As we know, the biggest box office flops (including Jared Leto’s “Tron: Ares”) tend to come in different sizes, depending on budget, distribution, and marketing, which all factor into how a movie ends up performing once sent into cinemas. You’ve probably heard about some of the most infamous ones, like 2003’s disastrous rom-com, “Gigli,” with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, or Ed Wood’s legendary, so-bad-it’s-good 1958 B-horror, “Plan 9 From Outer Space.” But there are those movies, and then there is 2006’s thriller, “Zyzzyx Road,” by John Penney.
Made on a shoestring budget of $1.2 million, starring Katherine Heigl (who shot the pilot for “Grey’s Anatomy” around then), Tom Sizemore, and Leo Grillo, Penney’s directorial debut (which makes it all the more painful) had a limited release at only one cinema in Dallas, Texas. Its plot follows a burned-out accountant, Grant (Grillo), seduced by Heigl’s Marissa in Las Vegas. Her violent ex-boyfriend, Joey (Sizemore), attacks the two, and the altercation leads to him being killed by Grant. That’s what the couple assumes, at least. But when they go to the Mojave Desert to bury Joey, his body seems to have disappeared from their car’s trunk.
“Zyzzyx Road” ran for a week, screened seven times, and made a whopping $30 from the six people that went to see it, according to Entertainment Weekly. Two of those, however, received a $5 refund each since they were the film’s makeup artists, whom Penney wanted to give a chance to see the final result for free. Thus, the net revenue was actually a total of $20. You’re probably wondering how that’s even possible, and the reason, unsurprisingly, has to do with money.
