Fact: After box office failure, a Warner Brothers Executive approved 320,000 copies of the Shawshank Redemption 1994 flick despite the math. What resulted was the highest grossing VHS sales for 1995.
In 1994, the Shawshank Redemption real story was that the movie was a box office disaster. Tom Hanks was supposed to play the role of Andy Dufresne, but passed on the movie due to shooting Forrest Gump. With a nasty start, Warner Brothers still decided to ship 320,000 copies of the VHS flick.
A spokesperson stated that this shipment was “out of whack” seeing the poor box office result. A Warner Brothers Exec who loved the film ignored the math and placed the order. In the end, it was the greatest blunder the Warner Brothers and that executive ever made when the Shawshank Redemption had the highest grossing VHS sales of 1995.
