Box Office Poison

Hollywood's Story in a Century of Flops

By: Tim Robey

Narrated by: Tim Robey

"A wild success." — Publishers Weekly

"A surefire hit." —Library Journal STARRED review

"A brilliant star turn." —Andrew O’Hagan

A riotous and revealing story of Hollywood’s most spectacular flops and how they ended careers, bankrupted studios and changed film history.

"Failure fascinates, for all the reasons that success is a drag…”

From grand follies to misunderstood masterpieces, disastrous sequels to catastrophic literary adaptations, Box Office Poison tells a hugely entertaining alternative history of Hollywood, through a century of its most notable flops. What can these films tell us about the Hollywood system, the public’s appetite–or lack of it–and the circumstances that saw such flops actually made? Away from the canon, this is the definitive take on these ill-fated, but essential celluloid failures.

Robey covers a vast century of flops, including: Intolerance; Queen Kelly; Freaks; Sylvia Scarlett; The Magnificent Ambersons; Land of the Pharoahs; Doctor Dolittle; Sorcerer; Dune; The Adventures of Baron Munchausen; Nothing But Trouble; The Hudsucker Proxy; Cutthroat Island; Speed 2: Cruise Control; Babe: Pig in the City; Supernova; Rollerball; The Adventures of Pluto Nash; Gigli; Alexander; Catwoman; A Sound of Thunder; Speed Racer; Synecdoche, New York; Pan; and Cats.

From Daily Telegraph film critic Tim Robey, this is a brilliantly fun exploration of human nature and stupidity in some of the greatest film flops throughout history.

Interesting coverage of the topic, but the author was the wrong choice to read it

Despite the potential of humorous delivery at points, the matter of fact reading of the work by the writer is the main concern I had with this otherwise good overview of movie production and marketing history.

The ending

I was really hoping that it would come full circle, and it did. The author even used that exact phrase at the end. Wrapped up perfectly.

So biting and snarky !

The author knows the history , industry and art of Hollywood. He is a hilarious critic

Great book, iffy narration

For a book this interesting and filled with great stories, anecdotes, behind-the-scenes drama, and hidden secrets, ya think they would have gotten a better narrator. Sure, getting the author to do their own audio book is always a plus....except in this case where Tim Robey sounds like an A.I. generated Brit! Little to no emotion, flat, dull, and boring. It needed someone with an upbeat tempo, charisma, and emotion in their voice to really sell this book.

Authors humor (or really humour) comes out so well in the style of his narration. He is FUNNY in that dry in English way.

Cannot say enough good about this book. Interesting stories well told. Great author narration too. Recommend.