Sandbox / Acclaimed Flop Wick Check

Wick check for Acclaimed Flop

Work is critically acclaimed and flopped (12/50)

1. HonestTrailers.Tropes A To D - Acclaimed Flop: invoked The Honest Trailer for The Shawshank Redemption laments that, despite the movie's many great qualities, it bombed in theaters because it ran at the same time as Speed. 91%/98% on RT

2. Trivia.Duma - Acclaimed Flop: Duma was warmly received by most critics (garnering a 93% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes), but only managed to recoup about 8% of its $12 million budget.

3. Trivia.The Limey - Acclaimed Flop: The film was a critical hit, but was not a financial success. 92%/78% on RT

4. YMMV.Akira - Genre Turning Point: In America, the film kicked off interest in anime for adults. Ironically, its financial failure in its home country of Japan meant that it was not only almost a Genre-Killer, but alongside Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise— which saw a similar notorious failure to live up to box office expectations despite being hugely acclaimed by critics— it even threatened to put the entire future of anime production in serious jeopardy. - 91%/90% on RT

5. Trivia.Almost Famous - Acclaimed Flop: Despite critical and awards love, the film failed to break even (grossing $47.3 million on a $60 million budget). In fact, the film's box office failure may have led to the decline of Cameron Crowe's career until his 2011 comeback. Fortunately, it's been Vindicated by History and is now one of Crowe's signature films. 89%/92% on RT

6. Trivia.Citizen Kane - Acclaimed Flop: Hard to believe, but the "Greatest Film of All Time" was a box office failure for its time. Eventually it made a profit in repertory screenings and Welles lived off its royalties even when he was down and out in Europe. 99%/90% on RT

7. Trivia.Gorillaz - Acclaimed Flop: Phase 3 was an odd variation; Plastic Beach was both a critical and a commercial success in that it was a chart-topper, but the phase's immense ambitions demanded equally immense budgets and resources that Gorillaz was unable to recoup. The "Stylo" music video was known for having gone way overbudget, while the "Escape to Plastic Beach" world tour barely broke even with each show, with Damon Albarn recounting "It was incredible fun, I loved doing it, but economically it was an absolute fucking disaster." This is widely accepted as why EMI (which was already suffering huge financial problems leading up to its eventual collapse in 2012) pulled the plug on the whole thing before it could be fully resolved, and why the band hasn't ventured into anything as high-scope and grandiose as the saga since.

8. Trivia.Hey Arnold The Jungle Movie - Acclaimed Flop: This seems to be the case. Despite being critically well-received (especially over Hey Arnold! The Movie) , it didn't do so well in ratings. On its premiere date on the main Nickelodeon channel, it had about 1.4 million views in the first hour and roughly 1.1 million views in the second hour during Nick@Nite despite being heavily hyped, though this may have been because it aired against Trolls Holiday, a special based on a wildly-popular Cash-Cow Franchise among children which got six and a half million viewers. In comparison, the new The Loud House episode that preceded it got over 1.6 million views despite it just being a regular episode. The encores that were planned on the main channel for 11:00 am on November 25 and 8:00 pm on December 1 were both pulled, and its current encores are only on TeenNick. 100%/90% on RT

9. Trivia.Grim Fandango - Acclaimed Flop: 9.4/9.0 on Metacritic
   1. The game was extremely well received and still has a large following, but it was complete flop in terms of sales and it partially convinced LucasArts that adventure games were a bygone genre.
   2. It did get a second chance at success by way of Disney and Sony in 2015, and appears to have done well enough to merit a second LucasArts Updated Re-release, this time of Day of the Tentacle.

10. Trivia.Shoot The Piano Player - Acclaimed Flop: Although the film was a hit with the critics, it bombed at the box office. Enough to make François Truffaut forgo his improvisational techniques and return to regular scripted drama. 90%/88% on RT

11. Trivia.Bound 1996 - Box Office Bomb: Budget, $6 million. Box office, $3,802,260. Though it won several festival awards and brought attention to the Wachowski siblings. 90%/83% on RT

12. Trivia.Love And Monsters - Acclaimed Flop: The budget of this movie was $30 million, but due to the COVID-19 Pandemic wreaking havoc on the theater industry at the time of its release and only being shown in select theaters, it only earned $1.1 million during its theatrical run. It was still well-received by critics, however - on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92% based on 72 reviews, with an average rating of 7.20/10, and it was the top rented film of its release weekend, followed by several weeks in the top ten. 94%/89% on RT

Work is received positively, but not fully acclaimed (25/50)

1. Undead Horse Trope: Star Trek: Nemesis, and the massive success of the 11th film, Star Trek (2009). Though some joke that the Turn of the Millennium actually reversed the curse, given the lukewarm reception to the 12th film, Star Trek Into Darkness, and the critical (if not commercial) success of the 13th film, Star Trek Beyond. Others try to list the Affectionate Parody Galaxy Quest as part of the lineup to keep the pattern consistent. In regards to other media, this trope still persists depending on the franchise. 86% critical and 80% audience scores on RT

2. Trivia.Geena Davis - Career Resurrection: Attempted with Commander in Chief. Despite great reviews, it was a ratings dud and was prematurely cancelled. While time will tell if she can officially achieve this trope, she does still work in both film and TV (focusing on productions that have juicy and/or unusual roles for women) while her advocacy work for female performers and creatives in general continues apace. 82% critic score and no audience score on RT

3. YMMV.Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon And The Blade Of Light - Misblamed: Many fans blamed Shadow Dragon for nearly "killing the series", claiming its lackluster reception was the result. In fact, it was Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn that actually put the series in its dire position, as the game was far more expensive and ambitious than Shadow Dragon and also sold very poorly (being a Wii title up against Super Mario Galaxy did it no favors). Shadow Dragon going back to the handhelds, being a remake with a popular established cast, and generally having a much smaller scope and scale than Radiant Dawn were because Radiant Dawn failed so badly that they had to significantly reduce the size of the Fire Emblem team. And far from doing poorly, Shadow Dragon was actually a modest success, albeit not enough of one to ensure its own sequel saw an international release—but that was less due to being a failure and more to the DS being a rather old system at the time. 78% score on Metacritic

4. Trivia.Tangled The Series - Acclaimed Flop: Despite gaining a strong cult following, the series ended up being a massive one due to MUCH lower ratings than anticipated (with Before Ever After only scoring 2.9 million viewers compared to Descendants 2's 5.3 million that same year) and disapointing toy sales. Declining advertising and merchandising support for the remainder of the run seemed to stem from a continued lack of a strong enough audience to justify the costs, but Disney still committed to the full three season greenlight from the beginning, eventually even giving the show a six-disc Blu-Ray set exclusive to Disney Movie Club. - 7.7/10 on IMDB (RT has nothing)

5. Trivia.Destiny 2 - Acclaimed Flop: Forsaken has been widely praised by critics and fans alike, but still fell short of Activision's sales predictions. This is partly due to the fact that it's a paid DLC like Destiny's The Taken King, and one that comes on top of the initial game that had a poor first year debut. Overall, a lot of players weren't willing to repeat Destiny's tumultuous life cycle with Destiny 2. Rated 82% (PS4), 84% (PC), and 86% (XBOX One) on Metacritic

6. Trivia.Blur - Acclaimed Flop: Received decent ratings, in the eight-to-nine range, but despite this failed to sell, to the point that the developers, after their next game, Blood Stone, were shut down by the parent company Activision. 81% (PC and Xbox 360) and 82% (PS3) scores on Metacritic

7. Series.The Chair 2014 - Acclaimed Flopinvoked: Critics aren't universally positive on Hollidaysburg, but it got much better reviews than Not Cool, and as word spread about how awful Not Cool was people began openly campaigning for people to see it and vote for it (including Zachary Quinto's co-producer Neal Dodson). Unfortunately, it didn't help — Anna is forced to endure the humiliation of consistently empty theaters and a box office take of only around $1,000. (But see Box Office Bomb.) I get sense of positive of reception, but not acclaim

8. YMMV.Dune 2021 - And You Thought It Would Fail: Many feared that various factors would potentially leave Denis Villeneuve's planned two-part adaptation of the original story doomed to be only half-finished, given the fact that Dune is a slow-paced, complicated narrative, the Acclaimed Flop status of his previous sci-fi blockbuster Blade Runner 2049, and the day-and-date streaming status provided by HBO Max (which opened the movie up to piracy due to HD copies of the film being easier to distribute) due to the issues with the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic (which was still depressing box office turnout around the world). The fact that the US release date was boxed in the middle of other expected blockbusters like Venom: Let There Be Carnage, No Time to Die and Eternals also led to concerns about the movie being crowded out of the spotlight (a fate which befell The Last Duel just a week before Dune). Yet the movie consistently overperformed to expectations around the world (with the exception of China, where it was crushed by local super-blockbuster The Battle at Lake Changjin), thanks in part due to a staggered international release strategy that helped build up good word-of-mouth ahead of its arrival in several key markets, and it managed to defy expectations to become Warner Bros.'s most successful day-and-date movie since the likes of Godzilla vs. Kong. It then got a whopping ten Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, which rarely happens for sci-fi films, and won six of them, making it the most-decorated movie of the 2022 Oscars. As such, Legendary quickly greenlit the sequel mere days after it opened in the United States. Blade Runner 2049 has 88%/81% scores on RT

9. Trivia.ECW - Acclaimed Flop: Simply put, while the promotion was famously praised for being innovative, they literally never made money. There isn't a single year when they turned a profit. It was so illiquid by 2001 that Paul Heyman needed the PPV money to put on the next show. How much praise?

10. Quotes.Dredd: It's time to make Dredd 2
    I'll never let it go
    You'd already have seen it
    But our grosses were too low
    Make Dredd 2
    This time we'll be a hit
    I promise if it's greenlit
    Then she'll show a little tit. No indication of reception, Dredd has 79%/72% on RT

11. Trivia.Psychonauts - Acclaimed Flop: This game is considered to be one of the best on the original Xbox. The sales sadly don't reflect this. According to the Psychonauts 2015 documentary however, the sales were not as bad as others claimed it was. Tim Schafer said everyone said it sold 100,000 when it sold 400,000. Things would also turn around when Double Fine's deal with the publisher Majesco expired, enabling the studio to release a slightly Updated Re-release through digital platforms such as Steam. According to Double Fine, opening up for digital sales increased the sales numbers with about 1.2 million, making the game into what be described as a bit of a (very) late blooming Sleeper Hit, and it actually ended up turning enough of a profit to partially fund the sequel. 8.8 on Metacritic

12. ScrewedByTheNetwork.Video Games - A lesser example is Titanfall 2, which EA decided needed to be released at the same time as Call Of Duty Infinite Warfare and their own Battlefield 1. Needless to say, despite the high reviews, the game was an Acclaimed Flop. Some suggest that EA did this out of fear that Battlefield 1 would bomb due to its unconventional setting and attempted to hedge their bets, only for their plan to backfire. The fact that EA has stated that they will support the Titanfall series in spite of this - the exact opposite reaction they've ever had to such a situation before - suggests this wasn't an intentional case of this trope. 8.6 (PC), 8.9 (PS4), and 8.7 (Xbox One) on Metacritic

13. Sequelitis.Live Action Films - Muppets Most Wanted starts with a song about sequels that hangs a lampshade on this trope. "And everybody knows that the sequel's never quite as good." It was further lampshaded by Dr. Bunsen, who pointed out this was the seventh Muppet film released in theaters. Unfortunately, the film itself bombed at the box office despite being generally well received by critics. 80%/58% on RT

14. GenreKiller.Live Action TV: The 1987 ABC miniseries Amerika didn't quite kill off the "epic" miniseries on American television, but it was arguably the turning point in the decline of its prestige. Premiering to great fanfare and controversy due to its daring premise (America being invaded and conquered by the USSR), ratings started strong but proceeded to drop week after week as viewers found it boring due to its slow pace and focus on dense political drama. The following year, ABC's miniseries War and Remembrance, despite critical acclaim, saw its premiere bungled due to the 1988 WGA strike, turning it into an expensive flop that finished the job Amerika started. For the next twenty years, miniseries were seen as a disreputable format associated with over-the-top melodrama, sweeps-week ratings stunts, and past-their-prime actors slumming it for a paycheck, only recovering with the rise of "prestige TV" on cable and streaming in the 2010s. 8.3/10 on IMDB

15. AndTheFandomRejoiced.Fire Emblem - People have been wanting Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE characters in the game for a good while but, due to both the initial response and poor sales in spite of being better received upon release, most were doubtful it'd get any acknowledgment outside of Cipher. Then, just as the release of Encore was approaching, it was announced that Itsuki, Tsubasa, Kiria, Ellie, and Mamori would be added into the Gacha, officially making their home game fairplay! As a bonus, this'll also be the first time they and any other potential future characters from Tokyo Mirage Sessions will be voiced in English! 8.1/6.3 on Metacritic

16. Trivia.Army Of Darkness - Acclaimed Flop: Despite positive reviews from critics, Army of Darkness was a flop that killed off the Evil Dead film franchise. Though the fact that the theatrical ending is less Sequel Hook and more And the Adventure Continues does not make it an unsatisfying conclusion to the trilogy. 74%/87% on RT

17. ScrewedByTheNetwork.Music - Semisonic, one of the definitive One-Hit Wonder bands of The '90s, was dogged by this all throughout their career, as related by drummer Jacob Slichter in his entertaining memoir So You Wanna Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star. Originally named Pleasure, the band initially got caught in a bidding war between Elektra Records and MCA, choosing to go with Elektra. Then as Slichter memorably summed it up, they started recording their debut album as Elektra band Pleasure, but finished it as MCA band Semisonic. They had to change names because they found another band called Pleasure. Then the Elektra exec shake-up mentioned above with They Might Be Giants also affected them, since they lost the label rep who signed them. Semisonic begged Elektra to release them from their contract, but the label dragged their feet for a while, forcing a pause in the recording sessions. When the album (Great Divide) finally came out, MCA chose "Down in Flames" as the lead single, even though none of the band members thought it was single-worthy. Radio passed on the song, and the video ran into problems with MTV because it depicted fire. After MCA basically gave up on the album (an Acclaimed Flop), "F.N.T.", the song that the band had wanted to be the lead single, was included on the soundtrack of The Long Kiss Goodnight and started getting some radio play, but MCA didn't care to support it. Then they got some unexpected Adored by the Network treatment for their second album Feeling Strangely Fine when label execs jumped on "Closing Time" as a potential smash hit, promoting it early and often. While it worked beyond everyone's expectations, it was a Tough Act to Follow for the follow-up singles, and, disappointed that they weren't matching the pace set by "Closing Time", MCA suddenly pulled both "Singing in My Sleep" and "Secret Smile" from radio even though they were gaining momentum ("Singing in My Sleep" was on the verge of making the Alternative Rock Top 10). Not caring for the different musical direction the band chose for their third album All About Chemistry, MCA largely ignored it and it only sold 58,000 copies. According to the Wikipedia page, it got 4/5's and B+'s'

18. Trivia.Harvey Danger - Acclaimed Flop: King James Version was a hit with critics, but failed to produce a single, leading to the band's three-year hiatus. According to the Wikipedia page, it got 3/5's, a B+, 3.5/5, and a 74/100

19. Trivia.Guardians Of The Galaxy 2021 - Acclaimed Flop: Despite the game's overall positive reception, its sales were so poor that it — along with and due to the association with the similarly underwhelming performance of Marvel's Avengers — played a big role in prompting Square Enix to sell off Eidos Montreal along with all their remaining western studios. 8.0/8.7 on Metacritic

20. HollywoodHypeMachine.Examples On The Fence - Lisa Kudrow starred in the 1997 comedy Romy and Michele's High School Reunion opposite Mira Sorvino, which did fine when it debuted but later found a wider audience as a Cult Classic on home video. She also got critical praise for her role in the Acclaimed Flop The Opposite of Sex, and appeared as the wife of Billy Crystal in Analyze This plus its sequel Analyze That. Kudrow's most notable role after Friends ended was as has-been sitcom actress Valerie Cherish in the HBO comedy The Comeback, which received indifferent reception when it premiered and was cancelled in 2005 but later was Vindicated by History as one of the decade's finest shows. The Comeback was still recognized with three Emmy nominations for its first season despite its initial reception (including a Best Actress nomination for Kudrow), but the show's growing esteem led to a second season being green-lit in 2014 – nine years after its first season premiered. Reviews were far more positive this time around, with Kudrow getting another Emmy nomination. While Marci X killed her clout as a leading lady on film in 2003, she continued finding work as a supporting actress in comedies like Easy A, Neighbors (2014), Booksmart, etc. The Opposite Of Sex has 81%/60% on RT

21. Trivia.Tail Concerto - Acclaimed Flop: It didn't sell very well in Japan and while it was released in France and United States, the low sales resulted in it having a limited release, hence why it's worth quite a lot of money. Infamously, a Bandai Namco producer used the game's lack of financial success as an excuse to not finance Tail Concerto 2 or any other Little Tail Bronx project, them straight up telling Hiroshi that "they weren't going to make a sequel to a game that didn't sell. 8.1/10 on IMDB

22. Trivia.Hitman 2 - Network to the Rescue: Following the financial underperformance of Hitman (2016) and being subsequently dropped by Square Enix, IOI almost faced complete bankruptcy in 2017, reportedly having to lay off a quarter of its workforce just to stave off the inevitable. The main reason why 2 exists (and even why IOI is still in one piece) is because they managed to strike up a publication deal with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment at the last minute, who allowed them to complete the game at a slight revenue cut. Completely lacking in other options for cashflow, IOI director Hakan Abrak flat-out stated that "Without that agreement, we would not have survived." The gamble fully paid off, with the financial returns of 2 being so good that they were able to develop and publish Hitman 3 completely independently. 8.2/8.4 on Metacritic

23. Trivia.Bulletstorm - Acclaimed Flop: The game didn't do super well when it was first released but still has fans to this day who were upset of its lack of reception. It at least did well enough to justify an Updated Re Release for eighth generation systems with Duke Nukem as a pre-order bonus. - 8.2/7.7 on Metacritic

24. Trivia.Mario And Luigi Paper Jam - Acclaimed Flop: Paper Jam got decent reviews and fan reception, if fairly weak compared to previous Mario & Luigi games. However, the game ended up selling under 1 million units, a very low number for a Mario title. 7.6/7.3 on Metacritic

25. Trivia.Les Miserables 1998 - Acclaimed Flop: Downplayed on both counts, but there's a good chance it is. The budget has never been disclosed, but the box office take was only around $14 million. Yet most critics seemed to find it okay to good, if not exactly showering it with raves. 7.4/10 on IMDB

Work receives mixed to negative reception (2/50)

1. Trivia.Kansas - Acclaimed Flop: 1988's In the Spirit of Things was the follow up to their 1986 "comeback" album Power, but it was met with poor commercial reception.^note Although the song "Stand Beside Me" was an MTV and rock radio hit. This is mainly due to the fact that their record label at the time (MCA Records) dropped support for many of the classic rock acts on the label for the latest pop stars at the time like Tiffany. However, many fans and the band themselves consider it to be one of their strongest post-70s work. AllMusic gives a 3/5, Rolling Stone gives a 1/5

2. Trivia.Where The Wild Things Are - Acclaimed Flop: Those who weren't put off with how different the tone was from the book were praising it to high heaven, but it only just barely made back what it cost to make, which—due to marketing costs and giving movie theaters their cut—meant it lost a lot of money. 73%/57% on RT

Work made back its budget (2/50)

1. Trivia.That Thing You Do - Acclaimed Flop: Although it barely made back its $26 million budget (only grossing $25.9 million domestically), critics liked the film, as evidenced by its 93% rating on “Rotten Tomatoes” and 71% rating ^note which translates to “generally favorable reviews” on Metacritic.

2. Creator.Martin Scorsese: It has also backfired occasionally. From his perspective, he expected New York New York to be a more commercial venture while Taxi Driver would be the art film made for the micro-budget that he expected no one would see. Then Taxi Driver was a hit and the other film was a flop. Likewise he thought Hugo would be a hit and a family friendly film, instead it barely recouped its loss and became an Acclaimed Flop, while The Wolf of Wall Street became the biggest hit of his career.

Multiple works - some count, others don't (1/50)

1. Creator.George Miller - Acclaimed Flop: Since 2015, although Miller's Live-Action movies (Mad Max: Fury Road, Three Thousand Years of Longing) flopped at the box office, still received acclaim from critics. Max Max has a 97%/86% on RT and lost at least $20M so it counts, 3K has a 71%/73% on RT so it doesn't count.

Other (2/50)

1. Audience-Alienating Premise Related trope
2. Show Business - Index

??? (6/50)

1. SmallReferencePools.Music: (Ark 2 by Flaming Youth, which was an Acclaimed Flop) - Ark 2 Wikipedia page notes praise, but Idk if its enough to count

2. Trivia.Crysis - Acclaimed Flop: Every game in the series was critically acclaimed, especially the first. But due mostly to a combination of rampant piracy, the niche audience of the original,^note Not only just PC players, but just PC players with high-end machines. and misaimed marketing, the series as a whole barely broke even for Crytek. Only Crysis 1 is acclaimed enough, and I'm not seeing evidence it flopped]

3. Trivia.Puyo Puyo Fever 2 - Acclaimed Flop: Fever 2 is well regarded for adding gameplay features and a surprisingly large amount of story content. Unfortunately for its fans, it bombed Sega's sales expectations, with current producer Mizuki Hosoyamada confirming that its failure is exactly why he was placed in charge of the series. Can't find ratings info for it

4. ContinuityPorn.Marvel Universe - Christopher Priest's Black Panther run was basically a celebration of the character's entire published history up to that point, with Priest making sure to incorporate something from pretty much every previous take on the character, even the stuff that wasn't well regarded (such as Jack Kirby's run). Priest has said that in hindsight, this was probably part of the reason why it didn't sell very well despite being critically acclaimed. 3.8 on Goodreads, but a 4.6 on Amazon

5. Trivia.Mega Man Archie Comics - Acclaimed Flop: Despite positive reviews from critics and fans, the comics weren't the big seller Archie expected as with Sonic. Saw a 4/5, a 4.2/5, and a 6.1/10, could use some help here

6. Trivia.The Great Ace Attorney - Acclaimed Flop: The 3DS versions of the games suffered from this:
   1. The first game was well-reviewed but sold less than half as many copies as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies.
   2. The second game got as good (if not slightly better) reviews as the first game - it even won a Famitsu Excellence Award and was nominated for Famitsu's Game of the Year alongside major releases like Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Resident Evil 7, and NieR: Automata - but ended up becoming the worst-selling Ace Attorney game since the Game Boy Advance era, likely due to it being released when gamers were starting to transition away from the 3DS to the Nintendo Switch (Investigations 2 having previously struggled for much the same reason, due to being launched in the dying days of the original DS). Second game is 9.3/10 on IMDB, need help for first game