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SpaghettiLove2 t1_j2676cl wrote

I feel like in order for something to be a cult film it has to stand the test of time

Just because some people on letterboxd like it doesn't mean anything

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Richard_Sauce t1_j26ab1q wrote

Agreed.

Snakes on Plane had a "cult following," up until the day it actually came out. Other movies can initially spark a lot enthusiasm but become quickly forgotten. Cult Films, usually, are slow burns where audiences discover them after the fact. Sometimes that process even takes decades.

Though, how the internet age has affected all of that is definitely up debate.

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ScottRiqui t1_j27sjog wrote

Agreed - I think "Serenity" from 2005 is a good example of a modern(ish) cult film. It was a follow-up movie to a TV show ("Firefly") that only ran for one season twenty years ago. It had a $39 million budget and only grossed $40 million, so it wasn't a commercial success at the time, but it's got an 82% critic score and a 91% audience score so there are a lot of people out there that enjoy/enjoyed it. And you can't go to a con without seeing people cosplaying the characters or selling related merch. Who knows how much of the popularity is from the TV show and how much is from the movie, but regardless - there's still an enthusiastic fanbase ~20 years later for productions that weren't widely successful when they came out.

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Miklonario t1_j267sr0 wrote

That's right, longevity is also a very important factor in what becomes a cult film which is why I said "starting to develop as", and not "empirically categorized as", a distinction which acknowledges this.

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