2000s Box Office Bombs That Are Actually Worth Watching

By the early 2000s, Robin Williams was quite an unpredictable talent in Hollywood. Though he had gained initial success through stand-up comedy and sitcom performances, he became notable for dramatic work in films like «Good Will Hunting,» which won him an Oscar for best supporting actor, as well as «Dead Poets Society» and «One Hour Photo.» However, one of the actor’s biggest box office bombs of the early 2000s was the Danny DeVito-directed «Death to Smoochy.»

In the film, Williams stars as Rainbow Randolph, a children’s TV star who is fired for his criminal off-show behavior, and replaced with the naive and lovable Smoochy. Angered at being ousted from his job, Randolph opts to have the man underneath the Smoochy costume, played by Edward Norton, killed. What proceeds is a rather dark comedy of errors, though it’s perhaps some of Williams’ best tightrope walking between comedic acting and dramatic prowess. 

Unfortunately, critics did not love the film, with Roger Ebert saying of it, «Only enormously talented people could have made ‘Death to Smoochy.’ Those with lesser gifts would have lacked the nerve to make a film so bad, so miscalculated, so lacking any connection with any possible audience.» Meanwhile, The Village Voice praised both the film’s humor as well as DeVito’s direction. Its box office performance was nevertheless abysmal, grossing $8.3 million against a $50 million budget, but the film might still appeal to some modern audiences, if only for how absurd it is.