When it came out in late August, Oogieloves In The BIG Balloon Adventure was the target of one joke headline after another. While the film looked like it was aiming to be the next big thing in children's entertainment, and managed to attach actors like Christopher Llyod, Cary Elwes and Cloris Leachman, it wound up only making $443,901 dollars in its opening weekend and ranked all the way back at #26 on the box office chart. But as big a disaster as Oogieloves was, it's not even close to the lowest grossing title of the year.
That prestigious honor, according to Movieline, belongs to the Christian Slater-starring thriller Playback. According to the site's statistics, the movie only ever made it into one theater and it only lasted for one week, pulling in a grand total of $264 (and that number isn't missing any zeros). It sold $252 worth of tickets opening night, and then only made $12 for the rest of the engagement. Based on current average ticket prices, that means only approximately 33 people actually went to go see in theatrically.
I can't say that I'm all too surprised by this news. The only reason I've even heard of Playback was because I wrote up an article about the trailer all the way back in January - and even then I couldn't make heads or tails of its plot. But now I find myself curious for more details. Where exactly was this one theater that played the movie? Who were the 33 people who actually decided that they wanted to see it? What did they think? Has anyone seen the movie on VOD since? My brain is spinning.
