Top 10 Movies That Were Pulled From Theatres The FASTEST

“Jem” the animated television series had a decent run back in the 80s and aired for three years and 65 episodes from 1985-88. Considering it was one of the top kids’ programs during that period, one could maybe see why studios would want to make a movie based on the series. However, it turns out that over 25 years later - no one wanted to watch that movie. Was it because it sucked - or because the “Jem” character didn’t mean anything to people by 2015? We might never know the whole truth, but the fact that it was barely recognizable from the source material definitely didn’t help. What we also know is that the film had the worst opening weekend of the year and it was pulled out of cinemas 18 days after it premiered on November 10th. This was a move that one reporter called “unheard of… for a movie that was in theaters nationwide.”

In the ‘80s, the Garbage Pail Kids were sticker trading cards produced to capitalize on the mega-popular Cabbage Patch Kids dolls. The rude and pun-filled gross-out cards were released in 1985 and got popular enough that just two years later, “The Garbage Pail Kids Movie” was made. But unfortunately, the film lived up to its name. Hated by critics and audiences alike, “The Garbage Pail Kids Movie” is often cited as one of the worst movies ever. Premiering on August 21, 1987 in just 374 theaters, it grossed a measly $1.6 million before being pulled. While the precise length of its theatrical run is unknown, the movie didn’t play for more than a few weeks; even prompting the cancellation of a September 1987 debut of a planned animated series.

“Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey” was a low-budget slasher film released in 2023 that puts a gory, horror spin on the classic children’s stories about the titular bear. The movie was shot in 10 days, which is very quick - but it’s actually longer than the movie lasted in theaters upon its release. To be fair, the initial idea was to make it a one-night event across multiple countries. However, the critically panned film gained enough momentum that plans changed; after its 9 February dates earned it considerable box office success, it got an extra 7-day run in the U.S. in March. So, in this case the short run was actually longer than initially expected .

In the 1980s, Walt Disney Productions made “The Watcher in the Woods'' in an attempt to reach the young adult audience. The supernatural horror movie starred the iconic Bette Davis, who made some amazing movies throughout her career… needless to say this was not one of them. And if you’re thinking that you saw the film and it wasn’t that bad - well, you probably didn’t see the version they initially released into theaters. That’s because that version was pulled from cinemas after 10 days. The version they released a year and a half later had entire scenes removed and a completely different conclusion. The re-release didn’t end up doing too much better than the original, only grossing $5 million at the box office.

It probably isn’t hard to imagine a horror film about a spree killer in a Santa costume being, at least somewhat, controversial. A murderous Santa Claus and posters featuring an ax-wielding St. Nick descending down a chimney aren't exactly family-friendly holiday images. The outcry over the film’s marketing was actually so bad that the studio removed all its advertisements just 6 days after the movie hit theaters. And it wasn’t long after that they pulled the movie as well. But to give it credit, the now-cult film made an impressive $2.5 million in that short time - compared to its budget of only $750,000.

With voice acting from stars like Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt and Val Kilmer - as well as winning Best Feature Film at the Brazilian Anima Mundi festival - the studio probably had high hopes for “Delgo”. Well, those hopes weren’t just dashed - they were smashed to smithereens after the film opened to terrible reviews and less than $1 million in its first week - against a $40 million budget. What about its second week, you ask? Well, we will never know, because the adventure fantasy was pulled from theaters after those tremendously-disappointing first seven days.

Unless you were living in New York in 1980, there’s a good chance you’ve never seen the first-released cut of Michael Cimino’s “Heaven’s Gate”. And that’s because that 3 hours and 39 minutes version of the film so underperformed critically and with NYC audiences that it was pulled - and the world-wide release was put on hold. It did come though - about five months later - after Cimino had paired it down to 2 hours and 29 minutes. However, it didn’t do much better the second time - grossing about $3.5 million, and only lasting in theaters for about 2 weeks this time around.

“Postal” was a rude, offensive and critically-destroyed political satire that only lasted two weeks in Italian theaters in 2008. That’s not good, but it’s 100% better than what the Uwe Boll video game adaptation did in North America a few months earlier. In fact, it was lucky to even get released in the United States after all the controversy led multiple theater distributors to pull their widescreen support - limiting the movie to play on just 4 screens across the country. By the time it was actually released on May 23, that number had jumped to 21 - but after one week the film was gone from those cinemas as well.

When it comes to turning “Saturday Night Live” sketches into movies - sometimes you get great movies that make tons of money like “Wayne’s World”, and sometimes you get “It’s Pat”. Initially, Julia Sweeney wasn’t too keen on turning her sketch into a full-length film, saying “I just didn't know how we could make it last for two hours.” Well, they didn’t, as the film clocked it at just 78 minutes long. But even at that short length, it was about 75 minutes longer than it should’ve been, and it would appear that everyone knew it. The movie was released into just 33 theaters in three cities and was pulled from all of them after the opening weekend - at least according to what most sources report.

A movie about the origins of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), probably sounded like a good idea to the world governing body of association football, who mostly financed the film. But it didn’t look good to critics and audiences when the movie came out in North America in 2015 right as the arrests and corruption case against the organization were happening. The film, as you might imagine, took a very executive-friendly view and that didn’t sit well with most everyone who wasn’t FIFA. The film opened in just 10 theaters in the United States, and didn’t even manage to gross $1000 in its opening weekend. Needless to say it was pulled not too long after that, though the exact number of days has never been confirmed.