It's a mystery to us why 'The Right Stuff' wasn't a bigger success. It had all the right ingredients, it covered a fascinating period in American history, and it was so highly thought of by critics that it picked up no less than four Academy Awards. The average movie-goer just wasn't as enamored with it as the people handing out awards, and it failed at the box office, putting a further dent in the profits of the Ladd Company.
'The Right Stuff' was set at the dawn of the USA's space program, and painted a gritty, realistic picture of what life was like for those early astronauts. Determined to make their film as true to life as possible, they spent $27m on cutting edge special effects, only to fall $6m short of breaking even at the box office. It just goes to show that there's no such thing as a guaranteed hit when you're in the business of making movies.