The 1990s were a stellar decade for the development of cinema, with a number of iconic films making their permanent mark on Hollywood. Many of them obtained sequels, soon expanding into their own franchise empire — The Matrix (1999) and Toy Story (1995), for example, received huge praise from critics and performed exceptionally at the box office.
At the same time, there are 90s movies that garnered critical acclaim (and, in some cases, fandoms), that were considered to be financial losses.
Starship Troopers (1997)
Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers was borrowed from famed sci-fi novelist Robert Heinlein’s book (with the same title.) It depicts the course of a military officer training to fight off an invasion from the horrifyingly alien Arachnids.
Though early critics despised the violence in Starship Troopers, it has begun to receive more appreciation in recent times for its take on the “military industrial complex”. Unfortunately, it is regarded a flop as it generated $121.2 million while spending $105 million on production.
Dazed and Confused (1993)
Richard Linklater’s comedy masterpiece, Dazed and Confused, launched the careers of several actors, such as Milla Jovovich, Matthew McConaughey, and Ben Affleck. It received shining compliments from reviewers, who loved the movie for its “anthropological” take on 1970s adolescence (and all the complexities thereof.)
Dazed and Confused is largely considered to be one of the best high school comedies ever made, but its financial results say otherwise — it barely scraped by with $8 million in comparison with a $6.9 million cost.
A Simple Plan (1998)
Sam Raimi, better known for his Evil Dead franchise, directed A Simple Plan in an attempt at serious cinema. It works phenomenally, starting out with the discovery of an incredible treasure, which obviously begins to corrupt the main characters into paranoia soon enough.
The movie may have incurred a loss of around $700,000, but critics praised it to the skies (and it also obtained the honor of two Oscar nominations.)
Bottle Rocket (1996)
Wes Anderson’s formula rarely, if ever, makes a mistake, and Bottle Rocket is not an example of the latter. Two old pals (and one of their neighbors) team up for some of the greatest heists in history, until it turns out that none of them know what they’re doing in the first place.
Bottle Rocket was an instant critical hit, even garnering praise from the likes of Martin Scorsese. At the same time, it was a humongous bust, making a little more than a tenth of its budget in terms of revenue.
Beloved (1998)
An adaptation of Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison’s book, Beloved, this film explored supernatural psychology through its protagonist, a freedwoman living around the time of the U.S. Civil War.
With a cast containing Oprah Winfrey, Thandie Newton, and Danny Glover, it was quite a surprise when Beloved collapsed at the box office, earning a paltry $23 million against an $80 million investment. On a positive note, at least it managed to snatch a Best Costume Design nomination at the Academy Awards.
The Insider (1999)
This exhilarating film is based on an essay in Vanity Fair magazine, “The Man Who Knew Too Much”, written by Marie Brenner about the dark secrets of Big Tobacco.
The Insider is one of the finer examples in both Russell Crowe’s and Al Pacino’s respective filmographies, but with a deficit of more than $30 million, it was deemed a proper flop. And while it never actually won any Oscar, the fact that it received 7 nominations (such as Best Picture), is a clear sign of its narrative worth.
Clockers (1995)
Clockers is an example of exemplary cinema, following the life of a poor drug mule, Strike, who accidentally gets involved in a crime he didn’t commit. Although producers initially planned to have Martin Scorsese direct the film, a scheduling conflict resulted in the project being passed over to Spike Lee.
Though a few reviewers were concerned with the bouncy nature of storytelling, Clockers achieved some degree of critical appreciation, especially in terms of the protagonist’s emotionality. Still, it made around half its budget ($13 million).
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
It’s not usual for a film by the impressive Coen Brothers to fail in any respect, least of all financially, but The Hudsucker Proxy only generated $2.8 million, while requiring a $25 million expenditure. Interestingly, the response from critics was a lukewarm mixture of admiration and annoyance, with Roger Ebert claiming that it was “all surface and no substance.”
Nonetheless, The Hudsucker Proxy was nominated for the most prestigious award at the Cannes Film Festival, the Palme d’Or (which Pulp Fiction took home that year.)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption failed to reach its goal when it was first released, obtaining barely $16 million versus its $25 million budget. This automatically classified it as a flop, but it soon began to garner widespread acclaim from various sources, not to mention being nominated for 7 Oscars.
At this point, the film was primed for a secondary release (both domestic and global), which raised its final income to about $58 million. The Shawshank Redemption is regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made, as evidenced by its rank on IMDb.
Fight Club (1999)
David Fincher has produced so many treasures that it’s hard to rank them according to quality. However, Fight Club is easily one of the best films of 1999, and has maintained a strong legacy in pop culture and social consciousness for the past two decades.
In the beginning, many reviewers abhorred the primary message of the movie (the fight clubs, so to speak), referring to it as irresponsible and unnecessary. In time, Fight Club was seen for its violently complex and layered narrative, even if 20th Century Fox earned only $101 million after spending $63 million.
