Ben-Hur (1959 film) the box office), generating approximately $74.7 million in box office sales. Outside of North America, it earned $32.5 million in rentals (about $72.2 million at the box office) for a worldwide total of $66.1 million in rental earnings, roughly equivalent to $146.9 million in box office receipts. It was the fastest-grossing film as well as the highest-grossing film of 1959, in the process becoming the second-highest-grossing film of all-time (at that time) behind "Gone with the Wind". "Ben-Hur" saved MGM from financial disaster, making a profit of $20,409,000 on its initial release, and another $10.1 million in profits when re-released
Box-office bomb to a loss of nearly $140 million—the largest box office bomb of all time in nominal dollar terms. Despite this loss, the decision to close the production company had been made a year prior to the film's release. The 2006 independent movie "Zyzzyx Road" made just $30 at the US box office. The film, with a budget of $1.2 million and starring Tom Sizemore and Katherine Heigl, owes its tiny revenue to its limited box-office release — just six days in a single theater in Dallas for the purpose of meeting SAG requirements — rather than its ability to attract