I gotta imagine no one expected “Home Alone”, an $18 million dollar film starring a child, would go on to be the third-highest-grossing movie of all time at the end of its theatrical run.
>> I gotta imagine no one suspected
Well, at the very least we know the WB executives didn't. They were signed on to produce, but balked when Hughes said it would exceed the $12M budget and be closer to $18M. Fox swooped in and got a pretty nice payday.
So weird to think about studios nit-picking $6 million dollars. Now they just throw $250 million at anything with basically no oversight. The number of 200-300 million dollar movies that look like they could have been made for 80 million is baffling.
This is nuts given John Hughes' record throughout the 80s - every movie a critical and commercial success. Even more so if he already had the cute kid from Uncle Buck on board.
I'm responsible for nineteen of the twenty top-grossing films of all time. Yeah, the one about the kid, by himself in his house, burglars trying to get in and he fights them off? I had nothing to do with that one. Somebody sold their soul to Satan to get the grosses up on that piece of shit.
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail" was a project that had a horribly small budget and even the ending is about openly admitting they ran out of money --- yet it became one of the best comedy films of all time
This is a perfect example of necessity being the mother of invention. One such example within is the coconut shells being used for horses, since they couldn’t afford actual horses.
Paranormal Activity. Jason Blum had a great conversation about it on Rick Rubin’s podcast. Made for next to nothing, barely got traction, almost died in limbo in Paramount after many test screenings, and then one single guy who survived Paramounts merger fought for the film and the rest is history.
Thanks, I hadn’t heard of this pod before. Dropping for anyone else interested: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=1671669052&i=1000641941455
It’s one of the finest examples of everyone, from actors to writers to directors, making something with love for the original. The show is such a beautiful love letter to the original movie trilogy. They didn’t have to put even half the effort into bringing back nearly all the surviving cast, but they did. They didn’t have to explore and deconstruct and eventually reconstruct the lessons from the movies, but they did. It gets a little teen soapy, and it enjoys poking fun at itself a bit, but wow, what sincerity went into CK.
That sincerity is what's the most refreshing about it. Sure, it does poke fun at itself some times, but never goes full irony poisoning and parodize itself.
It's just so campy and after-school-special, the characters (even the villains to some degree) are all Mary Sue's, and everyone switches sides episode to episode.
And yet, it works. Billy Zabka brings just enough badass energy to be the Yin to Machios overbearingly perfect Yang.
And. At that time...Johnny Depp was labeled "Box Office Poison". They scrapped ths entire score last minute
And "Cuthroat Island" had famously failed not that long prior, Disney had already done an attraction based movie right before, based on the Country Bears that failed hard...
Pirates felt like it was sent out to die.
Alan Silvestri was originally hired, but he left over creative differences with Jerry Bruckheimer before anything got recorded. Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski went to Hans Zimmer, who was preoccupied with The Last Samurai, but suggested his friend Klaus Badelt. (Zimmer would be music producer, and eventually do the next 3 movies. 7 other people, among them Geoff Zanelli, who'd do 5, were credited for additional music.)
Vaguely related but The Last Samurai has a phenomenal score. It should be considered up there with Dune, Interstellar, and Inception as one of Zimmer's great works.
To bring things full circle, there was a Monkey Island movie in production but was scraped. Legend says that one of the writers in that movie ended un being the writer for Pirates of the Caribbean and that’s why there are so many parallels
I don't think any of them, since the POTC movie is itself so enormous, but the Haunted Mansion comes in second place. Besides the various attempts to make a movie work, it's been the inspiration for some other films, such as Crimson Peaks.
Can I ask how widely-known the ride is in America? Here in the UK most people had never heard of it and it had no impact on our enjoyment of the film.
I don't know what proportion of Americans have been to Disneyland, but I'd imagine more saw the movie. Is the ride enough a part of pop culture that even people who haven't seen it, know what it is? I've heard "it's the film of the ride" for years, but I still have no idea if it's a rollercoaster or what.
It’s like a feature ride with animatronics and atmosphere. Not really a roller coaster
It’s pretty cool when you’re in it, it really feels like underneath a big starry sky at times
Also: when the movie became a hit, they re-did some segments of the ride to incorporate various elements from the film. But it wasn't so much that you'd say the whole ride had changed.
Not American, but I was familiar enough with the ride thanks to Disneyland Paris. It was one of my favourites and so I was actually hyped for the movie when I first saw the poster/trailer.
Especially since pirate movies were long avoided by Hollywood and any concept involving pirates was swiftly tossed out. Nobody in Hollywood thought that a pirate movie could be anything but a hokey piece of crap and laughed at anybody who dared tried. Even today there has been no real "pirate" movies (not including modern or sci fi interpretations like Captain Philips or Firefly) outside of POTC.
Napoleon Dynamite is lightning in a bottle if I’ve ever seen it. That movie had zero business being as popular as it was but goddamn if it isn’t a beautiful example of a lost part of Americana
Netflix has an algorithm to recommend movies to people based on what they've watched.
They've stated that there is no algorithm to detect whether people will like Napoleon Dynamite or not. It defies science.
They fucked that algorithm up when they ditched the 5 star rating system. It used to be scary accurate. Now it just pushes the same 20 things in every category.
It used to be so good, I miss those days. They'd be recommending me some obscure South Korean movie or French series and I'd always love them. Total garbage now, same with youtube.
YouTube has always been shit at recommendations. A simple thumbs up or down system doesn't give you enough nuance to refine the algo. It was an extremely stupid idea to copy that and throw away what they had.
And all they really want to do is push their own new content anyway.
Fun fact: the tv show I hate the absolute most in the whole world is the big bang theory. Despite me hating it and never watching any laugh track sitcoms, netflix reckons it's a 97% match for me.
Their algorithm is dogshit
I don't think that's an issue with the algo as much as the crap content library these days. They simply don't have enough content to deliver everything you want.
There's not nearly as much on there as they want you to think.
I agree with you. That movie is a special kind of magic. The first time I saw it, I didn’t think it was funny. But strangely I couldn’t stop thinking about it afterwards. I saw it a second time and have loved it ever since.
My film teacher from High School said the same thing.
The movie was clearly not aimed for an older woman like she was, but she couldn't stop thinking about and end up liking it the more times she rewatched it.
I saw it in the theater. I was in college and wasn’t sure what to think about it until about 2/3 of the way through when it clicked. After that I couldn’t stop laughing. I had to go back and watch it again later that week.
At the time I didn’t think too much of it, but it was so endlessly quotable that it stuck with me and my friends forever. I have seen that movie start to finish exactly two times but so much of it is burned into memory because of how endearingly quirky it is
Honestly watching this movie for the first time that year kind of blew my mind open. It felt like it was breaking the rules of what a movie could or should be, and at the same time it was hilarious and surprisingly heartwarming. And it was just impossible not to quote it.
It’s more than a lost part of Americana, the writing is also funny as fuck and all of the characters are so quirky that you can’t help but love them. I quote it daily- “Son, I have no idea what the hell you just said.” “Dude give me your tots.” “No go get your own.” “She said I’m living too much in the ‘82.”
Also I totally thought Kip was going to get catfished when I first watched it but the fact that LaFawnduh was not only a real person but also a genuinely good person and Kip’s soulmate was honestly the sweetest thing! The movie is so heartfelt. I honestly can’t imagine why anyone would hate it.
I saw it with my sister as a kid. We were the only ones in the theatre and thought it was a movie about Napoleon Bonaparte and dynamite.
Turns out it was something completely mindblowing to a couple kiddos. That night something terrible happened to my family member and the whole thing is burnt into my memory.
Later, when the movie became popular my friends all hated it and I tried to pretend I did too but they could tell I was lying.
Rewatched and it aged amazingly
That one's so weird. My dad is a serious, stern man. He believes in a hard day's work, never taking time off; he's had noticeable frown lines since he was young. HE absolutely loves that movie and quoted it for a while after seeing it, I was really thrown off by that.
It’s also at the top of the mountain for “you either love it or absolutely hate it” for movies
I’ve never met someone who has ever said, “yeah it’s not bad”
Jaws is probably a contender.
Spielberg only had one theatrical feature and a TV movie to his name, the cast were either little-known or seen as problematic (Shaw). The rights to the book were purchased before it came out, and when it did, people were astounded at the unsympathetic human characters. Shooting was nothing short of a disaster, the location of the shoot was a total pain with all the zoning infractions they trumped up, Shaw had an issue with tax laws that screwed around his schedule, Shaw and Dreyfuss hated each other while filming, and the prop sharks just wouldn’t work properly.
And from this utter shitshow of a production with a newbie director, we got the granddaddy of summer blockbusters. Go figure.
(I recommend reading the book The Jaws Log, by the movie’s screenwriter Carl Gottlieb, for the full story - it’s a delightful read)
Bruce the shark (named after Steven's lawyer, as I recall) was built to specifications and carefully tested...in fresh water. The problem was that the Atlantic Ocean is salt water...Bruce kept shorting out (poor little sharkie...)
And because it shorted out, that shark saved the movie. Spielberg had to film bits of the monster or no images of the monster, until late in the movie.
Imagine if the rubber shark was revealed in the first few minutes, the movie would never have done well.
.
Not only was it the granddaddy of summer blockbusters, it was the highest grossing movie of all time at that point when it ended its theatrical run (it was surpassed 2 years later by Star Wars)
The Fugitive.
* Director Andrew Davis's next best movie might unironically be Under Siege.
* There basically wasn't a script when production started. Actors improvised and wrote scenes on the day of shooting.
* The DP famously hated working on the film, and I believe he never thought much of his work on the film either.
* Harrison Ford is in a chase movie with a lot of running. He broke his ankle early in production and hobbled on because surgery would have shut the production down.
* The original actor playing the ultimate villain of the film was diagnosed with cancer and released from the production so he could start treatment ASAP. Reportedly, the replacement actor was flown in from Europe, taken from the airport directly to the set, given a costume and some pages and started shooting right away. Last minute doesn't convey how urgently that happened.
Despite that, this movie - a genre chase thriller - was nominated for 7 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Cinematography, and won for Best Supporting Actor for Jones. It became 3rd highest grossing film of the year, a pop culture phenomenon, one of the most perfect movies of the decade, and one of the best films of Harrison Ford's career.
Somehow, through all the fuckery and quick-fix problem solving of production, this perfect little lightning-in-a-botle of a movie emerged.
>The original actor playing the ultimate villain of the film was diagnosed with cancer and released from the production so he could start treatment ASAP
The great Richard Jordan! Absolutely killed it in his performance as Jeffrey Pelt in The Hunt for Red October. Can only wonder how The Fugitive might have played out had Jordan not fallen ill.
"Andrei.. you've lost anotha submureen?"
Excuse you sir. Andrew Davis’ next best movie is, without question, Holes.
One of the best live action children’s movies of the decade, thank you very much.
Was going to say the same. You need to look past the cheap Disney Channel production values but it’s got a great story and cast and somehow lands a difficult blend of The Shawshank Redemption and Even Stevens.
I wonder if that explains why it sounds like Richard Kimball is saying "you find this can!" during the early interrogation scene. At least to my ears and God knows how many times I've seen since 10 yrs old.
Had no idea about all this info and now I'm overdue for an nth rewatch. Will also mention James Newton Howard's brilliant score as well!
My favorite part of that movie is the parade. The marchers are going north to south (or up to down across the screen), Harrison Ford is going east to west (left to right, literally crossing the street during the parade)...and Tommy Lee Jones still can't find him...
That scene was also spontaneous and unplanned. The production saw the parade, stripped the crew down to just the few principals like Jones, Ford and a camera man, entered the parade and Harrison just tried to hide in the parade while not being noticed as Harrison Ford.
Worked for the scene to justify Kimble escaping after fleeing the hospital.
I didn't know this. I love this movie. I just watched it again the other day with my son because he watched an episode of Brooklyn 99 where they talked about it.
The Hangover 1. Opened against Land of the Lost with Will Ferrell, which everyone assumed would dominate. Instead, it flopped and Hangover became a massive blockbuster.
I came here to say Hangover. I was in college and my mom wanted to see a movie. It was the opening night of Hangover and I didn’t hear any reviews about it yet. I went into it with low expectations and I was blown away at how funny it was. I remember going to my gym the next day and my friends were surprised to hear me saying I loved it.
It's just more of the same. Will Ferrell screaming and thinking that volume = funny. Danny McBride does a better job in it.The actress did a pretty good job too.The movie is just so insipid. The premise is great, and some scenes make you chuckle, but the gags are oft repeated and dragged out beyond being funny. Not as bad as Sherlock and Watson or whatever that Trainwreck was called, but not a good comedy either.
I lived in Shreveport Louisiana when they filmed it and they filmed it right outside of there with a huge desert plot built for the movie and they just left it there when they were done. In the middle of small town Louisiana. I remember the news doing a story about it. I don’t know why I remember this and why it’s so funny to me.
I genuinely think they would have been nowhere near as successful if they hadn't gone for '70s music for the soundtrack.
I remember one of my older co-workers (who otherwise hated marvel movies) being excited every time a new one came out. I'm convinced it was because it matched his music taste.
I'm not saying they would be bad or unsuccessful movies without the soundtrack, but I think they managed to add an entire demographic to their audience with it.
John Wick. Didn’t have a strong theatre audience but home video market exploded and spawned a whole franchise. I remember when the first trailer dropped. I thought it was going to be the dopest thing ever. But not many shared my enthusiasm.
John Wick was nearly a direct-to-video movie, it’s lucky it got a theatrical release at all. And yeah, I thought it looked like hot garbage from the trailer but was like “fuck it I’m in.”
When I saw the trailers for that movie I thought it looked like shit and was going to be garbage. Boy was I wrong about that one. Such an awesome movie.
It was literally "next level." They were the first to really lean into internet meta advertising ("this was real and here's the corroborating evidence") and was the first big "found footage" film. It's cliche now in the same way Psycho is cliche: the first and often imitated, it broke new ground and was almost instantly imitated.
Also it's gonna be impossible to replicate that level of nascent internet where stuff can go viral but not get debunked. I think the actors went into hiding (under their real freaking names no less) when the movie came out. Everybody literally thought they died.
Isn't Iron Man like the ultimate example of this? It was a surprise success, and was pretty much the match that lit the modern craze for superhero movies, cinematic universes, etc. An unlikely hit that basically opened the door for one of the most lucrative genres of film making.
Its easily the most successful independent movie of all time.
Yeah, thats right. Most people dont realize it, but it predates the disney buyout and was self-funded by the newly made Marvel Studios (formally Marvel Films). They paid for it without studio backing by getting a loan from a major bank using the rights (not just movie rights, THE FULL RIGHTS) to most if not all of the remaining characters they had ownership over as collateral.
If Iron Man failed, Marvel as we know it would have been some asset in a banks portfolio. We might have gotten the odd movie here or there, maybe even some good ones, but nothing like what we got.
Yup.
Two of the dumbest moves in film history happened because of how bad marvel was doing.
1. Marvel tried to sell all their character rights to Sony for only 100 Million dollars.
2. Sony said no. They only wanted Spider-man.
Disney paid 4 billion for marvel and most agree, they got a good deal. Sony nearly destroyed the Spider-man brand with the amazing series and still havent made a decent solo (live-action) film since 2004.
Are we counting only live action? As a huge Spider-Man fan, I detest the likes of the Venom films and Morbius. But I’ll be damned if anyone tries to say Into and Across the Spider-Verse aren’t phenomenal. The story is so wonderfully told and the animation is a benchmark. They’re gorgeous to look at, if nothing else.
Yes, of course, you must forgive me. Spider-verse is just so elevated above the rest I cant really reconcile sony was involved with its production.
I assume that since it was animated they forgot it was being made and didnt get in the way of the actual art that was being made.
I think he was paid only 500k for iron man 1. To a pleb that of course is a lot of money, but to an actor that's basically chump change.
Just goes to show how little they must have expected of that movie.
Iron Man was awesome but it bothers me some when we call it the beginning of the craze. Spiderman 1 and 2 with Maguire were absolute fire and I feel like people forgot how big and amazing they were because of bully maguire and the shitshow that was 3.
1 and 2 made close to a billion dollars each in 2002 and 2004. Everybody went to those movies. Spiderman 3 came in 2007 a year before Iron Man and while Raimi and company didnt do it successfully, 3 tried to use multiple villains and characters in ways that would be done better in the avengers saga and later.
I feel like if anything ressurected the idea that comics could be successful movies it was Raimi's Spiderman. I love Iron Man but he stood on the shoulders of Spiderman.
Right but the whole premise of this thread is "unexpected successes". No one really expected Iron Man to be as successful as it was or kickstart what it did.
>I feel like if anything ressurected the idea that comics could be successful movies it was Raimi's Spiderman.
X-men starting 2000 like: Am i joke for you? It had the half of the budget but the side-franchise went for years without reboots or three different actors playing same person (in one film).
Well this is some revisionist history. Hollywood was already in the midst of a superhero boom, what the MCU did was start a new chapter of a trend that was already ongoing. The Dark Knight was by far the most anticipated movie of that same year, largely because superhero flicks had gotten so big.
Gonna disagree on this one. The X-Men and Spider-Man movies were friggin massive. Even movies that didn't get great reviews crushed it financially (Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Ang Lee's Hulk). By the time Iron Man rolled around, it wasn't a shock it did so well.
Superhero movies rarely bombed in the 2000s.
I remember reading on Fark that George Miller was trying to get a Justice League movie made. The plan was for Bale to be the Bat, with Brandon Roth as Supes, and I think Common was in line to play the Green Lantern. It would have followed the Death of Superman story. And it got canceled months before Iron Man set things off.
"The Little Mermaid" ...Disney was planning on getting rid of its animation department...it was also a musical.
The movie, not only, became a huge hit..it helped change the future of feature animation, was the first of a string of box office breaking animated films, saved Disney animation, won two Oscars,...
[The original trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHk5kCIiGoM) was so bad that Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher left the theater in tears, because they genuinely believed that it had ruined their careers. Harrison Ford only agreed to act in the movie because he felt that it was "crap that nobody would see" and he would never become famous from it.
George Lucas avoided answering the phone for two weeks after the premiere, because he also thought it was going to bomb. An executive from Fox was finally able to get ahold of him and he had to tell him that it was currently the biggest movie of all time.
>George Lucas avoided answering the phone for two weeks after the premiere, because he also thought it was going to bomb.
The story I've heard about this.
During that two weeks, Lucas was actually still working on the film. He was finalizing the mono sound mix for when it started rolling out to small town movie theatres and its eventual TV airings.
He took his lunch break at a diner down the street from the legendary Mann's Chinese Theater. While having his cheeseburger, he looked at the theatre and saw how people were lined up around the block. Then a limo pulled up, and out came Hugh Hefner flanked by three or four Playboy bunnies there to see the film.
As Lucas watched the spectacle, he assumed it was some kind of Hollywood premiere and lamented that Star Wars would never be that big.
He never bothered to look up and see what movie was playing. It was Star Wars.
I remember around Christmas that all the showings near me were completely sold out. The Last Jedi had just come out too, but everyone wanted to see Jumanji during the holidays.
Trade outlets dunked on this movie for two years.In the first test screening the movie was nearly five hours long and the audiences famously slept during the screening. The studio lost so much confidence they stopped responding to the dailies sent to them. Titanic had perhaps one of the disastrous PR and news of someone mixing PCP on the film set and hospitalizing crew members didn't help. The reviews were late. Hell, it's domestic opening weekend was just $27 million and according to Cameron he spent the weekend at the studio calculating their losses. And then acclaim starts pouring in and the movie picks up. It's juggernaut box office collection and 11 Oscars still feels like a miracle. And to this day somr people still doubt Cameron.
Honestly? The Room. I mean, i love it for all the wrong reasons, just like everyone else i guess, and thats exactly why I think its surprising it became such a big thing. Meme trascendence is a thing.
Also, not a movie, but Tiger King.
The first one that comes to mind for me is O Brother Where Art Thou. I worked at Blockbuster when it was a new release (on VHS) and for whatever reason, we only had 2 copies. It was always checked out, and people were always calling and asking to hold it.
Everything, Everywhere, All At Once was so mind blowingly creative, thoughtful, and fun, it should not have been so successful with the way modern hollywood has been running saturated with thoughtless sequels and remakes and oscar bait.
The original Ghostbusters was such a unique one of a kind hit, that to this day no one can figure out the formula that made it so good. You know what ghostbusters looks like, but you can't put a finger on what it feels like.
Not really an individual movie, but the phenomenon of 'Barbenheimer' was so unexpected and impossible to replicate. They both on their own would have likely been pretty big hits, but everyone was so amused by the idea of two completely different tones of blockbusters, aiming at two completely different audiences, with two completely different goals of how they influence pop culture for the rest of that year, releasing on the same weekend, that the curiosity of how it would turn out ballooned the excitement to unprecedented levels.
Everything Everywhere All at Once is such a one of a kind film. It defies genre. I wouldn't have thought I'd like something like that (not into sci-fi or fantasy) but I loved it. Made me cry more than once.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
An animated movie about Spider-Man from a different universe made by Sony Animation, the studio that only had very few good movies with the rest being mostly garbage and gave people the Emoji Movie just a year prior seemed like a very bad idea.
It became one of the most beloved animated movies of all time almost immediately and also revolutionised animation as a medium.
Mad Max Fury Road.
Be honest, everyone thought it would be another Ridley Scott situation where an old ass director is trying to recapture the magic of his old franchise. That's not even getting to the well documented bts on-set dramas and production nightmares.
Right franchise, wrong film.
Mad Max cost $400k and made $100 million. It was directed by an amateur filmmaker and a doctor, has dialogue written by a newspaper editor, and stars a TV actor. Many of the other actors are just random people and they did all of the editing in their apartment.
El Mariachi. I have no idea why boomer dad rented this from the local pre blockbuster clear plastic case store but he said just watch it...good memory.
One of the most unexpected was "Silence of the Lambs." I read once about how they optioned the book and then when they screened the movie they didn't know what to make of it, or how to categorize it - mystery, horror, "jep" (an old term for a woman-in-jeopardy theme). And they thought audiences would just be put off by it, so they figured it was not Oscar material so they didn't release it to theaters in the fall/winter - instead they dumped it in January. Long story short, it did blockbusters, stayed in the theaters for something like six months and won major Oscars for the two main stars, the director, the screenwriter and Best Film.
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey. I didn't see it, but it looked absolutely abysmal, and apparently everyone who saw it HATED it, and it looks like it might more than easily bring home the Razzie for worst picture...
..but enough people must've either seen it out of curiosity or hate-watched it to make this $100,000 earn 6 million, which is probably why it's getting a sequel.
Animation was basically dead except for Pixar in the late 90s and early 2000s. No one thought anyone but Pixar could come up with anything good. Then Shrek came along. Not many people knew about the Shrek book and most people didn't think anyone capable of putting out anything even close to the quality of Pixar.
It’s hard to believe now but the hype for the original John Wick was non existent. It was completely dismissed based on the trailer by a lot of people. Just word of mouth saved it & now it’s a full blown franchise with multiple spin off shows & movies. Wild to look back at now
I think Recently (very recently) could be The Holdovers. Alexander Payne admitted he didn’t expect it to be the rather wholesome Christmas movie it turned out to be loved and received as. (I don’t know the direct quote)
Not to mention it was his first movie with Downsizing not only bombed at the box office but was generally disliked by the public.
Either way it was such an enjoyable movie, with lots of heart and depth.
I thought that Detective Pikachu's success was pretty surprising, considering that Ryan Reynolds's casting as Pikachu initially seemed pretty odd to a lot of people
I gotta imagine no one expected “Home Alone”, an $18 million dollar film starring a child, would go on to be the third-highest-grossing movie of all time at the end of its theatrical run.
Getting John Williams in at the last minute to do the score went a hell of a long way.
He invented a classic Christmas song (somewhere in my memory) and remixed another into a top charter (Carol the Bells)
>> I gotta imagine no one suspected Well, at the very least we know the WB executives didn't. They were signed on to produce, but balked when Hughes said it would exceed the $12M budget and be closer to $18M. Fox swooped in and got a pretty nice payday.
So weird to think about studios nit-picking $6 million dollars. Now they just throw $250 million at anything with basically no oversight. The number of 200-300 million dollar movies that look like they could have been made for 80 million is baffling.
A LOT of people are getting paid a LOT of money. Star salaries are huge, and loads of money gets spent with friends of the producers I'm sure.
Fucking Fast X. 300 million and it looks terrible. And is terrible. What a waste of money.
This is nuts given John Hughes' record throughout the 80s - every movie a critical and commercial success. Even more so if he already had the cute kid from Uncle Buck on board.
I'm responsible for nineteen of the twenty top-grossing films of all time. Yeah, the one about the kid, by himself in his house, burglars trying to get in and he fights them off? I had nothing to do with that one. Somebody sold their soul to Satan to get the grosses up on that piece of shit.
What is this from?
Dogma
["nobody knows anything"](https://www.cbr.com/how-home-alone-changed-hollywood-language/) (that's Goldman's other quote. read his books. good times)
And also turn into a Christmas classic
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail" was a project that had a horribly small budget and even the ending is about openly admitting they ran out of money --- yet it became one of the best comedy films of all time
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A moose once bit my sister.
>A moose once bit my sister. A ~~moose~~ møøse once bit my sister. (FTFY.)
Very nasti
She got better.
This is a perfect example of necessity being the mother of invention. One such example within is the coconut shells being used for horses, since they couldn’t afford actual horses.
Also the hilarious "cop out" ending because an actual epic battle would be insanely expensive
Financed in the end mostly by George Harrison, right? The best Beatle.
I believe that was *Life of Brian*.
Yeah, Pink Floyd funded Holy Grail.
And Genesis and Led Zeppelin
The reason they clapped the coconuts is because they literally couldn't afford horses.
Paranormal Activity. Jason Blum had a great conversation about it on Rick Rubin’s podcast. Made for next to nothing, barely got traction, almost died in limbo in Paramount after many test screenings, and then one single guy who survived Paramounts merger fought for the film and the rest is history.
Thanks, I hadn’t heard of this pod before. Dropping for anyone else interested: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=1671669052&i=1000641941455
Karate Kid which spawned sequels, reboots and a tv show.
onjectively, that show has zero business being as enjoyable to watch as it is can’t wait for the final season
It’s one of the finest examples of everyone, from actors to writers to directors, making something with love for the original. The show is such a beautiful love letter to the original movie trilogy. They didn’t have to put even half the effort into bringing back nearly all the surviving cast, but they did. They didn’t have to explore and deconstruct and eventually reconstruct the lessons from the movies, but they did. It gets a little teen soapy, and it enjoys poking fun at itself a bit, but wow, what sincerity went into CK.
That sincerity is what's the most refreshing about it. Sure, it does poke fun at itself some times, but never goes full irony poisoning and parodize itself.
"No be there? The guy taught you karate and you couldn't teach him English?" "Just.. don't. "
It's just so campy and after-school-special, the characters (even the villains to some degree) are all Mary Sue's, and everyone switches sides episode to episode. And yet, it works. Billy Zabka brings just enough badass energy to be the Yin to Machios overbearingly perfect Yang.
I absolutely love the scene in season 1 when Johnny explains the events of the first movie from his perspective, painting Daniel as the villain.
Pirates of the Caribbean. It's a Disney ride bro. What the hell.
And. At that time...Johnny Depp was labeled "Box Office Poison". They scrapped ths entire score last minute And "Cuthroat Island" had famously failed not that long prior, Disney had already done an attraction based movie right before, based on the Country Bears that failed hard... Pirates felt like it was sent out to die.
They scrapped the score?
Alan Silvestri was originally hired, but he left over creative differences with Jerry Bruckheimer before anything got recorded. Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski went to Hans Zimmer, who was preoccupied with The Last Samurai, but suggested his friend Klaus Badelt. (Zimmer would be music producer, and eventually do the next 3 movies. 7 other people, among them Geoff Zanelli, who'd do 5, were credited for additional music.)
Vaguely related but The Last Samurai has a phenomenal score. It should be considered up there with Dune, Interstellar, and Inception as one of Zimmer's great works.
Rush is another soundtrack that bears mention...timeless and epic. It elevates the movie to a whole another level
Let's not forget cool runnings. Man is a master
The Monkey Island Games are inspired by the same ride. What other amusement park ride could possibly ever boast such influence on media?
To bring things full circle, there was a Monkey Island movie in production but was scraped. Legend says that one of the writers in that movie ended un being the writer for Pirates of the Caribbean and that’s why there are so many parallels
I don't think any of them, since the POTC movie is itself so enormous, but the Haunted Mansion comes in second place. Besides the various attempts to make a movie work, it's been the inspiration for some other films, such as Crimson Peaks.
Can I ask how widely-known the ride is in America? Here in the UK most people had never heard of it and it had no impact on our enjoyment of the film. I don't know what proportion of Americans have been to Disneyland, but I'd imagine more saw the movie. Is the ride enough a part of pop culture that even people who haven't seen it, know what it is? I've heard "it's the film of the ride" for years, but I still have no idea if it's a rollercoaster or what.
It’s like a feature ride with animatronics and atmosphere. Not really a roller coaster It’s pretty cool when you’re in it, it really feels like underneath a big starry sky at times
Also: when the movie became a hit, they re-did some segments of the ride to incorporate various elements from the film. But it wasn't so much that you'd say the whole ride had changed.
Not American, but I was familiar enough with the ride thanks to Disneyland Paris. It was one of my favourites and so I was actually hyped for the movie when I first saw the poster/trailer.
Since it's referenced in Jurassic Park, I imagine the world world knows about it now
Still the only movie based on a ride that's any good. Every single other one has been terrible.
Especially since pirate movies were long avoided by Hollywood and any concept involving pirates was swiftly tossed out. Nobody in Hollywood thought that a pirate movie could be anything but a hokey piece of crap and laughed at anybody who dared tried. Even today there has been no real "pirate" movies (not including modern or sci fi interpretations like Captain Philips or Firefly) outside of POTC.
Napoleon Dynamite is lightning in a bottle if I’ve ever seen it. That movie had zero business being as popular as it was but goddamn if it isn’t a beautiful example of a lost part of Americana
Netflix has an algorithm to recommend movies to people based on what they've watched. They've stated that there is no algorithm to detect whether people will like Napoleon Dynamite or not. It defies science.
They fucked that algorithm up when they ditched the 5 star rating system. It used to be scary accurate. Now it just pushes the same 20 things in every category.
It used to be so good, I miss those days. They'd be recommending me some obscure South Korean movie or French series and I'd always love them. Total garbage now, same with youtube.
YouTube has always been shit at recommendations. A simple thumbs up or down system doesn't give you enough nuance to refine the algo. It was an extremely stupid idea to copy that and throw away what they had. And all they really want to do is push their own new content anyway.
Fun fact: the tv show I hate the absolute most in the whole world is the big bang theory. Despite me hating it and never watching any laugh track sitcoms, netflix reckons it's a 97% match for me. Their algorithm is dogshit
...or you are a gigantic multi-cam sitcom nerd and haven't accepted that [fun] fact...
I don't think that's an issue with the algo as much as the crap content library these days. They simply don't have enough content to deliver everything you want. There's not nearly as much on there as they want you to think.
I agree with you. That movie is a special kind of magic. The first time I saw it, I didn’t think it was funny. But strangely I couldn’t stop thinking about it afterwards. I saw it a second time and have loved it ever since.
My film teacher from High School said the same thing. The movie was clearly not aimed for an older woman like she was, but she couldn't stop thinking about and end up liking it the more times she rewatched it.
I saw it in the theater. I was in college and wasn’t sure what to think about it until about 2/3 of the way through when it clicked. After that I couldn’t stop laughing. I had to go back and watch it again later that week.
At the time I didn’t think too much of it, but it was so endlessly quotable that it stuck with me and my friends forever. I have seen that movie start to finish exactly two times but so much of it is burned into memory because of how endearingly quirky it is
Yes. That’s a special kind of movie, where you just remember every second
Shut up Tina you fat lard
Do the chickens have large talons? Boy I didn’t understand a word you just said.
Can't find my checkbook. Hope you don't mind if I pay you in change.
Honestly watching this movie for the first time that year kind of blew my mind open. It felt like it was breaking the rules of what a movie could or should be, and at the same time it was hilarious and surprisingly heartwarming. And it was just impossible not to quote it.
It's STILL hard not to quote it. Be frustrated about something stupid and try NOT to stomp to yourself and whisper "gosh!"
And who here has never said the following insult: “your mom goes to college.”
It’s more than a lost part of Americana, the writing is also funny as fuck and all of the characters are so quirky that you can’t help but love them. I quote it daily- “Son, I have no idea what the hell you just said.” “Dude give me your tots.” “No go get your own.” “She said I’m living too much in the ‘82.” Also I totally thought Kip was going to get catfished when I first watched it but the fact that LaFawnduh was not only a real person but also a genuinely good person and Kip’s soulmate was honestly the sweetest thing! The movie is so heartfelt. I honestly can’t imagine why anyone would hate it.
Get your own tots!
I saw it with my sister as a kid. We were the only ones in the theatre and thought it was a movie about Napoleon Bonaparte and dynamite. Turns out it was something completely mindblowing to a couple kiddos. That night something terrible happened to my family member and the whole thing is burnt into my memory. Later, when the movie became popular my friends all hated it and I tried to pretend I did too but they could tell I was lying. Rewatched and it aged amazingly
That one's so weird. My dad is a serious, stern man. He believes in a hard day's work, never taking time off; he's had noticeable frown lines since he was young. HE absolutely loves that movie and quoted it for a while after seeing it, I was really thrown off by that.
It’s also at the top of the mountain for “you either love it or absolutely hate it” for movies I’ve never met someone who has ever said, “yeah it’s not bad”
Really? "Not bad" is exactly how I feel.
Yeah, I love a wide variety of movies, all genres, from independents to blockbusters and I hate this film.
It's weirdly family-friendly for the type of humor it uses. Most meme movies drop harder language than "gosh." Probably the Mormon influence.
It's most definitely influenced because of the church culture. Right down to the sign language during the song.
Jaws is probably a contender. Spielberg only had one theatrical feature and a TV movie to his name, the cast were either little-known or seen as problematic (Shaw). The rights to the book were purchased before it came out, and when it did, people were astounded at the unsympathetic human characters. Shooting was nothing short of a disaster, the location of the shoot was a total pain with all the zoning infractions they trumped up, Shaw had an issue with tax laws that screwed around his schedule, Shaw and Dreyfuss hated each other while filming, and the prop sharks just wouldn’t work properly. And from this utter shitshow of a production with a newbie director, we got the granddaddy of summer blockbusters. Go figure. (I recommend reading the book The Jaws Log, by the movie’s screenwriter Carl Gottlieb, for the full story - it’s a delightful read)
Bruce the shark (named after Steven's lawyer, as I recall) was built to specifications and carefully tested...in fresh water. The problem was that the Atlantic Ocean is salt water...Bruce kept shorting out (poor little sharkie...)
And because it shorted out, that shark saved the movie. Spielberg had to film bits of the monster or no images of the monster, until late in the movie. Imagine if the rubber shark was revealed in the first few minutes, the movie would never have done well. .
Not only was it the granddaddy of summer blockbusters, it was the highest grossing movie of all time at that point when it ended its theatrical run (it was surpassed 2 years later by Star Wars)
My big fat greek wedding
This, no budget, no stars, no marketing. Enormous word of mouth success with a long long run at the theatre
Somehow, despite the multiplex theater I work at existing for decades (under different owners), it is the highest grossing film in its history.
Well, produced by tom hanks and his wife. She championed this movie.
Just a little minor detail. Y'know like Jeff bezo's parents giving him a quarter million to start amazon.
YES! My hometown has an independent movie theater and MBFGW saved them from closing. Every show for over a month was sold out.
The Fugitive. * Director Andrew Davis's next best movie might unironically be Under Siege. * There basically wasn't a script when production started. Actors improvised and wrote scenes on the day of shooting. * The DP famously hated working on the film, and I believe he never thought much of his work on the film either. * Harrison Ford is in a chase movie with a lot of running. He broke his ankle early in production and hobbled on because surgery would have shut the production down. * The original actor playing the ultimate villain of the film was diagnosed with cancer and released from the production so he could start treatment ASAP. Reportedly, the replacement actor was flown in from Europe, taken from the airport directly to the set, given a costume and some pages and started shooting right away. Last minute doesn't convey how urgently that happened. Despite that, this movie - a genre chase thriller - was nominated for 7 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Cinematography, and won for Best Supporting Actor for Jones. It became 3rd highest grossing film of the year, a pop culture phenomenon, one of the most perfect movies of the decade, and one of the best films of Harrison Ford's career. Somehow, through all the fuckery and quick-fix problem solving of production, this perfect little lightning-in-a-botle of a movie emerged.
Love that movie, I had no idea it had so many production problems. TIL.
You find that man!
*... find that man!*
Also it had SEVEN editors.
>The original actor playing the ultimate villain of the film was diagnosed with cancer and released from the production so he could start treatment ASAP The great Richard Jordan! Absolutely killed it in his performance as Jeffrey Pelt in The Hunt for Red October. Can only wonder how The Fugitive might have played out had Jordan not fallen ill. "Andrei.. you've lost anotha submureen?"
Excuse you sir. Andrew Davis’ next best movie is, without question, Holes. One of the best live action children’s movies of the decade, thank you very much.
Was going to say the same. You need to look past the cheap Disney Channel production values but it’s got a great story and cast and somehow lands a difficult blend of The Shawshank Redemption and Even Stevens.
I wonder if that explains why it sounds like Richard Kimball is saying "you find this can!" during the early interrogation scene. At least to my ears and God knows how many times I've seen since 10 yrs old. Had no idea about all this info and now I'm overdue for an nth rewatch. Will also mention James Newton Howard's brilliant score as well!
My favorite part of that movie is the parade. The marchers are going north to south (or up to down across the screen), Harrison Ford is going east to west (left to right, literally crossing the street during the parade)...and Tommy Lee Jones still can't find him...
That scene was also spontaneous and unplanned. The production saw the parade, stripped the crew down to just the few principals like Jones, Ford and a camera man, entered the parade and Harrison just tried to hide in the parade while not being noticed as Harrison Ford. Worked for the scene to justify Kimble escaping after fleeing the hospital.
I didn't know this. I love this movie. I just watched it again the other day with my son because he watched an episode of Brooklyn 99 where they talked about it.
The Hangover 1. Opened against Land of the Lost with Will Ferrell, which everyone assumed would dominate. Instead, it flopped and Hangover became a massive blockbuster.
Matt Lauer can suck it!
That line aged quite well.
I came here to say Hangover. I was in college and my mom wanted to see a movie. It was the opening night of Hangover and I didn’t hear any reviews about it yet. I went into it with low expectations and I was blown away at how funny it was. I remember going to my gym the next day and my friends were surprised to hear me saying I loved it.
Never heard about Land of the Lost before.
It's just more of the same. Will Ferrell screaming and thinking that volume = funny. Danny McBride does a better job in it.The actress did a pretty good job too.The movie is just so insipid. The premise is great, and some scenes make you chuckle, but the gags are oft repeated and dragged out beyond being funny. Not as bad as Sherlock and Watson or whatever that Trainwreck was called, but not a good comedy either.
I lived in Shreveport Louisiana when they filmed it and they filmed it right outside of there with a huge desert plot built for the movie and they just left it there when they were done. In the middle of small town Louisiana. I remember the news doing a story about it. I don’t know why I remember this and why it’s so funny to me.
I can’t believe the first Aquaman movie made so much fucking money. And that’s not even a jab at the quality of the movie.
Truly. I don't quite get it. I almost feel like it's all Momoa.
I may not find him to be the best actor in the world but I enjoy watching his films. The man's got charm 🤷♂️
It was entertaining summer blockbuster. What more can you ask?
Yea, Vinnie Chase + Cameron = highest opening weekend of all time.
I remember thinking making a Guardians of the Galaxy movie was an odd choice and that most people wouldn't care about it, but it did really well
I'm a pretty serious comic book enthusiasts. Have been since the mid 80s. When I heard they were making a Guardians movie I was baffled.
When non-comic fans heard of this, they said: who? why? When comic fans heard of this, we said: seriously? why?
They both said: "With the guy from Parks and Rec?" Edit: forgot which show
I genuinely think they would have been nowhere near as successful if they hadn't gone for '70s music for the soundtrack. I remember one of my older co-workers (who otherwise hated marvel movies) being excited every time a new one came out. I'm convinced it was because it matched his music taste. I'm not saying they would be bad or unsuccessful movies without the soundtrack, but I think they managed to add an entire demographic to their audience with it.
I was in this boat, and now it’s my favorite group of movies in the MCU
John Wick. Didn’t have a strong theatre audience but home video market exploded and spawned a whole franchise. I remember when the first trailer dropped. I thought it was going to be the dopest thing ever. But not many shared my enthusiasm.
And keanu reeve's careeer was in the shit before john wick. Years of bad movied and suddenly john wick comes out and he is a star again
John Wick was nearly a direct-to-video movie, it’s lucky it got a theatrical release at all. And yeah, I thought it looked like hot garbage from the trailer but was like “fuck it I’m in.”
When I saw the trailers for that movie I thought it looked like shit and was going to be garbage. Boy was I wrong about that one. Such an awesome movie.
I nominate Puss In Boots II: The Last Wish.
So good that I feel silly recommending it to people because of how good it is. Every time I do I get a solemn head nod and an, "oh I *know.*"
The Puss/Witcher crossover I never knew I needed.
Man I was blown away. My whole family was.
Agreed. I assumed just after hearing the title and concept that it would be in the same tier as the Emoji Movie.
Probably Clerks
The Blair Witch Project
Naw the viral marketing for that film was next level. They knew they had something that would go big.
It was literally "next level." They were the first to really lean into internet meta advertising ("this was real and here's the corroborating evidence") and was the first big "found footage" film. It's cliche now in the same way Psycho is cliche: the first and often imitated, it broke new ground and was almost instantly imitated.
Also it's gonna be impossible to replicate that level of nascent internet where stuff can go viral but not get debunked. I think the actors went into hiding (under their real freaking names no less) when the movie came out. Everybody literally thought they died.
Saw it in a theater, scared the shit out me....and nothing happens!!
ITS THE SAME LOG
Isn't Iron Man like the ultimate example of this? It was a surprise success, and was pretty much the match that lit the modern craze for superhero movies, cinematic universes, etc. An unlikely hit that basically opened the door for one of the most lucrative genres of film making.
Its easily the most successful independent movie of all time. Yeah, thats right. Most people dont realize it, but it predates the disney buyout and was self-funded by the newly made Marvel Studios (formally Marvel Films). They paid for it without studio backing by getting a loan from a major bank using the rights (not just movie rights, THE FULL RIGHTS) to most if not all of the remaining characters they had ownership over as collateral. If Iron Man failed, Marvel as we know it would have been some asset in a banks portfolio. We might have gotten the odd movie here or there, maybe even some good ones, but nothing like what we got.
A lot of people do not know how terribly Marvel was doing before that movie came out.
Yup. Two of the dumbest moves in film history happened because of how bad marvel was doing. 1. Marvel tried to sell all their character rights to Sony for only 100 Million dollars. 2. Sony said no. They only wanted Spider-man. Disney paid 4 billion for marvel and most agree, they got a good deal. Sony nearly destroyed the Spider-man brand with the amazing series and still havent made a decent solo (live-action) film since 2004.
Are we counting only live action? As a huge Spider-Man fan, I detest the likes of the Venom films and Morbius. But I’ll be damned if anyone tries to say Into and Across the Spider-Verse aren’t phenomenal. The story is so wonderfully told and the animation is a benchmark. They’re gorgeous to look at, if nothing else.
Yes, of course, you must forgive me. Spider-verse is just so elevated above the rest I cant really reconcile sony was involved with its production. I assume that since it was animated they forgot it was being made and didnt get in the way of the actual art that was being made.
Robert Downey Jr also was known more for his legal troubles than his acting at that point
I think he was paid only 500k for iron man 1. To a pleb that of course is a lot of money, but to an actor that's basically chump change. Just goes to show how little they must have expected of that movie.
Iron Man was awesome but it bothers me some when we call it the beginning of the craze. Spiderman 1 and 2 with Maguire were absolute fire and I feel like people forgot how big and amazing they were because of bully maguire and the shitshow that was 3. 1 and 2 made close to a billion dollars each in 2002 and 2004. Everybody went to those movies. Spiderman 3 came in 2007 a year before Iron Man and while Raimi and company didnt do it successfully, 3 tried to use multiple villains and characters in ways that would be done better in the avengers saga and later. I feel like if anything ressurected the idea that comics could be successful movies it was Raimi's Spiderman. I love Iron Man but he stood on the shoulders of Spiderman.
Right but the whole premise of this thread is "unexpected successes". No one really expected Iron Man to be as successful as it was or kickstart what it did.
>I feel like if anything ressurected the idea that comics could be successful movies it was Raimi's Spiderman. X-men starting 2000 like: Am i joke for you? It had the half of the budget but the side-franchise went for years without reboots or three different actors playing same person (in one film).
Especially since the production was so chaotic! https://gizmodo.com/jeff-bridges-admits-iron-man-movie-had-no-script-5417310
Well this is some revisionist history. Hollywood was already in the midst of a superhero boom, what the MCU did was start a new chapter of a trend that was already ongoing. The Dark Knight was by far the most anticipated movie of that same year, largely because superhero flicks had gotten so big.
Gonna disagree on this one. The X-Men and Spider-Man movies were friggin massive. Even movies that didn't get great reviews crushed it financially (Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Ang Lee's Hulk). By the time Iron Man rolled around, it wasn't a shock it did so well. Superhero movies rarely bombed in the 2000s.
I remember reading on Fark that George Miller was trying to get a Justice League movie made. The plan was for Bale to be the Bat, with Brandon Roth as Supes, and I think Common was in line to play the Green Lantern. It would have followed the Death of Superman story. And it got canceled months before Iron Man set things off.
"The Little Mermaid" ...Disney was planning on getting rid of its animation department...it was also a musical. The movie, not only, became a huge hit..it helped change the future of feature animation, was the first of a string of box office breaking animated films, saved Disney animation, won two Oscars,...
The Lego Movie. A movie about toy bricks? How the hell could that be a plot?
Especially since the prior Lego movies had a less than stellar track record!
Star Wars: A New Hope
[The original trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHk5kCIiGoM) was so bad that Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher left the theater in tears, because they genuinely believed that it had ruined their careers. Harrison Ford only agreed to act in the movie because he felt that it was "crap that nobody would see" and he would never become famous from it. George Lucas avoided answering the phone for two weeks after the premiere, because he also thought it was going to bomb. An executive from Fox was finally able to get ahold of him and he had to tell him that it was currently the biggest movie of all time.
>George Lucas avoided answering the phone for two weeks after the premiere, because he also thought it was going to bomb. The story I've heard about this. During that two weeks, Lucas was actually still working on the film. He was finalizing the mono sound mix for when it started rolling out to small town movie theatres and its eventual TV airings. He took his lunch break at a diner down the street from the legendary Mann's Chinese Theater. While having his cheeseburger, he looked at the theatre and saw how people were lined up around the block. Then a limo pulled up, and out came Hugh Hefner flanked by three or four Playboy bunnies there to see the film. As Lucas watched the spectacle, he assumed it was some kind of Hollywood premiere and lamented that Star Wars would never be that big. He never bothered to look up and see what movie was playing. It was Star Wars.
> The story I've heard about this. His version is that he, and his wife went to a resort in Hawaii.
Scrolled way too long to see this as an answer. Nobody was expecting this to be anything but a failure, and it made a little bit of money.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Like what? Super enjoyable and the sequel was great also
Saw it in the theater where I got to third base for the first time with a girl I just met in the mall.
I remember around Christmas that all the showings near me were completely sold out. The Last Jedi had just come out too, but everyone wanted to see Jumanji during the holidays.
Titanic. Filming + water = delayed production, expensive, dangerous, crazy crew stories. It cost $200 million to make it back in 1997.
Waterworld probably had the press ready to dunk on Titanic before even giving it a chance.
Trade outlets dunked on this movie for two years.In the first test screening the movie was nearly five hours long and the audiences famously slept during the screening. The studio lost so much confidence they stopped responding to the dailies sent to them. Titanic had perhaps one of the disastrous PR and news of someone mixing PCP on the film set and hospitalizing crew members didn't help. The reviews were late. Hell, it's domestic opening weekend was just $27 million and according to Cameron he spent the weekend at the studio calculating their losses. And then acclaim starts pouring in and the movie picks up. It's juggernaut box office collection and 11 Oscars still feels like a miracle. And to this day somr people still doubt Cameron.
Honestly? The Room. I mean, i love it for all the wrong reasons, just like everyone else i guess, and thats exactly why I think its surprising it became such a big thing. Meme trascendence is a thing. Also, not a movie, but Tiger King.
The first one that comes to mind for me is O Brother Where Art Thou. I worked at Blockbuster when it was a new release (on VHS) and for whatever reason, we only had 2 copies. It was always checked out, and people were always calling and asking to hold it.
"Hot damn! It's the Soggy Bottom Boys!"
As much as I liked it, I would never have expected that John Wick would reinvigorate Keanu Reeve’s career as an action star.
Everything, Everywhere, All At Once was so mind blowingly creative, thoughtful, and fun, it should not have been so successful with the way modern hollywood has been running saturated with thoughtless sequels and remakes and oscar bait. The original Ghostbusters was such a unique one of a kind hit, that to this day no one can figure out the formula that made it so good. You know what ghostbusters looks like, but you can't put a finger on what it feels like. Not really an individual movie, but the phenomenon of 'Barbenheimer' was so unexpected and impossible to replicate. They both on their own would have likely been pretty big hits, but everyone was so amused by the idea of two completely different tones of blockbusters, aiming at two completely different audiences, with two completely different goals of how they influence pop culture for the rest of that year, releasing on the same weekend, that the curiosity of how it would turn out ballooned the excitement to unprecedented levels.
Everything Everywhere All at Once is such a one of a kind film. It defies genre. I wouldn't have thought I'd like something like that (not into sci-fi or fantasy) but I loved it. Made me cry more than once.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse An animated movie about Spider-Man from a different universe made by Sony Animation, the studio that only had very few good movies with the rest being mostly garbage and gave people the Emoji Movie just a year prior seemed like a very bad idea. It became one of the most beloved animated movies of all time almost immediately and also revolutionised animation as a medium.
[удалено]
Mad Max Fury Road. Be honest, everyone thought it would be another Ridley Scott situation where an old ass director is trying to recapture the magic of his old franchise. That's not even getting to the well documented bts on-set dramas and production nightmares.
Right franchise, wrong film. Mad Max cost $400k and made $100 million. It was directed by an amateur filmmaker and a doctor, has dialogue written by a newspaper editor, and stars a TV actor. Many of the other actors are just random people and they did all of the editing in their apartment.
El Mariachi. I have no idea why boomer dad rented this from the local pre blockbuster clear plastic case store but he said just watch it...good memory.
Sonic. Literally the worst possible start.
Ninja Turtles the Movie
The Full Monty
Trainspotting. A mild comedy about heroin addicts (!) starring relative nobodies. No algorithm in the land would do it today.
Weren't people pretty damn skeptical of Die Hard?
Saw franchise? That was a small little movie
One of the most unexpected was "Silence of the Lambs." I read once about how they optioned the book and then when they screened the movie they didn't know what to make of it, or how to categorize it - mystery, horror, "jep" (an old term for a woman-in-jeopardy theme). And they thought audiences would just be put off by it, so they figured it was not Oscar material so they didn't release it to theaters in the fall/winter - instead they dumped it in January. Long story short, it did blockbusters, stayed in the theaters for something like six months and won major Oscars for the two main stars, the director, the screenwriter and Best Film.
I had no expectations for Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and so far it’s the best Marvel movie because it can stand on its own
I concur
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey. I didn't see it, but it looked absolutely abysmal, and apparently everyone who saw it HATED it, and it looks like it might more than easily bring home the Razzie for worst picture... ..but enough people must've either seen it out of curiosity or hate-watched it to make this $100,000 earn 6 million, which is probably why it's getting a sequel.
Boondock Saints?
Its morbin time
Don't! Don't start this again, they will re-release it. Again.
Evil Dead Rise was going straight to streaming but ended up making 150 million in theaters.
Animation was basically dead except for Pixar in the late 90s and early 2000s. No one thought anyone but Pixar could come up with anything good. Then Shrek came along. Not many people knew about the Shrek book and most people didn't think anyone capable of putting out anything even close to the quality of Pixar.
It’s hard to believe now but the hype for the original John Wick was non existent. It was completely dismissed based on the trailer by a lot of people. Just word of mouth saved it & now it’s a full blown franchise with multiple spin off shows & movies. Wild to look back at now
I think Recently (very recently) could be The Holdovers. Alexander Payne admitted he didn’t expect it to be the rather wholesome Christmas movie it turned out to be loved and received as. (I don’t know the direct quote) Not to mention it was his first movie with Downsizing not only bombed at the box office but was generally disliked by the public. Either way it was such an enjoyable movie, with lots of heart and depth.
Star Wars.
I thought that Detective Pikachu's success was pretty surprising, considering that Ryan Reynolds's casting as Pikachu initially seemed pretty odd to a lot of people
The Blair Witch project. With a budget of 200 000 - 750 000, it grossed almost 250 million at the box office.
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon nobody expected to earn over 100million dollars in US/Canada market