1999 Box Office Flop Ranked Among ‘Best Movies of All Time’

The Iron Giant was once a box office flop and is now celebrated as one of the movie masterpieces.

Directed by former Disney animator Brad Bird, the science-fiction film was his directorial debut.

It tells the story of a 50-foot metal-eating robot from outer space who was designed to do harm but ultimately chooses between destruction and doing good.

Set in the United States during the mid-1950s, The Iron Giant follows the connection between the robot and a young boy named Hogarth Hughes, who he unexpectedly befriends. It is through their friendship that the giant robot makes a life-changing choice by choosing to be a hero rather than the weapon he was originally designed to be.

Released in August 1999, it received a poor response from the public and was deemed a major box office flop during its debut.

At that time, it only grossed around $31.3 million worldwide, far from its production budget of roughly $50 million.

One of the key factors that made the movie a box office failure was the lack of marketing.

According to the director, The Iron Giant suffered not because of the audience reaction but primarily because the studio, Warner Bros., had already lost confidence in animation and failed to properly support or promote the film.

“They were like ‘That’s it, we’re out of animation.’ So they were basically, we were perceived as a film that would be finished and put on the shelf until there was a hole or something in the release schedule in the future,” Bird mentioned in a 2015 interview with JoBlo, adding, “And then we’d be plugged in. They wouldn’t give us a release date; they didn’t have any hopes. They just thought animation wasn’t going to really work for them.”

Despite the initial response to the movie, The Iron Giant was seen in a different light years after its debut.

The animated sci-fi movie experienced a turnaround after being released on home video.

In addition, the frequent airing of The Iron Giant on TV networks such as Cartoon Network helped it reach a wider audience and grow in popularity over time.

Now, it has earned the status as a cult classic and even joined the Best Movies of All Time ranking by Rotten Tomatoes.

The popular movie and television review-aggregation website released its top 300 greatest movies, which were based on their iconic Tomatometer rating, which includes the percentage of positive reviews from critics.

At No. 228, The Iron Giant received a 96% Tomatometer score, which means the majority of professional critics gave positive feedback, marking it as an exceptionally well-reviewed film.

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