With a meager $30 from the box office, Zyzzyx Road is the lowest-grossing film ever.
Although the movie was created primarily for international distribution, a U.S. theater release was mandated under a Screen Actors Guild contract.
Zyzzyx Road continues to have the lowest box office earnings, while other films with similarly low box office grosses include Storage 24 and The Objective.
Hollywood is home to several billion-dollar blockbuster series, so the fact that the lowest-grossing film ever grossed just $30 may surprise some. Surprisingly, it turned out to be a 2006 feature picture with stars who were well-known at the time rather than a minor flick. The thriller Zyzzyx Road starred Tom Sizemore, who at the time had supporting parts in several successful blockbusters like Saving Private Ryan, Red Planet, Pearl Harbor, and Black Hawk Down, and Katherine Heigl, who was already garnering praise for her portrayal of the beloved Grey's Anatomy character, Izzie Stevens.
Zyzzyx Road—named after the remote Mojave Desert road where it is set—set the bar for box office success so disastrously low only under special conditions. Though the performance and screenplay were undoubtedly more Razzie-worthy than Oscar-worthy, the film's low box office receipts weren't the only reason for it. A highly unique set of circumstances and a Screen Actors Guild contract were required to generate a box office revenue that was less than the price of popcorn, drink, and candies at a contemporary cinema.
Why Zyzzyx Road Only Made $30 and Is The Lowest Grossing Movie Ever?
Leo Grillo, who also appeared in the movie, worked with producer, writer, and director John Penney to make the movie especially for international release (via Entertainment Weekly). They may go on and make other movies if they were able to establish a reputation with Zyzzyx Road. They had a duty to the Screen Actors Guild, which mandated a U.S. theater release for movies under $2.5 million that weren't going direct-to-video, even though they had no intention of releasing the movie domestically.
Grillo and Penney were obliged to come up with a solution after Zyzzyx Road's budget, which Box Office Mojo estimates to be $2 million, fell short of that threshold. It turned out that hiring a single theater in Dallas for $1,000 and screening the movie once a day at noon for a week was the most economical course of action. Six persons paid $5 for tickets, resulting in a $30 profit. One of the six tickets was given to a buddy and one of the makeup artists for the film; Grillo personally reimbursed them.
Is There Another Film That Approaches Zyzzyx Road's Record at the Box Office?
Although Zyzzyx Road's box office receipt seems to have no competition for the lowest ever, other films have brought in less than $100. The second-place finisher is the British alien horror movie Storage 24, which made just $72 but fared rather well in the UK and Turkey when it came to ticket sales. Similar to Zyzzyx Road, the film's studio was required to release the film and have it play in a single theater for a single day.
The Objective is a sci-fi horror movie that opened to barely $95 and is located immediately beyond Storage 24. The Objective, directed by Daniel Myrick, the man behind the smash blockbuster The Blair Witch Project, was in cinemas for little over a week until it was taken out of the running. At least Zyzzyx Road was never meant to be a domestic smash, but The Objective's poor box office profit can't be attributed to a precarious contract position. Dog Eat Dog, Satanic, Paranoid Girls, and other non-$100 items were also available.
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