Movies that were bigger hits than people remember.

[Jonathan Michaels]

Home Alone was the third highest grossing film of all time when it finished its run.

Pirates of the Caribbean : Dead Man’s Chest crushed the opening weekend record in 2006, beating Spider-Man by over 20 million

Beauty and the Beast (2017) broke into the top ten domestic and worldwide, and made well over a billion.

The Secret of My Success was #6 in 1987, beating out Lethal Weapon, Dirty Dancing, Predator, Robocop and Wall Street, among many others.

[darbus alan]

With how apathetic people are to Avatar, it's sometimes hard to believe it's the highest grossing film of all time.

[Mozenrath]

Yeah, Maleficent and Beauty and the Beast made a shitload of money, so I get why Disney is going in on the live-action stuff, even if I feel like it's often not good, like the astonishingly boring Mulan.

The pornography version of Alice in Wonderland is a weird one in that it was cut down to an R and released in 1976. It was an interesting time in that erotic films could actually get attention from critics at that time, and stuff like Deep Throat had an unusual cultural cache. I bring all of this up to say that it had a budget of about half a million dollars. Quite a lot. Surely, they were biting off more than they could chew, and it'd be some kind of lesson in hubris- oh, it made NINETY MILLION DOLLARS IN 1976 MONEY. The lead even says that it did over 100 million, but that through a series of scams, etc, that she was never given her 1% share of the profits she was promised. She fortunately still had a career in mainstream television and movies, but still, tough luck.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

World War Z Is often painted as some huge flop that nobody went to see. Although reshooting the entire third act ate up so much of the profits that it only just about broke even, it did take almost $550 million at the box office.

[BayleyTiffyCodyCenaJudyHopps]

Moana made $900 million. It’s just that it came out in an insane Disney year where Captain America Civil War, Zootopia and Finding Dory all crossed $1 billion.

[DiBiase is Good]

Despite being touted for years as one of the biggest flops in history, Waterworld still made the top ten biggest hits of 1995 and would eventually turn a profit thanks to VHS sales.

[Jumpin' Jesse Walsh]

Disney's Dinosaur was the fifth highest grossing film of 2000 yet has left no cultural footprint whatsoever.

Literally nobody talks about it.

[jimmyjackezekiel]

My Big Fat Greek Wedding? I remember it was all the rage the year it came out, now no one ever talks about it anymore.

[salz4life]

Aug 26, 2022 0:53:15 GMT -5 darbus alan said:

With how apathetic people are to Avatar, it's sometimes hard to believe it's the highest grossing film of all time.

Avatar was must see in the theater. 3D was the big star of that film, I don't care what anyone says. I do wonder if there is going to be "something new" to draw people in to the sequels. I watched the original at home a year or so ago and it wasn't as great as I remembered. It was good but I think it was MUCH better in the theater back when that 3D technology was fresh.

[Ryushinku]

The 1976 King Kong.
Derided and very often viewed as a bomb. Instead it was one of the highest grossing films of that year and made a hefty profit.

I also find interesting those films like The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (710 million), where it was a fault of over-expectation. Sony thought it'd make a billion, more importantly so did the shareholders, so they were disappointed with a 'mere' 710 and it led to that series ending there.