Why did Sylvia Scarlett hurt Katharine Hepburn’s box-office reputation?

The 1935 film Sylvia Scarlett, directed by George Cukor and starring Katharine Hepburn, contributed to her reputation as "box-office poison" because the film was a commercial failure.1

While Hepburn had previously achieved success, a series of films in the mid-1930s—including Sylvia Scarlett, in which her character masquerades as a boy—failed to resonate with audiences. Following the poor performance of this film, a group of leading film exhibitors labeled her "box-office poison," a reputation that persisted until her career was revitalized by the 1940 film The Philadelphia Story.213