1Trojan War
In 1997, Warner Bros. Pictures spent $15 million producing the movie ‘Trojan War’ that only played in one theater for one week, grossing just $309 in box office revenue.
2. Because Universal Pictures declined to pay Finish film rating authorities, DVD copies of Little House on the Prairie are rated adults only in Finland.
3. In 1933, Columbia Pictures released ‘Mussolini Speaks,’ which was a documentary praising Mussolini and how good he was to the Italian people. It has never been released on DVD.
4. Warner Bros. kept George Clooney's return to ER in the episode "Such Sweet Sorrow" a secret by submitting a version of the episode without him to NBC and at the last minute submitting an "Edited" version that included his cameo, without any time for NBC to screen it before it aired.
5. Warner Bros. claimed to have made a loss of $167 million on ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’, despite it grossing close to $1 billion worldwide.
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15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
6The Fourth Kind Marketing
While marketing ‘The Fourth Kind’ movie, Universal Pictures, created fake news stories of alien abductions and posted them online using the names of actual Alaskan news outlets. Those outlets sued and won.
7. Warner Bros. decided to hire Tim Burton to direct Batman due to the financial success of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.
8. Universal Pictures originally considered Tarantino's screenplay From Dusk till Dawn as the follow-up to Demon Knight and the second in a proposed Tales from the Crypt film trilogy, but ultimately produced another vampire film, Bordello of Blood, instead.
9. The MGM lion's roar present in today's films is actually a tiger's roar. Originally the roar was that of a lion, but in 1982, Mark Mangini redid the sound since "lions don't make that kind of ferocious noises, and the [MGM] logo needed to be ferocious and majestic."
10. The MGM lion's roar we see in MGM films nowadays is actually a tiger's roar. Originally the roar was that of a lion, but in 1982, Mark Mangini redid the sound since "lions don't make that kind of ferocious noises, and the [MGM] logo needed to be ferocious and majestic."
11Jack Nicholson in Mars Attacks
Warner Bros. studios didn't like the idea of Jack Nicholson's character dying in Mars Attacks, so Tim Burton gave Nicholson two different characters and killed both of them.
12. In 1984, Warner Bros. almost closed down the DC Comics publishing imprint and licensed the characters to Marvel. Marvel apparently declined, thinking that the reason DC was failing was the characters, not the management, and did not consider the characters profitable.
13. Universal Pictures was so worried about the complex plot of David Lynch's Dune that they handed out a glossary with movie tickets.
14. In 1936, MGM studios canceled the production of "It Can't Happen Here", a movie about the rise of a popular Hitler-like politician in America for fear of losing revenue from Nazi Germany.
15. In mid of 2000, a Columbia Pictures executive made a pseudonym called David Manning, a film critic who gave positive reviews to 4 films. It was later revealed that Manning wasn't a real film critic, and in 2005, Sony agreed to refund $5 from unsatisfied movie-goers who trusted his reviews.
16Airplane Movie
Paramount Pictures was apprehensive about 3 first-time directors working on the 1980s movie "Airplane!". The contract said they could fire them after 1 week. When Paramount Pictures saw how the "Don’t call me Shirley" joke played out on the first day of shooting, they were relieved.
17. Miramax refused to finance 'Chasing Amy' unless Kevin Smith cast Jon Stewart or David Schwimmer in Ben Affleck's role and Drew Barrymore in Joey Lauren Adams' role. So, Kevin Smith financed the movie himself and sold the distribution rights to Miramax.
18. Warner Bros. lacked confidence in 2014's "The Lego Movie". Due to this, they offered Village Roadshow Pictures the opportunity to finance 25% of the film, and later, an additional 25%.
19. Universal Pictures failed to include a (c) in the credits of the 1963 Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn movie 'Charade'. As a result, the film entered the public domain upon release in theaters.
20. When Lionsgate executives announced that Leonardo DiCaprio would be playing the lead in American Psycho, the movie's director refused to this rumor by saying, "Leonardo wasn't remotely right [...] He's not credible as one of these tough Wall Street guys."
21Rhapsody Rabbit
In 1947, MGM produced ‘The Cat Concerto’ and Warner Bros released a similar Bugs Bunny cartoon, ‘Rhapsody Rabbit’. Both used identical gags, the same piece by Franz Liszt, and similar endings. Both MGM and Warner Bros. accused each other of plagiarism after both films were submitted for an Academy Awards ceremony.
22. Warner Bros. spent $10 million on a "Mr. Limpet" remake starring Jim Carrey, only to abandon the project when the animation tests were deemed "horrifying."
23. While shooting ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ MGM studio placed 16-year-old Judy Garland on a diet of chicken soup, black coffee, cigarettes, and amphetamines to keep her appetite under control.
24. Miramax was owned by Disney from 1993 to 2005, which means that Pulp Fiction was, in a way, a Disney movie.
25. Warner Bros. canceled 'Home Alone' because they didn't want to spend $14.7 million on it. 21st Century Fox continued the production and the film grossed $476 million worldwide.
