These days especially, movies’ theatrical runs can look a bit like the Wild West: Some movies get a few weeks in theaters, some movies get months, some get just a few days before becoming available to buy or rent or stream for free on your home TV. It’s all due to the dark sorcery manufactured by film distributors and movie theaters, all of whom want to make the most money on a picture that they can in the shortest amount of time possible.
Traditionally, most movies were given plenty of time to make back their budgets and then some over a matter of weeks (the 45-day theatrical window—a month and change—is the standard). Otherwise, the unthinkable happens, and movies are pulled so fast you’d struggle to believe they even existed.
Cinema history is rife with tales of big budget flops and failed risks, and some of these flops flopped so hard so immediately that there was no point in even trying to give them a fair shot. These are films that were so bad, or so expensive, or so poorly received by critics and audiences at the time that they were plucked from their theatrical releases after just two weeks, or one, or just a couple of days.
Some of them have been reclaimed over time as cult classics, the fleeting theatrical experience adding to their mystique. Some should have never been released, in theaters or at all, in the first place. You, dear reader, will have to be the judge this time.
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Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky
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