While there have been a few cult classics that have actually performed well at the box office, most films that have earned this prestigious honor absolutely did not. Among the cult-hit films that were absolutely abysmal when it comes to box-office returns is the adult animated flick, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, the fantastically weird Donnie Darko, and the spunky, energetic Scott Pilgrim V.S. The World.
Unlike Baby Driver, which was also directed by Edgar Wright, Scott Pilgrim V.S. The World took a long time to find its audience. While it had some die-hard fans before the release, due to being based on a graphic novel by Canadian writer Bryan Lee O'Malley, most audience members didn't know what to do with it. Critics seemed to like it, but the film seemed like just too many things at once. And yet... it found its way to becoming a cult-classic. Here's how...
It Was Scott Pilgrim V.S. The Expendables, Julia Roberts, And Seth McFarlane
Thanks to a fascinating inside look at Scott Pilgrim V.S. The World by Entertainment Weekly, we've learned a lot about how poorly the film did when it was released in August 2010. While the movie premiered successfully at Comic-Con in July, the response from the mainstream in August was awful. In fact, the film made just $31 million which worried Universal Pictures and the then co-president of marketing, Michael Moses. After all, they spent $85 million on the film's budget.
After a thrilling premiere at Comic-Con, where the audience just absolutely loved it, Scott Pilgrim V.S. The World went out into the real... well... world...
"It got good reviews, and all the people who were coming to the Q&A’s were really loving it and fervent about it. But that didn’t translate initially," director Edgar Wright explained. "It opened the same weekend as The Expendables and Eat Pray Love. I remember getting an email from Marc Platt, one of the film’s producers, on the Friday asking Universal to put more into the spend and predicting doom for the weekend. And I thought — naively — I thought, Well, it’s only Friday morning, how could they know? They know. It opened at number five. It’s that thing where it becomes a bit of a punch line. I’ve never liked Seth MacFarlane, because that weekend he tweeted 'Scott Pilgrim 0, the World 2.' I was like, f--- you. And then I lay in wait until 8 Million Ways to Die in the West came out, or whatever it was called, and I rubbed my hands with glee. I didn’t tweet anything because I’m not a total monster. But Monday morning Michael Moses sent an email with three words. It was one of the sweetest emails I’ve ever gotten from anybody in the industry. It said, 'Years, not days.'"
According to the Entertainment Weekly interview, the former co-president of marketing, Michael Moses, claims that he probably would redo the marketing push for Scott Pilgrim if he had the chance. Then again, that may not have worked either.
"You always wonder: If you had a chance to redo a campaign, what would you do differently?" Michael said. "I hate that I don’t have an answer for you. I think it may have just been truly a movie that was ahead of its time. So, maybe I would have put it out 10 years later!"
While the movie didn't do well in theaters, it slowly became a cult-classic due to the fact that the people who liked the movie... REALLY LIKED IT... In fact, about three months after the film's release, one critic started calling it a "cult classic" due to that very fact.
The DVD Changed Everything
Remember the days when DVD sales were a thing? Well, that's what saved Scott Pilgrim V.S. The World.
"When the DVD came out, we did a press tour, just carried on promoting it like nothing had happened!" Edgar Wright said. "Scott Pilgrim basically never left release. The New Beverly [Los Angeles repertory cinema] had it on [at] midnight, and it started playing at other places. With most of the movies we love, there’s a tortoise-and-a-hare aspect. The Thing opened at number eight. Big Trouble in Little China didn’t even crack the top 10. I don’t know why I picked two John Carpenter movies, no disrespect to him."
Still, thanks to the DVD sales and the accompanying press tour, Scott Pilgrim V.S. The World got a second wind. However, its growing fanbase still isn't large enough to warrant making a sequel. But the original movie is still out there for people who connect with it...
"There’s something about Scott Pilgrim that’s not like anything else, and a lot of people are looking for that," Actor Mary Elizabeth Winstead said. "They feel they’re not like anybody else or they feel their tastes don’t really line up with what is being made right now. You see that movie and you think, Oh God, this speaks to me; this is what I’ve been looking for!"