For movie lovers, Dallas is one of the best cities in Texas to be. From film festivals, to a wide swathe of theaters – ranging from classic drive-ins, historical cinemas, and IMAX experiences – Dallas is a city that appreciates cinema. From a historical perspective, the DFW’s cinema scene has a peculiar legacy. No, we’re not talking about Lee Harvey Oswald hiding out in the Texas Theatre, rather, the time when the lowest grossing movie of all time – selling just six tickets –was screened in just one theater in the U.S in none other than the Highland Park Village Center.
While you might be thinking that such a historic box office bomb to yield less than a dinner and a movie date, must mean that it was some sort of independent flick or student film – you’re sadly mistaken. While not a blockbuster budget, it wasn’t exactly shoestring either at $1.2 million.
Zyzzyx Road was an American thriller made in 2011 from writer, director, and producer, John Penney. The movie starred Katherine Heigl, already of Grey’s Anatomy fame, and renowned character actor, Tom Sizemore, of Heat, Saving Private Ryan, and Black Hawk Down, as well as Leo Grillo was a collaborator with Penney on the film.
Plot-wise, the story is summed as such: An affair between a middle-aged accountant and a seductress in Las Vegas takes a dark turn when her jealous ex-boyfriend, shows up. A violent confrontation ensues, ending with the boyfriend seemingly dead. The two bury the boyfriend’s body off Zyzzyx Road in the Mojave Desert. But when the corpse vanishes, nothing makes sense.
What Penney and Grillo aimed to achieve with the film was overseas distribution, hoping that it would lead to funding and ability to create future projects. As such, the two never planned to release Zyzzyx Road in the U.S. However, the Screen Actor’s Guild mandated a domestic screening for films with budgets below $2.5 million.
In order to save on costs, Penny and Grillo decided to rent a domestic movie theater where they would screen the film just once each day for a week. That theater was the Highland Park Village Center in Dallas.
In total, the film sold just six tickets – two of which purchased by one of the film’s make-up artist and their friend. Grillo, would later refund their tickets personally. As stated, the domestic gross of Zyzzyx Road was $30.
As to why Dallas specifically? The Dallas run was, in essence, a legal checkbox. The theater provided a much cheaper alternative to a theater in say New York or LA. As designed solely to unlock low-budget SAG rates, the company didn’t want any buzz or media attention which also made Dallas a safe bet.
The movie would go on to earn $368,000 in DVD sales across 23 countries.