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Even if a film doesn't sell many tickets at the box office, it can still go on to become a beloved cult classic.
In fact, many of Hollywood's greatest films were financial flops, and it took years for audiences to embrace them.
From "The Wizard of Oz" to "The Big Lebowski," here are 17 classic films that originally bombed in theaters.
"Donnie Darko" (2001)
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"Donnie Darko" may have helped launch the career of Jake Gyllenhaal, but it was a huge flop when it came out in theaters.
The indie film, which cost an estimated $6 million to make, debuted to $110,494 on its opening weekend. It didn't help that the film — which features a plane crash — opened not long after the Sept. 11 attacks. The movie wasn't released internationally for another year.
Theatrically, "Donnie Darko" went on to make $1.2 million. After its DVD release in 2002, it played as a midnight movie for over two years at New York's Pioneer Theater and became enough of a cult classic to release a "director's cut."
"Heathers" (1988)
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"Heathers," a film about two teens who attempt to murder the members of their high school's popular clique, was pretty provocative for its impressionable teenage audience.
With a budget of $3 million, it barely made half that at the box office.
But thanks to the rising stardom of its protagonist, Winona Ryder, and screenwriter Daniel Waters' brilliant one-liners ("Dear diary, my teen angst bullshit has a body count"), "Heathers" is a cult classic today.
"Fight Club" (1999)
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When "Fight Club" first hit theaters in 1999, it didn't just perform poorly — the film made just $37 million domestically— it also received very mixed reviews.
Entertainment Weekly gave it a "D," calling it a "dumb and brutal shock show." Rosie O'Donnell hated it so much that she went as far to ruin the film's twist ending on national television.
It wasn't until the DVD release that the film took off (it sold over 6 million copies) allowing a wider audience to catch the hidden details that made it a dark classic.
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