There are a few directors as imaginative and original as Guillermo del Toro. Even though he's been working in the movie industry for several decades now, he only started directing feature films in the early 1990s and became more influential in the 2000s.
Today, many of his fans can immediately recognize Guillermo del Toro's new movies thanks to his unique visual style as well as the topics he tends to return to. Not all of the director's movies turned out to be major hits, though, as some of them barely covered their budget, and others weren't able to do even that.
11 Cronos (1993): $621,000
The least profitable movie of Guillermo del Toro's career is his first feature movie. While that must have been disappointing for the director, it didn't stop him from continuing in his work, a fact many of his fans are grateful for.
Cronos focuses on a device that can provide people with eternal life, and the chaos and destruction it causes. The movie didn't make even half of its $2 million budget. It shows that sometimes a movie's quality isn't reflected in its overall profit as Cronos is ultimately an enjoyable piece for all sci-fi fans who want to think when watching a movie.
10 The Devil's Backbone (2001): $6.5 Million
One of Guillermo del Toro's earliest and least profitable movies already strongly showcases what the audience can expect from the director. Just like Pan's Labyrinth, The Devil's Backbone takes place during the Spanish Civil War but is quite possibly even scarier.
Its hero is a young boy, Carlos, who goes to live in an orphanage and discovers there might be something sinister going on. The movie will keep the audience invested from the start to finish, and even though it barely made its $4.5 million budget, it shouldn't be underestimated.
9 Nightmare Alley (2021): $6.6 Million
Del Toro's latest movie is this tension-filled crime thriller. Bradley Cooper plays an ambitious artist who can manipulate people. However, when he encounters the psychiatrist Lilith (Cate Blanchett), it seems that he has met his match. Unless Lilith proves even more dangerous......
Nightmare Alley is a must-watch movie for all fans of Cooper and Blanchett, who give excellent performances. It's difficult to decide who to cheer on in this intelligent game of cat and mouse. As of the 30th of December 2021, Nightmare Alley only made $6.6 million with a budget of $2.8 million, but the two-and-a-half-hour movie may yet earn more.
8 Mimic (1997): $25 Million
Even though Mimic made more money than some of other Guillermo del Toro's movies, it failed to return its $30 million budget. However, that doesn't reflect the movie's quality.
Mimic is ultimately a frightening and compelling story about a scientifically created insect that was originally tasked to destroy cockroaches transmitting diseases. It turned against humans instead. Even though the movie had a lower budget, it still manages to captivate the audience and make them fear for the heroes considering the enemies they face.
7 Crimson Peak (2015): $74 Million
Guillermo del Toro is one of the directors who manage to combine love and terror. This movie is no exception. Young Edith, who's a talented writer, falls in love and follows her husband Thomas to his strange house where Thomas lives only with his sister.
Crimson Peak gives a lot of space to Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, and Jessica Chastain to give excellent acting performances, but it's also visually beautiful and will keep the audience guessing what exactly is going on in Thomas's house. Gothic horrors, unfortunately, aren't as popular as other genres, so the movie only made $74 million with a budget of $55 million.
6 Pan's Labyrinth (2006): $83 Million
Despite the movie's visual brilliance and a captivating and touching story, it didn't earn as much money as it would have deserved. Whatever the reason for this was, Pan's Labyrinth is worth watching for everybody who enjoys intelligent fantasy movies.
It takes place in Spain during the civil war and focuses on a young girl, Ophelia, who might or might not be the long-lost princess of a hidden kingdom. The way the movie combined the terrors of war and the beauty of a child's imagination makes it a story that the audience will remember even long after watching it.
5 Hellboy (2004): $99 Million
Even though Hellboy cost $66 million to make and only earned $99 million, it was still successful and well-rated enough to warrant a sequel. Ron Perlman shined as the titular Hellboy, who is forced to take on multiple enemies, including the sorcerer Grigori Rasputin.
All fans of comic books and action movies based on them will enjoy Hellboy as it's clever, fast-paced, and also funny at times. Had Hellboy premiered later when the superhero craze truly went off, it could have possibly earned even more money than it did.
4 Blade II (2002): $155 Million
Even though many people forget his importance for the genre, Guillermo del Toro was one of the few people who managed to prove in the late 1990s and early 2000s that comic book-based movies with superheroes can work and come out well.
It helped that Wesley Snipes as Blade is the ultimate tough hero who goes against Reapers, vampires feeding on other vampires, this time around. With Blade's future appearance in the MCU, it's the ideal time to watch the older movies and get to know the complex hero better.
3 Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (2008): $168 Million
These days, it's difficult to imagine any comic book movie making less than half a million dollars, but in 2008, this was not yet so common. Ron Perlman reprised his role of Hellboy in the movie inspired by Mike Mignola's comic books.
This time, Hellboy has his hands full as he's not only dealing with his personal life but also will have to take on the feared Golden Army. Many fans loved the series and were disappointed that it didn't get a third movie as Hellboy 2 leaves some questions unanswered, but still entertains all fans of the genre.
2 The Shape Of Water (2017): $195 Million
Viewers looking for an unusual love story shouldn't miss out on watching The Shape of Water. Sally Hawkins stars as a mute cleaner, Eliza, who falls for a strange Amphibian man who was captured by the government and experimented on.
Moments of love and understanding between the two heroes who feel like outcasts are interrupted by danger as Eliza's boss, the agent Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon), doesn't shy away from hurting or even killing others. The movie's strange poetic worked and it made $195 million with a budget of only $19 million. Even more importantly, it won an Academy Award for the Best Picture.
1 Pacific Rim (2013): $411 Million
The success of this movie (it made $411 million and cost $190 million to make) proves that sci-fi action movies are still popular. Especially if they include giant robots and kaiju beating each other.
Pacific Rim fulfills the definition of an action-filled summer blockbuster, as its fight scenes are a joy to watch for all fans of this genre. It was successful enough to get a sequel in 2018 called Pacific Rim: Uprising, which was, however, directed by Steven S. Knight, not Guillermo del Toro.