7. Forrest Gump
Based on Winston Groom’s novel, Robert Zemeckis‘ adaptation of Forrest Gump emulated the titular character and managed to fail its way to success. Produced on a budget of $55 million, the film managed to pull in over $650 million, a host of Academy Awards, and a place in pop culture history.
And yet, the film still somehow managed to lose all that money. The studio behind the film, Paramount, claimed that the film posted a loss of $62 million owing to Tom Hanks‘ and Zemeckis’ enormous salaries, production costs, marketing, and distribution costs.
Despite being owed 3 per cent of the film’s net profits, Groom has seen none of that money. But unlike most other novelists who were swindled out of royalties from adaptations of their work, Groom was reportedly happy with Paramount’s explanation of their accounting. The seven-figure sum Groom was paid for the rights to Forrest Gump’s sequel probably also had something to do with it.
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