10 Sci-Fi Films That Were Liked By Critics & Audiences (But Failed At The Box-Office)
In a perfect world, movies that are well-liked by the people for whom they are produced shouldn't have any trouble being financially successful as well. But the reality is different, and often times even the most average of popcorn flicks will bring in hundreds of millions or even billions, while the true gems get buried under the rubble of mediocrity. Sci-fi as a genre has always managed to bring in healthy box-office results, but there are still notable exceptions.
There are many reasons that could've resulted in such a thing, such as lack of fan interest due to years of delay which is what happened with Blade Runner 2049 and Mad Max: Fury Road. Taking all of that into account, the following list looks at some sci-fi films that fared positively with critics and audiences but not so much at the box-office.
10 Tenet (2020): IMDb - 7.5/10, Rotten Tomatoes - 70% & 76%
A Christopher Nolan film bombing at the box-office sounds almost impossible, but that also goes for many of the things that happened in 2020, and yet they did. Releasing a movie in the middle of a global pandemic was never going to be a profitable decision for anybody involved, but Tenet had been delayed multiple times already which is why Warner Bros took the plunge regardless.
Made on a massive production budget of $200 million (not including marketing costs), it grossed a little more than $360 million, hundreds of millions less than what it ideally would have.
9 Attack the Block (2011): IMDb - 6.5/10, Rotten Tomatoes - 90% & 75%
Alien invasion movies are so common that it's no surprise that many of them fly under the radar while others soar to great heights in terms of popularity and success. Attack the Block falls into the former category.
Directed and written by Ant-Man co-writer Joe Cornish in his directorial debut, the film is set in contemporary London about a group of youngsters defending themselves against an extraterrestrial attack. Audience and critic ratings speak positively of it, but due to a limited release, it only grossed around $6 million on a budget of $13 million.
8 Terminator: Dark Fate (2019): IMDb - 6.2/10, Rotten Tomatoes - 70% & 82%
The Terminator franchise has had a lot of ups and downs over the years. What began with arguably two of the best action films ever was followed by a series of sequels that failed to live up to the legacy of its predecessors. Terminator: Dark Fate retconned all those sequels and acted as a direct continuation to the second film, delivering a much more consistent and well-received narrative.
But franchise fatigue had apparently caught up to the series, and even the return of Sarah Connor wasn't good enough, resulting in a worldwide gross of $261 million against a budget of more than $185 million.
7 Predestination (2014): IMDb - 6.5/10, Rotten Tomatoes - 84% & 75%
Filled with twists and turns at every corner, Predestination is a tale of time-travel complex like no other that grossed a bit over $5 million worldwide. It begins with a child, Jane, abandoned at an orphanage who grows up and goes through a sex change procedure after giving birth to a baby, after which he meets a time-traveling agent.
As a man named John, he travels to the past and impregnates Jane and who gives birth to the baby who grows up to be Jane, and it is ultimately revealed that the agent is John himself. The plot is not something easily describable.
6 The Iron Giant (1999): IMDb - 8/10, Rotten Tomatoes - 96% & 90%
While he would go on to direct and write much more successful animated and live-action films such as Incredibles and Ratatouille, director Brad Bird's first step into the world of filmmaking came with 1999's The Iron Giant. Regarded as one of the best-animated films of its time, the story follows the friendship between a young boy Hogarth Hughes and a giant robot from space who crash lands on Earth.
Adapted from the 1968 novel The Iron Man, it turned out to be a favorite of both critics and fans but severely underperformed at the box-office, earning almost $20 million less than its budget of $50 million.
5 Dredd (2012): IMDb - 7.1/10, Rotten Tomatoes - 79% & 72%
2012's Dredd is far from a cinematic masterpiece, but no one goes into a film like this thinking it will have Citizen Kane levels of screenwriting. While the film's ratings are not tremendously impressive, over 70% on both IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes is more than good enough.
And for what it's worth, featuring The Boys star Karl Urban as its badass protagonist of Judge Dredd, the film shines brightly as a fantastic action thriller that successfully brings the titular comic book character to the live screens, and it is unfortunate that it failed to bring in even as much as it cost to make.
4 Edge Of Tomorrow (2014): IMDb - 7.9/10, Rotten Tomatoes - 91% & 90%
Action movies and Tom Cruise go hand in hand and are virtually one of the best tried and true recipes for success in Hollywood. But even then, Edge Of Tomorrow failed to reach the heights that would be expected of a film like it. Made on a budget of $178 million, it brought in just a little over double that amount, which was still enough to turn in a profit.
An alien-invasion setting cleverly mixed with the time loop trope, the film stars Cruise as a military combatant forced to fight against aliens attacking Earth, whereupon he discovers that every time he dies he restarts from a specific point in time.
3 Children of Men (2006): IMDb - 7.9/10, Rotten Tomatoes - 92% & 85%
Before director Alfonso Cuarón found widespread fame and Oscar recognition with his recent hits like Roma and Gravity, he directed Children of Men, a dystopian sci-fi thriller based on the book of the same name by author P. D. James.
It portrayed a world where infertility in humans had caused civilizational collapse when a woman is found pregnant for the first time in many years. Despite all the rave reviews and multiple Oscar nominations, the film didn't even make as much as its budget of $76 million.
2 Blade Runner 2049 (2017): IMDb - 8/10, Rotten Tomatoes - 88% & 81%
It's almost as if the Blade Runner franchise is cursed with poor box-office results. Nobody was crazy about the first film when it released in 1982, and although it is now regarded as one of the best sci-fi films of all time, it was a financial flop then. 35 years later, the sequel, Blade Runner 2049, was released and met with immense praise from fans and critics alike.
But the positive reception didn't translate into money, and the movie grossed barely $100 million more than its budget, which is never good enough for big-budget films.
1 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015): IMDb - 8.1/10, Rotten Tomatoes - 97% & 86%
George Miller's, Mad Max series was one of the earliest and most famous depictions of a post-apocalyptic world in cinema. The films, produced on small budgets and making use of crude yet apropos special effects, have always been profitable.
The first Mad Max film was produced with a tiny budget of 400,000 Australian dollars but would go on to earn more than US$100 million, making it one of the most profitable films of all time. The return of Mad Max with 2015's Fury Road was as epic as anything can be, an action blockbuster for the ages. Ironically, despite being the highest-grossing entry in the series, it was still a disappointment.