Today in History - February 25: Only six people saw the biggest flop of all time

The biggest box office flop of all time had its cinematic premiere on February 25, 2006.

Zyzzyx Road opened at the Highland Park Village in Dallas, Texas.

The producer had paid the cinema $US1000 to screen the movie at noon every day for a week.

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And despite the cheap $5 tickets, it grossed just $30, meaning only six people went to see it.

Two of those tickets were sold to the film's makeup artist and her friend.

But the film's star, Leo Grillo, felt so sorry she had paid money to see it that he gave her the money back.

There was a logical reason for the film screening in just one cinema for just one week.

Under union rules, there were minimum actor salaries for straight-to-DVD movies.

But if the film had a cinema release, the producers could pay the actors less. 

In spite of the skimpy salaries, they managed to cast two big-name actors for the movie.

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Katherine Heigl agreed to make the film in 2004, before her star-making turn on Grey's Anatomy the following year.

Two weeks before the release of Zyzzyx Road, Heigl was at the Golden Globes as a nominee.

Her following movie, Knocked Up, made more than $200 million at the box office.

Meanwhile, actor Tom Sizemore was at a low ebb in his career thanks to his drug addiction.

Already on probation, he had been arrested for possession. Luckily for the filmmakers, he was allowed to finish his scenes in the movie.

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Zyzzyx Road is a thriller with a supernatural element to it. Filmed over 20 days and for a budget of US$1.2 million, it was very much done on the cheap.

It has been reported that despite selling just six tickets, it ended up making a profit on DVD sales.

It is not to be confused with Zzyzx, another thriller released just three weeks earlier.

Both movies are thrillers set on the same remote road in the desert outside of Las Vegas.

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