User:LancedSoul/sandbox/And You Thought It Would Fail in movies

"If I had a penny for every time someone said making a Marvel movie with a talking raccoon was dumb and that Guardians was going to bomb, I'd probably have just about the amount of money Guardians has made so far."

- James Gunn on the expectations for Guardians of the Galaxy

And You Thought It Would Fail is a trope that a work of literature, film or television — just getting started, purely original (if there is such a thing), unaffiliated with any previous book, movie or TV show, or if it is an adaptation, the work is relatively obscure — has little hope of standing out among the established goldmines of franchises. Critics mock it. The public isn't expecting it. It gets even worse if things go awry on its production. Then, when released, it pulls a megaprofit stunt and becomes an instant classic.

Notable Offenders

 * When the first teaser trailer of Toy Story 4 was released in November 2018, it was met with high skepticism by most fans of Pixar, as Toy Story didn't really feel like it needed a fourth film, even if the fact that it continues with Bonnie's adventure lifetime arc and fans still hope it might be better. Since the release of the first official trailer in March 2019, numerous people have noticed that what the trailers have shown of the plot appears to be a retread of Toy Story 2, with Woody separated from the gang only to encounter a prominent female character from his past and undergo an internal struggle regarding whether or not to stay. Upon its released in June 2019, it was universally acclaimed by critics, audiences and fans of Pixar alike for considering it a worthy addition to the franchise and praised the conclusion given to Woody's story development arc and become the box office success, although a common plot point that fans complained about is that Bonnie seemingly forgot her promise to Andy about Woody at the end of Toy Story 3, despite Bonnie being five, thus creating an plot hole and having a smaller attention span.
 * As soon as Teen Titans Go! To the Movies was announced, many immediately dismissed the idea due to it being a spinoff of one of the Internet's most hated modern cartoons, even going so far as to say that it would be as bad as, or worse than The Emoji Movie, which is not eactly well-regarded itself. By the time of the film's release in July 2018, however, it received largely positive reviews, gaining a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, and did mildly well at the box office.
 * Following the announcement of Dune as well as the release of the first trailer in September 2020, it was hyped by many fans of the book alike. However, many audiences feared that various factors would potentially leave Denis Villeneuve's planned two-part adaptation of the original story Dune doomed to be only half-finished, given the fact that Dune is a slow-paced, complicated narrative, the Acclaimed Flop status of his previous sci-fi blockbuster Blade Runner 2049, and the day-and-date streaming status provided by HBO Max (which opened the movie up to piracy due to HD copies of the film being easier to distribute) due to the issues with the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic (which was still depressing box office turnout around the world). The fact that the US release date was boxed in the middle of other expected blockbusters like Venom: Let There Be Carnage, No Time to Die and Eternals also led to concerns about the movie being crowded out of the spotlight (a fate which befell The Last Duel just a week before Dune). When it came out in October 2021, it become critical and commercial success. As such, Legendary Pictures quickly greenlit the sequel for October 20, 2023 mere days after it opened in the United States.
 * Upon announcement of villains returning, Spider-Man: No Way Home was hyped by many critics and fans. However, it had a few hurdles of its own - on top of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 rising concurrently with its release, it was the first superhero movie to attempt an Intercontinuity Crossover, something that could have easily gone wrong. Not helping matters was that the film featured no less than five antagonists (when three villains was a death knell for previous Spider-Man film universes), the trailer indicated that the film was a Spiritual Adaptation of the maligned stories One More Day and One Moment in Time, and Tom Holland's portrayal of the character was becoming more and more divisive, so it seemed like the leaks of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield reprising their roles from the prior films seemed like a sign of Pandering to the Base. As it premiered in December 2021, No Way Home got very positive reviews and managed to become the first billion-dollar box office hit of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the highest-grossing Spider-Man film.
 * Upon the announcement of Turning Red in December 2020 and release of the first teaser trailer in July 2021, vocal pre-release internet critics thought the film's computer-animated animesque art direction, and coming-of-age story through the lens of a young millennial Chinese-Canadian girl was too niche and out of tone with Pixar's other films. Much like Pixar's last two films, it would see a straight to Disney+ release, rather than a traditional box-office theatrical run, although the film had limited runs in the United States in select areas, likewise in other international territories. Ultimately, these factors proved to not be a problem, as the film's review was critically well-received and Nielsen ratings boasted an impressive 1.7 billion viewing minutes during its debut weekend against original series and movies. This marked the film as one of the best debuts on Disney+ and Nielsen's records. To put into another perspective, the film's three-day total beat out sleeper success sensation Squid Game's 1.6 billion earned in four weeks. Therefore, it's unsurprising that director Domee Shi and producer Lindsey Collins were promoted to higher positions at Pixar afterward.
 * When The Lego Movie was announced, it was scorned by critics and most believed it would be nothing more beyond a glorified toy commercial. Few could have predicted it would turn out to be a fresh, original film with stellar animation, witty humor, memorable characters, an engaging plot, and a brilliant deconstruction of The Chosen One trope. Ultimately, it got critical success (most of whom admitted it was a whole lot better than expected), when it premiered in February 2014. The success led to spawned a franchise for both a sequel and the spin-off The Lego Batman Movie.
 * Guardians of the Galaxy was considered a risky venture, being an obscure comic property featuring a gun-toting raccoon and an animated tree amongst its lineup, after the release of the trailer and announcement. Predictions of failure abounded when it premiered in August 2014, despite the film being handled by the one who brought the world two Scooby-Doo films (along with weird horror). Its $94 million opening weekend take exceeded projections and expectations, and its worldwide earnings exceeded its production cost after less than a week. The quote atop the main page just says everything.
 * Aquaman seemed doomed from the start since it centered on the most infamous Memetic Loser in comics (mostly for people not familiar with the comics) and was coming off the disappointment of Justice League (described as "the most successful Box Office Bomb ever"). It became a box office juggernaut that quickly outgrossed Justice League globally in just three weeks and managed to crack the $1 billion worldwide gross, a feat that Batman v Superman and Justice League failed to achieve despite starring more popular heroes. As of this writing, it has become the highest grossing film in the entire franchise and the biggest unadjusted DC Comics film grosser period. Even its critical and audience reception is warm enough to invoke this.
 * A vast majority of people were convinced that a sequel to an already contested video game movie was going to stink. In August 2019, the film surpassed most expectations, regarded not only as a vast improvement over its predecessor, but also managing to dethrone fan favorite Detective Pikachu as the highest rated video game movie. Despite this, The Angry Birds Movie 2 has grossed $154 million worldwide against of $65 million budget as it was overshadowed by another Columbia Pictures film, Spider-Man: Far From Home, which lead the film to underperform at the box office likely due to being released in August and its accompanying marketing campaign making the film look like a rehash of the first movie.
 * When Dora and the Lost City of Gold was announced in October 2017, many people rolled their eyes because the preschool show it was based on had become a target for mockery. Not helping was the fact that the show ended in 2014, meaning that the potential audience had grown up with no one to take their place. Furthermore, the last attempt at a live action adaptation of a Nicktoon was a failure at every level. Henceforth, it was a surprise when the movie ended up getting 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, with praise going towards the Indiana Jones style adventuring and self aware humor, upon premiering in August 2019. It made nearly $120m worldwide on a $49m budget. Its success also convinced Nickelodeon films to green-light a movie based on PAW Patrol for a 2021 theatrical release.
 * Very few people seriously thought that Pokémon Detective Pikachu would actually be a hit. Not only was it a live-action film adaptation of a video game (a notorious curse in the film industry), it was an adaptation of a mostly obscure spinoff of a video game franchise that peaked in popularity in the West the late 1990s, and hadn't had a theatrical film release in the West over a decade. It wasn't expected to be a Box Office Bomb, but it surprised a lot of people when it made back almost three times its budget and got positive reviews from most film critics—including plenty of critics who openly didn't like Pokémon after it arrived in May 2019.
 * Even Warner Bros. didn't expect Joker to be a success, to the point that they gave it a budget of less than $100 million (possibly in an attempt to dissuade director Todd Phillips from making it). It went on to get rave reviews at the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival, even winning the prestigious Golden Lion at the former. Despite being the subject of controversy over its depiction of violence and mental illness, it broke several box-office records, made almost four times its budget in its opening weekend alone, and eventually beat Deadpool to become not only the highest grossing R-rated film of all time, but the first R-rated movie to make a billion dollars worldwide. It further cemented its success with 11 Oscar nominations, the most of any comic book film in history (winning both Best Actor for Joaquin Phoenix's Joker and Best Original Score), making it a potential game-changer for the genre.