The lowest-grossing movie of all time
Most movies have high hopes for their box office premiere, and producers eagerly anticipate the moment they can begin to make their cash back from cinemagoers. But, of course, there have been some true box office disasters over the years, with many films grossing far less than their budgets.
Well, perhaps it’s unsurprising that the lowest-grossing movie of all time is actually called The Worst Movie Ever! The film arrived in 2011, an action comedy written, produced, directed by and starring Glenn Berggeotz, with the tagline “It might be the worst movie ever… but it’s the best sci-fi/action/drama/horror/comedy/musical you’ve ever seen”.
The film’s plot is loosely defined as the invasion of a suburban neighbourhood by the several tropes of horror movie characters. Berggeotz once attempted to explain his story, saying: “Boltar, the robot alien, is sent down to Earth to destroy. He decides to wreak havoc on a particular neighbourhood. In this neighbourhood are two angry teenagers (played by two actors with a combined age of 108 years at the time of the shoot).”
He continued: “One of the teen’s mentally challenged identical twin brother; a 14-year old cougar and her 10-year old boyfriend, who has gotten her pregnant; a cleavage-wielding soul-taker who is determined to steal the soul of the mentally challenged teen; and two geeky scientists who try to turn macho and kill Boltar to save the day”.
Well, that’s one way of putting it. The film premiered at the Van Wert Independent Film Festival in Van Wert, Ohio, on July 8th, 2011, in a midnight screening. Just over a month later, on August 19th, The Worst Movie Ever! was released in cinemas. Well, it was released in just one cinema, anyway: the Laemmle Sunset 5 in Los Angeles. The movie performed terribly, with just one person paying the admission fee of $11, and it subsequently took the title of the lowest-grossing movie from the 2006 film Zyzzyx Road.
Berggoetz later explained how he had promoted the film to little effect. “I figured I would promote the film as I had done with my previous film that received a theatrical release… do a bunch of social networking through e-mail and Facebook, and contact local media people and schedule interviews and reviews,” he said (via IFC). “I began contacting media outlets in the L.A. area and sending out e-mails and postings.”
The director continued: “As the week wore on… I noticed two things — all of my contacts in L.A. were either busy for the weekend or out of town (I’m based in Denver, but a number of my previous cast members from other projects live in the L.A. area), and not one of the many media people in L.A. were getting back to me. I began to worry.”
Worry he should have because just one person went to see Berggoetz’s film, leading to an ongoing search to find the lucky person. Over the years, the film has developed something of a cult following, given its unwanted title, and the trailer for the film alone now has nearly 400,000 views on YouTube.
Check it out below.
