Box Office Bombs - What pinball tables from this list do you want in TPA? Take 2!

Note: I didn't setup the original poll properly - so this one should be fixed. If you voted previously - please do so again,up to three choices.



I've wanted to post a pinball poll on here for some time - but I wanted to have a bit of fun with it. So as I was looking at the Top 300 list at Pinside - this idea popped into my head.

So, my choices for this poll were any film that didn't make back it's budget here in the US. Using that criteria - I came up with ten box office bombs as your picks. Notable omissions from this list are:

Stargate- While the film didn't do extremely well at the box office,it did better than what the critics said it would make. It was later turned into a successful tv series - not to mention that we probably don't have the films Independence Day,The Day After Tomorrow, & 2012 if the film had tanked.(Not to mention another flick on this list - but I'll get to that) For the record - I like the pin & I hope it makes it into TPA someday.

Congo- Box office take was a huge let down from Jurassic Park, (both films based on novels by Michael Crichton) but still made enough cash to qualify it as a success.

Godzilla- Yes,the movie was awful. After all was said and done - IMO,the best parts of Godzilla were the awesome teaser trailer with the for crashing into the museum,and the fact that Armageddon makes fun of it in the opening segment of that film. Yet,for all it's cheesiness - it did make some money & a pretty decent animated series based on the film.


Because it's my poll - I'm adding Krull,because of the extreme rarity of the pinball table,that really cool looking glave,and the fact that the movie bombed badly. So that makes eleven total.

You can vote up to three times if you'd like - and discuss why you voted the way you did. I'll post my picks later.

That's better, thanks! At the risk of repeating myself, here's my reasoning (edited now the poll works).

Demolition Man is a fun movie, with three huge stars in it - Sly Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock - and the pin is free-flowing with a great claw toy.

The Shadow, I think I saw the movie once, after I'd played the pin, and wasn't overly impressed. The pin though is fantastic fun, but it has those extra blue buttons to control the ramp diverters, could make the controls a bit iffy.

Starship Troopers the movie <> Starship Troopers the book. Which is a good thing, because blowing up bugs is far more entertaining than political lecturing. The pin, I played a bit, but not as much as Demolition Man or The Shadow, and I recall liking it.

Of the remaining tables up there, I've only played LAH (bad pin based on a bad movie) and Frankenstein (entertaining enough pin for a while, never saw the movie).

There is a Meteor in the background in the move Dodgeball (it's in the break room at Average Joe's Gym), which I watched on cable at the weekend....

The Shadow, Flash Gordon, Johnny Mnemonic.

I voted flash gordon. It's the only pinball machine I played from the list IRL because my brother had it years ago, so... ^^

The only one I want in this category is Congo.

Gary

Flash Gordon is supposed to be a decent game, isn't it? I loved that movie as a child.

jkonami said:

Flash Gordon is supposed to be a decent game, isn't it? I loved that movie as a child.

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I've never played the pin,but the film is a cult favorite of mine. Extremely cheesy,but fun. Also,the score/soundtrack by Queen is brilliant!

Krull - Rare, cool music, three level playfield, loved this movie as a kid, probably less than 10 in existence. Did I mention...rare. So few have played one.

The Shadow - Unique, player controlled ramp diverter system. I dig the movie. Brian Eddy's first (out of only three) game.

Johnny Mnemonic - Fast, fast, fast. Love the orbits. Good rules and Power Down is awesome.

Demolition Man! NAOOOOOOOOObut seriously my other choices are Last Action Hero and The Shadow

Back to the future

Good poll. For some reason I still think of Congo as more of a bomb than Waterworld (big overseas box office and top 10 movie in the US for that year but such a huge budget) or the Shadow. I had no idea it did as well as it had until I read your tidbit.

Dedpop said:

Back to the future

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Back to the Future was a Box Office Smash - hence it's omission in this poll. Is the table any good . I've never seen one in person...

Bowflex said:

Good poll. For some reason I still think of Congo as more of a bomb than Waterworld (big overseas box office and top 10 movie in the US for that year but such a huge budget) or the Shadow. I had no idea it did as well as it had until I read your tidbit.

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I think of Congo as a bomb also - but the return numbers say otherwise. I LOVE Waterworld,BTW - (movie,not the pin)

Nightwing said:

Back to the Future was a Box Office Smash - hence it's omission in this poll. Is the table any good . I've never seen one in person...

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I played it a lot. It's really one of my favourite. Some say it's a bit simple (all in the left ramp), well maybe.
But I remember each sound and (almost) each hour playing on this table.
An underestimated (hope my english is correct) table. I would love to see it appear in TPA.

A box office smash that's true !
Just wanted to mention it.

This was actually a pretty tough poll when it was just one choice, which I thought was more fun that way, but a fun poll none the less.

My choices were:

- Demolition Man
- Last Action Hero
- The Shadow

I've played "Demolition Man" and "Last Action Hero" many, many times in my life, so I'm very familiar with them... both are very fun tables.

As for my third choice, I was torn between "Johnny Mnemonic", "The Shadow", "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein", and "Waterworld". I've never played any of them, but narrowed it down pretty quick after watching a few videos of each.

- I was all for "Johnny Mnemonic" as my third choice, based on how awesome the table looks, but I remembered how goofy the movie was the second I saw the DMDs. Also, the glove ball capture really slows things down. Those two things killed it for me.

- The table on "Waterworld" was just too plain, typical of a Gottlieb. I didn't see it being worthy of inclusion, even though I actually enjoyed the movie.

- I was also all for "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein", but after watching quite a bit of different videos on it, I found myself getting bored. The table is great, lots of eye candy, but for some reason it just didn't sit well with me after a while.

So, I chose "The Shadow". The gameplay looks pretty challenging, I like the idea of the battle area up top in the upper left corner, and most of all a LOT of people really want this table.

(Side note: After checking, I wasn't aware that "Demolition Man" got bad reviews? I'm kind of surprised, it was a big deal back in the day. I remember going to Taco Bell when I was a kid and getting a poster with some kind of combo meal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oubi9HU8t5o lol I love that movie, one of Snipes's best roles, though he should've given a piece of his salary to Dennis Rodman for his blatant ripoff of him. lol)

Shadow, Mnemonic and Gordon.But to be honest i'd be happy to see any of them on TPA.

Can I put in a request for Independence Day? I saw the movie tonight, and then saw the video of the pinball machine; from the gameplay it looked like a flow-oriented machine with many elements of the movie thrown into its design.

Captain B. Zarre said:

Can I put in a request for Independence Day? I saw the movie tonight, and then saw the video of the pinball machine; from the gameplay it looked like a flow-oriented machine with many elements of the movie thrown into its design.

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Some of the movies on this list are certainly not genuine box office bombs but ID4 is most certainly a box office smash.

The Night Flier said:

Some of the movies on this list are certainly not genuine box office bombs but ID4 is most certainly a box office smash.

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ID4 was huge at the box office (1st film I remember hearing in Dolby Digital surround sound,that was something!) so I didn't put in the table as a choice.

As for the rest - I strictly used their original box office take for my criteria. If you look at Flash Gordon now - that is a bonafide cult classic - but back in 1980 it was all about ESB. The same goes for Starship Troopers & Waterworld - both of which have turned a profit through home video sales.