Box Office Poison

From Freaks to Land of the Pharaohs, Dune to Speed 2, and Catwoman to Cats - a riotous and revealing story of Hollywood's most spectacular flops.

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'Hugely entertaining.' Prospect
'An instant classic.' Andrew O'Hagan, author of Caledonian Road
'Expertly researched.' Sight & Sound
'A rollicking, gossipy triumph.' Daily Telegraph *****
'Wildly enjoyable.' Guardian

'Failure fascinates, for all the reasons that success is a drag . . .'

From grand follies to misunderstood masterpieces, disastrous sequels to catastrophic literary adaptations, Tim Robey's hugely entertaining Box Office Poison tells an alternative history of Hollywood, through a century of its most notable flops.

Freaks, Land of the Pharaohs, Dune, Speed 2, Catwoman, Cats: what can these films tell us about the Hollywood system, the public's appetite - or lack of it - and the circumstances that saw such box office disasters actually made? Away from the canon, here is the definitive take on these ill-fated, but essential celluloid failures.