movie series for me

[Stoner710]

Not necessarily, Star Wars and LOTR and Harry Potter have massive cult fallowing and there were major successes

[OddBeMe]

Good point. They don’t have to be box office fails.

[Tyrael]

I think if a film earns more than it cost to make, then it's a success. This isn't limited to box office though, I mean in its existence. Some of the best cult classics made a fortune on VHS or DVD.

[EnglishEuropean]

Since movies are made to make money at the box office, yes. Cult movies typically aren't widely appreciated until years after their release. For instance I wouldn't consider Pulp Fiction a cult movie, much too mainstream.

[Phoenix98]

Nope it can be either or.

sometimes movies are good but just don’t do well at the box office because of things like release dates.

[WowwGirl]

How is a cult movie categorized?

[OddBeMe]

Good question. I guess a box office failure that becomes really popular years later.

[WowwGirl]

So if it sucks basically?

[OddBeMe]

I’d say there’s two types, one being Harry Potter that is incred successful and has a following. Then there’s lesser known movie bombs that become popular again- that’s the real cult.

[WowwGirl]

Thank you

[OddBeMe]

I determine the real cults

And who gets to screw the cult leader.

[goaded]

Star Wars.

[OddBeMe]

True point

[karaspara]

Probably not a box office hit but not a failure

[msc545]

Depends on how "failure" is defined.