Suprising Box Office Numbers

[redhawk23]

Have there ever been any movies that in your opinion came out of nowhere to make a crap ton of cash? Or even just movies that far out performed expectations? What about the opposite, what about movies you were sure were sure-things and yet flopped hard with the audiences?

While I never expected to flop, I am truly amazed at how much money Avatar made. I remember here on the hype there was this super obnoxious poster called SonofKrypton who would go on all kinds of thread and rant how Avatar was going to break all box office records, and become the highest grossing movie of all time. I'm fairly sure he eventually got banned, because really, he was just spamming. In the end I guess he was (shockingly) right.

People tend to forget that despite the hype ahead of time, most did not exptect to do all that well. I remember a lot of magazines and things didnt even do a full review of it, or gave it poor reviews saying it had little chance. Many of these same magazines did full reviews a month later after it hit the billion dollar mark. EW gave it a one sentence blurb on a sidebar originally, only to come back with basically a full issue about after it broke Titanics record. It was actually rather lame on their part.

Another thing that really suprised me was that Black Swan made 315 million. For an R rated ballet/body-horror film that is pretty impressive IMHO. Especially since it was made on a budget of just 12 million.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Star Wars. Arguably the most important film of all-time and certainly the biggest film of all-time when it came out, and yet Fox basically had to blackmail theatre owners to even get them to show it. It just seemed like a dopey B-Movie directed by the guy who did American Graffiti and starring nobody worth knowing beyond Alec Guinness (who's heyday was years ago) and cult favourite Peter Cushing. Nobody expected it to be the phenomenon it was.

 

[BLACK-SPIDEY]

Avatar. I mean, no one knew what the hell was that all about, it goes to show that Fox had faith on James Cameron, the marketing for this was BIG.

 

[matrix_ghost]

Twilight's Bo performance still surprises me.

Going by recent movies , i honestly thought that Tron Legacy would've performed better.

Oh and of course Avatar and TDK

 

[GhostPoet]

Avatar. I mean, no one knew what the hell was that all about, it goes to show that Fox had faith on James Cameron, the marketing for this was BIG.

I knew Avatar would make huge bank as soon as I saw it.

For me...heh...funny enough I didn't think Twilight would sell all that well...mainly because I thought it looked pretty horrible.

I forgot the teen demo. =(

 

[Drizzle]

I remember District 9 opening much bigger than I thought it would, and deservedly so.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

Tron Legacy comes to mind for me too.

I figured Thor would've been either a bigger hit or flop.

 

[dark_b]

Avatar. I mean, no one knew what the hell was that all about, it goes to show that Fox had faith on James Cameron, the marketing for this was BIG.

i remember 90% users complaining that the marketing was bad and very small. i was one of them. and i stand by this.

i dont want in 10 years to read on SHH that Avatar made so much money because of marketing and Cameron. none remembered Cameorn and noone cared about Cameron in december. t:

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

I remember the marketing heating up before the movie.

The marketing for Avatar is the reason why studios only get aggressive for marketing only a month before a release now.

With that said, Avatar's success is a given, and I'm glad that it was successful.

 

[Iron_Stark]

Iron Man, who'd a thunk a C-lister would've made more than X-Men, Superman and Batman and pass 300 mil domestically? Something only Spider-Man at the time was ever able to accomplish.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

With Iron Man, the teaser was f**king awesome.

 

[bullets]

I thought Tron would of been a huge success but it underperformed.

Speed Racer bombing was a bit of a surprise.

Also thought Scream 4 would of had a bigger opening.

 

[Spider-X]

Iron Man, who'd a thunk a C-lister would've made more than X-Men, Superman and Batman and pass 300 mil domestically? Something only Spider-Man at the time was ever able to accomplish.

I'd say this is a terrific example of word of mouth and what it can do for a movie.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

Pluto Nash

 

[DACrowe]

Avatar. How did such a mediocre movie make so much money? Oh right, the 3D gimmick was "new" a few years ago.

 

[Bunker]

Iron Man, who'd a thunk a C-lister would've made more than X-Men, Superman and Batman and pass 300 mil domestically? Something only Spider-Man at the time was ever able to accomplish.

RDJ.

It's not that hard.

 

[Spider-X]

Pluto Nash

lulz!

RDJ.

It's not that hard.

You don't think his tarnished reputation made people think twice?

 

[Drizzle]

I'm saying it now: I'll be surprised if Super 8 is a hit.

 

[chaseter]

Avatar surprised everyone.

 

[Spider-X]

I'm saying it now: I'll be surprised if Super 8 is a hit.

Reason being?

 

[chaseter]

RDJ.

It's not that hard.

RDJ wasn't who he is today when Iron Man came out. He was in a lot of bunk movies that nobody cared about like Charlie Bartlett, Lucky You, Zodiac, Scanner Darkly...in other words people didn't fall madly in love with RDJ until he was Iron Man. Now he is one of the biggest stars in the world.

I knew Iron Man would do alright but damn it was a smash hit and made nearly 600 million worldwide.

 

[WarBlade]

It's actually a bit surprising to me that people are surprised about Avatar. Personally, I'd only read a little bit before the official website went live, but when I saw the teaser image, heard that short piece of music playing with it, and read up on it a bit further, I promptly went to Facebook and posted the movie site link, claiming "This is one to watch." I had a feeling from the day the official site went live that it was going to be big on the scale of Titanic. The stars for that film were just lining up perfectly I think.

Some of my pleasant surprises:

• Wild Hogs
• Mrs. Palfry at the Claremont

Surprisingly poor results:

• Thor
• The 6th Day
• Evolution

 

[amazingfantasy15]

I remember the marketing heating up before the movie.

The marketing for Avatar is the reason why studios only get aggressive for marketing only a month before a release now.

With that said, Avatar's success is a given, and I'm glad that it was successful.

This has always been the case, the huge marketing blitz always begins a month before release. This was a fact way before Avatar.

RDJ.

It's not that hard.

Uh, Iron Man made more it's opening weekend than any other Robert Downey Jr. movie made during it's entire theatrical run. It definitely wasn't his name that did it. His performance was incredible and was most likely one of the reasons it did so well, but name recognition was far from the reason.

 

[Drizzle]

Reason being?

http://www.gointothestory.com/2011/06/super-8-not-tracking-well.html

 

[R_Hythlodeus]

Avatars BO numbers completely destroyed my faith in mankind.

Oh and OF COURSE was RDJ the main reason why IM made that amount of money.
He always was known for being a very charismatic actor and in the years before IM he gave some of his best performances in movies like Good Night And Good Luck, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang or Zodiac.
People just WAITED to see him in a big blockbuster...