About
A riotous and revealing story of Hollywood’s most spectacular flops and how they ended careers, bankrupted studios and changed film history.
"Failure fascinates, for all the reasons that success is a drag…"
From grand follies to misunderstood masterpieces, disastrous sequels to catastrophic literary adaptations, Box Office Poison tells a hugely engaging (or “entertaining”) alternative history of Hollywood, through a century of its most notable flops. What can these films tell us about the Hollywood system, the public’s appetite—or lack of it—and the circumstances that saw such flops actually made? Away from the canon, this is the definitive take on these ill-fated but essential celluloid failures.
From Daily Telegraph film critic Tim Robey, this is a brilliantly fun, piercingly witty exploration of the greatest (or most disastrous) film flops throughout history.
"Failure fascinates, for all the reasons that success is a drag…"
From grand follies to misunderstood masterpieces, disastrous sequels to catastrophic literary adaptations, Box Office Poison tells a hugely engaging (or “entertaining”) alternative history of Hollywood, through a century of its most notable flops. What can these films tell us about the Hollywood system, the public’s appetite—or lack of it—and the circumstances that saw such flops actually made? Away from the canon, this is the definitive take on these ill-fated but essential celluloid failures.
From Daily Telegraph film critic Tim Robey, this is a brilliantly fun, piercingly witty exploration of the greatest (or most disastrous) film flops throughout history.