Michael J. Fox was enjoying plenty of success in the early 80s, starring in the TV show Family Ties.

In 1985, Back to the Future hit theatres. It brought in $381M on a budget of $19M, paying a whopping $20.06 in revenue for each budget dollar, and it was the first in a 3-part franchise.

But, astounding as that is, Teen Wolf was also released in 1985 and, while it "only" brought in $80M, it did so over a budget of - get this - $1.2M, paying a ridiculous $66.67 in ROI.

In my movie ROI database with almost 2,500 titles from 1926 to 2022, there have only been 37 films to pay $66 or better, putting Teen Wolf in the top 1.5% most profitable movies of all time.

Teen Wolf.

The joke is, critics were less than thrilled with this movie. Producers? Well, Atlantic Entertainment Group laughed all the way to the bank!...until they got into financial trouble and were sold off in 1989, which itself is wild since it had overwhelming financial success with another of its titles, Valley Girl (1983, paid $49.55). Still, its misses piled up higher than its hits and, after 15 years in the business, they were out.