21 Seemingly Forgotten Box Office Hits

Opening at No. 1 at the box office and temporarily establishing the box office viability of motion-capture animated films, the star-studded adaptation of Robert Zemeckis’ epic poem Beowulf became a cinematic afterthought.

This action-thriller was meant to cede the Bourne franchise to Jeremy Renner, who was simultaneously being courted as a major player in the Mission: impossible films and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but its financial success was considered modest compared to its predecessors, leading Universal to return the franchise to Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass a few years later with Legacy never to be recognized again.

No, that movie wasn’t as memorable as Skyscraper Where Carnagebut this disaster flick starring The Rock nevertheless raked in big bucks in big-format theaters only to ultimately find its fate on endless late-night cable presentations.

In the past decade, no one has particularly clamored to review Sam Raimi’s mistake Wizard of Oz reboot that attempted to capitalize on the CGI-soaked fantasy wave unleashed by Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland.

With sales of $174 million worldwide, identity thief was another entry in Melissa McCarthy’s impressive streak of success that included Bridesmaids, To spy, The heat, and Tammiebut no one ever seems to mention, reference, or fondly remember this crude road trip comedy.

JJ Abrams hoped that Super 8 would resonate with audiences the same as classic Steven Spielberg movies like HEY and Dating of the Third Kindbut ultimately saved closer to Spielberg’s more forgettable fare as The terminal and The BFGdespite racking up $260 million worldwide on a $50 million budget.

This tense action-thriller was a hit with audiences, grossing $208 million worldwide, but its otherwise mundane nature makes it borderline indistinguishable from Denzel’s other shoot-’em-up movie. ‘Next year, 2 guns.

Despite the fairly vilified sequel Da Vinci’s Code 2006 adaptation, Angels has still nearly amassed $485 million worldwide, though it remains a barely shining point in a forgettable franchise that has barely impressed its target audience.

A huge success with the public and critics, Lee Daniel’s the butler didn’t quite permeate the larger cultural conversation in the decade that followed, with the film’s stunt casting and dramatic heft never quite revered as much as its contemporaries (although that criticism can be directed at many other Oscar-winning The Weinstein Company hopefuls, like The artist and The King’s Speech).

Grossing $336 million worldwide against an $80 million budget, Dreamworks’ comic book adaptation had an all-star cast and a warm reception from audiences, but the fact that it never spawned a sequel or any kind of substantial spin-off has relegated this animated film to the depths of obscurity.

This rom-com starring the odd duo of Queen Latifah and Steve Martin used its trove of charm to rake in nearly $165 million in the spring of 2004, but rarely became a talking point for the most memorable comedies of its time. .

A surprise success for Universal in 2013, sole survivor is indeed thrilling and action-packed, but its sad true story and lack of particularly memorable performances has allowed its cinematic legacy to have been overshadowed by films like 2014’s. American sniper and 2016 hacksaw crest.

Still holding the accolades of being the highest-grossing documentary of all time and the only documentary to surpass $100 million at the box office, Fahrenheit 9/11 is, of course, a product of its time, and of the changing political and media climate, coupled with Michael Moore’s relative inactivity since 2018, much less successful Fahrenheit 9/11, didn’t help the film age particularly well among later generations.

Although stars Adam Sandler and Kevin James team up with wedding crashes director Dennis Dugan’s box office payoff (over $187 million, to be exact), the film’s somewhat problematic subject matter, and the gargantuan success of the The adults films have since cemented this film among Sandler’s lesser esteemed and revisited titles.

Although the solo Wolverine films have been defined by prestige (Logan) and disaster (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), the good-but-not-great middle child of the saga, the Japanese setting The gluttongrossed over $400 million but remains the leading among the least discussed films of the 13 films x-men franchise.

If you are one of the millions of people who showed up for Jurassic World: Dominion with the mindset of “wait, who is that?” or “wait, why is there a human clone?”, you’re probably not alone, because the second film in the jurassic world The banner doesn’t offer much in terms of rewatch value despite its incredible $1.3 billion box office earning, plus it’s notoriously hard to find on popular streaming services.

With an impressive cast led by Sam Worthington fresh off his starring role in Avatar, Clash of the Titans earned just under $500 million at the worldwide box office, but as public interest in fantasy content grew in the years that followed due to the immense popularity of game of thronesthis film and its less successful sequel struggled to remain culturally significant.

The third big budget from Paramount and Skydance star trek the film grossed over $340 million globally, which was largely tied if slightly below its predecessors, but the franchise pissed off much of its audience with public deceptions on Star Trek Into Darkness and the departure of JJ Abrams from the director’s chair, which made this film the black sheep of the trilogy.

The fourth film of the Transformers the franchise may have had a flashy new lead with Mark Wahlberg, the addition of the Dinobots and a worldwide box office gross of over $1 billion, The age of extinction lacked the cool factor of its predecessors or the camp factor of its sequel, earning it the status of the most mediocre of Transformers movies.

Finding Dory may have been the third most successful movie of 2016 with a box office total of $1.028 billion, but even the latest live-action Pixar movies seem to be more celebrated and discussed among Disney die-hards, which is still more baffling considering how revered The world of Nemo remains in the Mouse House to this day.

With Kristen Stewart wearing the sparkle of the Dusk franchise and Chris Hemsworth are soaring with Thor, this epic reimagining of White as snow mythos struck a chord with audiences in 2011 and amassed nearly $400 million at the box office, but the film slowly faded into “who cares?” territory over the past decade, especially after the disappointing response to the Stewart-less sequel left little inspiration to rediscover it.