15 Box Office Hits Nobody Even Remembers Anymore
It's unbelievable that some of these have been forgotten.
1. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
$3.3 million at the box office might not seem like a lot these days. But this movie was released a little over 12 months after the end of WWII. It may have aged better if there hadn't been a slew of Christmas movies in the 80s and 90s that tapped into the whole Santa thing and included more sparkle.
2. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
A movie widely predicted to wow audiences for years to come, The Greatest Show on Earth pulled in $36 million but never fulfilled its prophecy. Ask most moviegoers to list films from the fifties and you're more likely to hear Ben Hur and A Streetcar Named Desire than this movie which cost $4 million to produce.
3. The Robe (1953)
When you think of biblical epics, The Robe is probably not the first film that springs to mind. At the time of its release, it was widely praised. And producers tried to make it as historically accurate as possible. Some thought it was a little too 'artsy' for a general audience – which seems to have been the case. Nonetheless, it grossed an impressive $36 million.
4. Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
With an all-star cast including David Niven and Shirley Mclaine, this film made $42 million at the box office in 1956. It played to packed houses for more than a year after its release, but somehow never became the classic it was predicted to be.
5. Love Story (1970)
An instant hit on release this was a real tear-jerker. But it was a bit twee and didn't really display any special qualities to mark it out as a film for the ages. For a movie now considered a bit nondescript, box office receipts in excess of $173 million are pretty good.
6. Airport (1970)
Bert Lancaster and Dean Martin star in this disaster movie that raked in $128.4 million. But disaster movies were two-a-penny in the 70s and inevitably, most simply slipped into oblivion – like Airport, for example.
7. Three Men and a Baby (1987)
A genuinely good film that is perhaps overlooked simply because it came along during a golden age for cinema. It was never going to remain as globally popular as the likes of Back to the Future and Top Gun, but it deserves more praise. Still, it grossed $240 million.
8. What Women Want (2000)
A 2000 rom-com that starred Mel Gibson and grossed just over $374 million. But where is it now? Nowhere. Not because it was necessarily a bad film. It was just a sort of prototype for the genre. Releasing it at Christmas when this type of film is likely to appeal was a smart move. And it probably allowed the movie to bring in more than it deserved.
9. What Lies Beneath (2000)
This psychological, supernatural horror was so popular on release that it knocked X-Men off the top of the listings on its way to making $291.4 million at the box office. The problem it had was that it couldn't live up to the hype and failed to grab audiences in the way others in this genre had.
10. The Da Vinci Code (2006)
When you get Tom Hanks and Ian McKellen to star in an adaptation of a bestselling and controversial book, you're entitled to think you have a movie that will go down in history. When it makes $760 million at the box office, you'd think you've nailed it. And yet, this film has paled into insignificance.
11. Avatar (2009)
Pulling in a whopping $2.923 billion, it's amazing to think this has not gone down as a classic. Part of the problem may be that it was billed more for its innovation than its storyline. Visual effects were always going to catch up and surpass the movie, making longevity tough.
12. Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Anne Hathaway came together with a host of big-name actors to create something thoroughly underwhelming. It was always going to pull in the crowds and made over $1 billion. But it was a badly chosen film for Burton and, while visually appealing, left him no scope to put his unique stamp on it.
13. Ted (2012)
Universal's highest-grossing film of the year made almost $550 million. And it was really funny. But to reach the dizzy heights the network no doubt hoped for, it needed to have more depth. The story was pretty bland and the acting ok, but it didn't quite have the je ne sais quoi.
14. Gravity (2013)
This sci-fi thriller starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney used stunning visual effects and grossed more than $723 million. But it didn't transfer well to the small screen and has somewhat faded from fan memory despite being one of the most successful sci-fi movies ever at the box office previously.
15. Zootopia (2016)
For a Disney film that grossed more than $1 billion, this movie barely gets a mention ever, anywhere. Maybe it wasn't marketed properly. Perhaps its characters didn't resonate with the target market. Most likely, Disney struggled for years to replicate the popularity of Frozen. Interestingly, though, Frozen made $1.2 billion so was only fractionally more of a box office success.