Akos Peterbencze is an entertainment writer with a degree in television and media. He has a deep knowledge of television shows that helped him craft his writing style over two decades.
) tend to come in different sizes, depending on budget, distribution, and marketing, which all factor into how a movie ends up performing once sent into cinemas. You've probably heard about some of the most infamous ones, like 2003's disastrous,"Gigli," with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, or Ed Wood's legendary, so-bad-it's-good 1958 B-horror,"Plan 9 From Outer Space.
" But there are those movies, and then there is 2006's thriller,"Zyzzyx Road," by John Penney. Made on a shoestring budget of $1.2 million, starring Katherine Heigl , Tom Sizemore, and Leo Grillo, Penney's directorial debut had a limited release at only one cinema in Dallas, Texas. Its plot follows a burned-out accountant, Grant , seduced by Heigl's Marissa in Las Vegas. Her violent ex-boyfriend, Joey , attacks the two, and the altercation leads to him being killed by Grant. That's what the couple assumes, at least. But when they go to the Mojave Desert to bury Joey, his body seems to have disappeared from their car's trunk. "Zyzzyx Road" ran for a week, screened seven times, and made a whopping $30 from the six people that went to see it, according to. Two of those, however, received a $5 refund each since they were the film's makeup artists, whom Penney wanted to give a chance to see the final result for free. Thus, the net revenue was actually a total of $20. You're probably wondering how that's even possible, and the reason, unsurprisingly, has to do with money.As EW reported in its coverage, Penney had to send the film into theaters to avoid paying its stars a higher salary due to a Screen Actors Guild agreement. His solution was to rent out an entire cinema for a flat fee of $1,000 until the required one-week period had passed. It was not a proper release, so Penney didn't care much for revenue from the screenings since"Zyzzyx Road" wasn't supposed to have a theatrical release at all. The writer-director was in a negotiation to secure deals for his picture's international DVD sales at the time, through which he eventually got around $368,000. The problem was that once a small news outlet, CHUD.com, reported the story about the film's low earnings, the major ones also began to run with it. In no time,"Zyzzyx Road" became the movie that made no money with all the negative reputation that comes with that label. However, since there's no such thing as bad publicity,"Zyzzyx Road" ended up drawing the public's interest due to its sensationalistic nature and eventually secured a domestic DVD release in North America in 2010. Penney even ended up releasing a collector's edition Blu-ray, includingabout the whole fiasco that surrounded the 2006 release and how the film became the lowest-grossing movie ever in U.S. history.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
27 Years Ago, A Nostalgic ‘90s Anime Debuted (& It’s Been Reinventing Itself Ever Since)One of the most nostalgic '90s anime debuted 27 years ago this month, and it's still reinventing itself to this day.
Read more »
16 Years Ago Today, The Disney Era’s Best Power Rangers Show Debuted16 Years Ago Today, The Disney Era's Best Power Rangers Show Made Its Debut (And It Still Holds Up)
Read more »
40 Years Ago Today, An Underrated Fantasy Franchise Was Launched & It's About To Live AgainChristopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod holding a sword in Highlander
Read more »
27 Years Ago, Marvel Changed Movie History Forever With a $3.95 Billion FumbleSpider-Man and the Avengers head to the sunlight in Avengers Infinity War and Endgame MCU concept art
Read more »
31 Years Ago, Nicole Kidman Gave The Best Performance Of Her Career In This Underrated GemNicole Kidman does a weather report in To Die For
Read more »
58 Years Ago, Star Trek Confirmed Captain Kirk’s Surprising Super Power Was Very RealIt's shocking how many times Captain Kirk was able to induce self-destruction throughout Star Trek: The Original Series.
Read more »