The article revisits Bruce Willis's 1999 flop "Breakfast of Champions", a Kurt Vonnegut adaptation the actor produced, financed and starred in the same year "The Sixth Sense" made him roughly $100 million. Despite that blockbuster success, the smaller passion project bombed so badly it disappeared almost immediately, illustrating how one actor's year could contain both a career-defining hit and an almost instantly forgotten failure.

Directed by Alan Rudolph, the $12 million film opened in just seven cinemas and earned only $178,000 before being pulled, later appearing on DVD and VHS but not reaching digital platforms until 2025. Rudolph has said the film became "radioactive" after release, recalling that he only obtained his own copy from a 99-cent bargain bin at a closing-down Wherehouse Records store before the chain shut in 2003. Willis, who played Dwayne Hoover, described the role as "some of my most bizarre work" and defended the film's "literate" ambitions, though critics and audiences largely rejected it, and it remained obscure until a brief 4K re-release in 2024.