Box Office Poison

Hollywood's Story in a Century of Flops

De: Tim Robey

Narrado por: Tim Robey

"A wild success." — Publishers Weekly

"A surefire hit." —Library Journal STARRED review

"A brilliant star turn." —Andrew O’Hagan

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 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.

Robey covers a vast century of flops, including: Intolerance; Queen Kelly; Freaks; Sylvia Scarlett; The Magnificent Ambersons; Land of the Pharoahs; Doctor Dolittle; Sorcerer; Dune; The Adventures of Baron Munchausen; Nothing But Trouble; The Hudsucker Proxy; Cutthroat Island; Speed 2: Cruise Control; Babe: Pig in the City; Supernova; Rollerball; The Adventures of Pluto Nash; Gigli; Alexander; Catwoman; A Sound of Thunder; Speed Racer; Synecdoche, New York; Pan; and Cats.

From Daily Telegraph film critic Tim Robey, this is a brilliantly fun exploration of human nature and stupidity in some of the greatest film flops throughout history.

Interesting coverage of the topic, but the author was the wrong choice to read it

Despite the potential of humorous delivery at points, the matter of fact reading of the work by the writer is the main concern I had with this otherwise good overview of movie production and marketing history.

The ending

I was really hoping that it would come full circle, and it did. The author even used that exact phrase at the end. Wrapped up perfectly.

So biting and snarky !

The author knows the history , industry and art of Hollywood. He is a hilarious critic

Great book, iffy narration

For a book this interesting and filled with great stories, anecdotes, behind-the-scenes drama, and hidden secrets, ya think they would have gotten a better narrator. Sure, getting the author to do their own audio book is always a plus....except in this case where Tim Robey sounds like an A.I. generated Brit! Little to no emotion, flat, dull, and boring. It needed someone with an upbeat tempo, charisma, and emotion in their voice to really sell this book.

Authors humor (or really humour) comes out so well in the style of his narration. He is FUNNY in that dry in English way.

Cannot say enough good about this book. Interesting stories well told. Great author narration too. Recommend.

The Best Book on the Worst Movies

Box Office Poison is a clever and insightful exploration of a subject movie buffs never knew they needed. I’ve never felt such morbid curiosity over a list of movie casualties.

This book dives deep into the biggest box office disasters in American cinema. It’s the film buff’s equivalent of watching one car crash after another—you can’t look away! You’ll be told who was behind the wheel, what caused the collision, who walked away unscathed, and who didn’t survive the wreck. The factors leading to each crash are as interesting as the crashes themselves.

Excellent BTS analysis of how Hollywood executives make decisions

Worried at first that this book would be a downer, given the dreadful movies it covers, But found it to be a treasure trove of cinema history, funny throughout, and highlighted by fascinating inside baseball stories I'd never heard (since Hollywood journalism is primarily about HITS). It benefits from the across-the-pond Britiish critic's witty analysis that Hollywood is too blind to see. I wrote THE BIG DEAL: HOLLYWOOD'S MILLION-DOLLAR SPEC SCRIPT MARKET (HarperCollins 1999) about 1990s cinema -- which includes backstories on "Last Action Hero," "Waterworld," (which was just a dud, not a flop- eventually making back its costs, as Tim Robey so keenly explains) "Cutthroat Island" and several other flicks that Robey skewers. I can't recall when I last enjoyed a book on Hollywood so much -- film enthusiasts of all stripes will learn plenty from BOX-OFFICE POISON, while laughing and cringing simultaneously

Worth The Price of Admission!

This is one of my favorite audiobooks of all time, very entertaining and informative! It genuinely left me wanting more, as well has had me go back and watch a bunch of films in a new light. I was in my local record store recently, scoping out the blu rays and dvds. Lo and behold there is a used copy of Supernova on dvd for a dollar. How could I pass that up after listening to this?

the background and deep dive into the details as such

This audiobook is a tale of two cities err box office duds. On one side you get an extensive analysis and reasons behind the flops. On another side you get tangents that go elsewhere, without any reason tied to the flops.

I'm unsure how certain (well-known) duds were excluded in the book. Cleopatra nearly bankrupted the studio. Yet it's not in the book.

The speaker is authoritative in explanation as though he would make a fine professor for cinema at a place like Oxford.

As a narrator for this book?

No. Unless tea and crumpets is on the menu today.

Great Listen

Overall a great Listen. It doesn't feel like a slog to get through, and the movies discussed were treated with reasonable respect.