Film initially cut becomes failure (4)
I believe the answer is:
flop
'failure' is the definition.
(flop is a kind of failure)
'film initially cut' is the wordplay.
'initially' suggests taking the first letters.
'cut' becomes 'lop' (lopping is a kind of cutting**).
The initial letter of 'film' is 'f'.
'f'+'lop'='FLOP'
'becomes' is the link.
(Other definitions for flop that I've seen before include "Utter failure" , "Fail" , "crash" , "Community cards in poker" , "Total failure; fall heavily" .)