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Not a Misprint

The Lowest-Grossing Film of 2012 Made Just $264 at the Box Office

by Rebecca Pahle | 2:45 pm, December 27th, 2012


What film has earned this dubious honor? That would be…

Indie horror film Playback, starring Christian Slater. It played on one screen for two weeks in March, so it was never going to make a ton of money, but still—$264? Ouch.

According to The Daily Mail the average ticket price in the US is $7.94, which would put the number of people who saw Playback at 33. But if that one city where Playback screened was a major movie market like New York or Los Angeles, where tickets are more expensive, that number’s more like 25.

But take heart, Playback director Michael A. Nickles. Your film made nearly nine times that of the worst-grossing film ever, 2006′s Zyzzyx Rd, starring Katherine Heigl and Tom Sizemore. That took in all of $30 and sold just six tickets.

So. Y’know. It could be worse.

(via: Death and Taxes)

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  • Guest

    A new champion approaches!

  • Anonymous

    There is possibly a *slightly* more positive outlook, if you take into consideration the price of a cinema ticket accounts for a profit to the cinema itself. Therefore the entire $7.94 (or whatever) isn’t contributing to the profits of the film, only a percentage of that. Which therefore would mean slightly more people saw it. No? Or am I just being daft?!

  • Rebecca Pahle

    Box office numbers include ticket prices only, not the amount that goes to the studio. So I’m afraid it’s still as depressing as it looks.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001668112674 Marielle A Lien

    I wanna see it now!

  • Anonymous

    Ah I see. I have always assumed it was based on studio profits, didn’t realise it was just on ticket prices. Oh well, so much for my optimism! haha!

    Still, some of the most enjoyable films are total flops (my favourite film is Xanadu!!) I know nothing about this film though. I wonder if it’s terrible or just unfortunate…

  • http://twitter.com/CarieIsSoVery Carie Small

    Me too!

  • Guest

    Article is a little misleading – primary release for this movie was VOD, not theatrical. In reality it has done very well…

  • Anonymous

    to be fair, these firms were only played for a week at a small, single theater, with no advertising. this is in a sense deliberate.

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