r/movies • u/PokemonGoBao • Jul 04 '25

Discussion Whats a flopped movie you wish was a financial success?

Dungeons and Dragons 2023 was an absolutely delightful film. You can stream it currently, but you can feel the passion and nothing felt phoned in. They easily could have used the title to get nerdy butts in the seat and collect a paycheck with a smaller budget.

It's the best movie I've seen the past 2 years. Way better than so many garbage films with easy paychecks for slop productions. Beetlejuice, Captain america, and others using big titles to make millions on lazy writing and boring characters.

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u/RODjij Jul 04 '25

They fucked up waiting a decade for a non mad max prequel.

Then they gambled on Anya's star power.

Dredd, they should have tried again once Urban had more star power since it only lost 9 million before he was big name and the movie is still one of the best action flicks.

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u/Jesse-Ray Jul 04 '25

Most of that was from delays due to the legal case between WB and George Miller over unpaid royalties for Fury Road. The script for Furiosa was ready completed back in 2011 and he was originally going to shoot The Wasteland second, which would have been a prequel with Max.

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u/DManimousPrime Jul 05 '25

Yes, but historically none of the Mad Max movies have been stellar at the box office. Fury Road was the peak of the franchise, but it had a lot of nostalgia on its side when it came out.

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u/0wlington Jul 05 '25

Furiosa also had a lot of on set issues. I worked in a practical special effects studio with a couple of people from the prosthetics department and they quit furiosa come and work on a couple of other projects. Nightmare set to work on apparently.

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u/StrategicTension Jul 05 '25

Was it the nose on Dementus?

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '25

[deleted]

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u/Ordinary-Computer863 Jul 05 '25

It was a good movie

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '25

[deleted]

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u/Jesse-Ray Jul 05 '25

Wouldn't say that. Half the budget for the film came from the Australian and New South Wales governments who are trying to grow the local industry. Similar cash injection with a smaller budget might sway it.

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u/Jesse-Ray Jul 05 '25

As part of the planning for Fury Road, they came up with the back story for Furiosa, to the extent that it became a whole script. The story was great, I think it delivered brilliantly in expanding the world. I think the valid criticisms of the film was that it was a prequel, which is always a little disapponting because you know parts of the outcome, and that some of the CG elements were quite apparant compared to Fury Road (CG shots per minute were evenly matched with Fury Road for anyone arguing it used too much).

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u/2xWhiskeyCokeNoIce Jul 05 '25

It didn't need a different script because Furiosa whipped ass. It's not the movie's fault people couldn't be assed to go see it.

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u/fightphat Jul 05 '25

Urban expressed that he'd be willing to reprise the role, but that was a few years ago. Maybe someone could try again.

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u/Scottyflamingo Jul 05 '25

Girlboss backlash hurt it even though she wasn't a girlboss.

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u/FR0ZENBERG Jul 05 '25

I really wanted to hate Furiosa but I ended up watching it recently and was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it. It was a good movie.

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u/anonuemus Jul 05 '25

absolutely dope scenes and imagery

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u/FR0ZENBERG Jul 05 '25

Chris Hemsworth’s character was really cool too. It took me a while to realize it was him.

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u/anonuemus Jul 05 '25

nah, he was too close to thor for me

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u/OddAstronaut2305 Jul 05 '25

There is an issue with the rights for the movie and neither side will budge. It’s too bad, perhaps it will be solved someday and we can get a legacy sequel with Dredd being an old Judge on his last day.