Box Office Poison

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A copy of this volume is available at the Denison Public Library.

791.437 ROBEY

Box Office Poison by Tim Robey:

Subtitled "Hollywood's story in a century of flops", Box Office Poison delves into the interesting and sometimes controversial background of films that had high hopes at the outset, but failed to find their niche in the public adoration.  The author devotes about 5 or 6 pages to some of the greatest flops in the movie industry.

The basic premise is that some great "epics" and not-so-great "epics" in the history of the film industry had things going on in the background that contributed to their failure at the box office.  There is a distinction between what are termed as "flops" and movies that were never intended to be gigantic money makers.  No one in their right mind would have thought that the average low budget film was going to be a huge hit.  But when you spend upwards of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, some of which may be pinned on the hopes of a draw from star power or astounding special effects,  there may be some expectation of a good return.

The author covers the spectrum of time all the way from the early days with a 1916 silent film, Intolerance, all the way to present day with the recent attempt at a remake of Cats. As the author states in the introduction: "Before their downfall, they were often dreamed up erroneously as sure things...". But due to backstage failures, such as the wrong director for the project, or a star who, with an over-inflated ego, insisted on changes in the script or direction, made the film less about the story and more about him (or her), the film became a failure instead of a success.

As someone interested in the seamier side of the film industry, this book appealed to me.  While someone who rarely goes to movies might not be interested, if they would like to know about the industry behind the scenes, it might prove to be fascinating.

Until next time, happy library browsing.

Quiggy

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