10 Great Movies That Were Better Than Anybody Expected

For a variety of reasons, potential viewers the world over find themselves skeptical about particular films. There’s safety in Star Wars or Marvel Cinematic Universe movies because they represent familiarity. Other examples, even ones that are part of a well-known IP, aren’t really as sure a thing (not that Star Wars or the MCU are infallible). Sometimes this comes down to the movie being an adaptation of a property that hasn’t been fully relevant in a while, other times it’s because the marketing materials weren’t quite selling the product as well as they should have, and other times it’s due to casting decisions that at first seemed out of left field.

The following films all didn’t immediately sell themselves to the audience, but those who gave them a shot were fully enthusiastic, spread the word, and be it while they were in theaters or over the course of time they have been deemed extremely pleasant surprises. Suffice to say, they could have turned out far worse.

10) Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

This entry could serve for either Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle or Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Both are modern takes on a retro property and both incorporate humor, adventure, and heartfelt moments in equal measure.

But Dungeons gets the edge and the entry title because it managed to even appeal to those who always scoffed at the IP. It’s a breezy, rewatchable movie with a line-up of performers who worked well together playing characters who develop naturally and have satisfying arcs. It wasn’t a box office juggernaut, but it’s gone on to make fans via streaming, at least in terms of those willing to give it a shot.

Stream Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves on Paramount+.

9) Guardians of the Galaxy

We’ll get to Iron Man in a little bit, and we’ll mention that the character was niche in 2008. And he was…but not compared to how little known the Guardians of the Galaxy were in 2014.

This was a multi-hundred-million-dollar movie that easily could have failed. Two of the five protagonists are a tree and a raccoon? One of them is the goofball from Parks and Recreation? It’s directed by the guy who made Slither? It just seemed like a bunch of very odd parts. Things that wouldn’t necessarily attract massive audiences in the summer. But they were, in fact, all elements of one singular, ingenious vision that created the most energetic and feelgood movie of 2014’s summer movie season, and the audience responded weekend after weekend.

Stream Guardians of the Galaxy on Disney+.

8) Prey

Predator 2 is honestly pretty underrated, but it still killed the franchise for a while. If anything it looks better because the films that followed it showed the audience just how bad a Predator movie could really be. The two AVP movies are borderline unwatchable, Predators is even more average than Predator 2, and The Predator is arguably the worst of the bunch.

In other words, after The Predator, people were at the point with this franchise where they were with the T-800 when Terminator: Dark Fate came out. They may have finally gotten in right, but they weren’t willing to give it a chance. Well, almost weren’t willing to give it a chance, in this case. In hindsight it was a stroke of brilliance to debut Prey on Hulu, because those who already subscribed would lose nothing giving it a shot and could then tell others that it was the real deal. Who knew that what the Predator franchise needed was to actually move away from the original film, not towards it? Dan Trachtenberg. And, after they watched it, the audience.

Stream Prey on Hulu.

7) John Wick

Keanu Reeves’ career has consisted of high highs and low lows. The high highs are almost always spurred on by action films. Speed revived his career in the early ’90s, The Matrix did the same in the late ’90s, and John Wick did it again in 2014.

The film wasn’t a blockbuster in theaters, but those who did see it spread the word on it quickly. It went on to become a huge hit on home media and streaming, with just about everyone who missed it on the big screen falling immediately in love with it when it was more accessible. And, as we saw with the consistent growth throughout the next three movies, the audience that missed it in theaters turned out for the sequels in full force.

Stream John Wick on HBO Max.

6) Edge of Tomorrow

Thanks to its massive $178 million budget, Edge of Tomorrow wasn’t quite a blockbuster. But it’s still another case of it could have gone worse just as it’s another case of a movie benefitting from glowing word of mouth.

The release of the previous year’s Oblivion made people more or less wonder whether the world needed another Tom Cruise sci-fi action movie. But the fact that it was so different for him, that it had him play a coward, helped make it feel extremely fresh. Ticket buyers responded to that and told others, just as they told others that Emily Blunt was the real deal as an action star.

5) 21 Jump Street

Not entirely unlike Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, 21 Jump Street took an older property with a select audience and turned it into a meta blast. The difference was, while Dungeons & Dragons was and remains niche because of its fantasy focus, 21 Jump Street was niche because it was practically forgotten in 2012.

But like the next entry on our list, 21 Jump Street benefitted mightily from the presence of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. They understand how to pace jokes just as they know how to craft narratives that focus on character. The result was a heartwarming and utterly hysterical movie with note-perfect chemistry between Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum that ended up being the best comedy of the 2010s.

Stream 21 Jump Street on TBS.

4) The Lego Movie

Even the title The Lego Movie raised eyebrows. It led to a bunch of “Oh no, is this another Battleship?” type speculation. And those concerns were certainly fair, but then that all changed with the marketing materials.

Like Barbie, The Lego Movie was a hit because it did far more with its IP than just make a LEGO movie. The lush animation and all-star cast attracted attention (especially youths), sure, but what really surprised people was the core of its story, which focused on the power of imagination and how that can be lost with age.

3) Iron Man

Back in 2008, Robert Downey Jr. wasn’t a box office draw. He had fans who knew his work from the ’80s and ’90s but he hadn’t been a true movie star in a while. For that matter, Iron Man himself wasn’t the draw that Spider-Man or Batman were.

Then the reviews, which confirmed that the surprisingly excellent marketing materials promising a pure good time in the summer were accurate, came in. The film has a spontaneity that really grabbed people, though not as much as Downey Jr. did as the title character.

Stream Iron Man on Disney+.

2) Mad Max: Fury Road

Even though it had gotten an entire trilogy by the time Mad Max: Fury Road came out, it was hard to really think of it as an A-list property. The first film was a huge hit and the second, the masterful The Road Warrior, was a hit in its own right, but even then, they showed themselves to be niche products in terms of blockbuster entertainment.

Given that, and how much of a struggle Fury Road‘s production was, it could have gone much worse at the box office, kind of like Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (which seems destined to be a cult favorite). But action fans really got to talking about just how high octane and well edited Fury Road, the apex of the franchise, was. Even then it was being called the best action film of the 2010s, and that reputation has been sealed now that we’re in the 2020s.

1) Top Gun: Maverick

You might be thinking, wasn’t Top Gun the biggest movie of 1986? It was, but 36 years is a long time, so while it seems unthinkable now, it’s not as if Top Gun: Maverick was a beyond a shadow of a doubt sure thing.

Then it opened to $126 million domestically, which was certainly a nice haul, but what’s more telling is just how well it held weekend after weekend. Thanks to the film’s natural advancement of its primary character to a modern world, it felt like a sequel that had a reason to exist. And, thanks to the aerial sequences actually shot up in the air, it was a major IMAX draw. People talked about how great it was and how it necessitated the biggest screen possible. That was a true recipe for success.

Stream Top Gun: Maverick on Paramount+

Which of these surprised you the most? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

Top Gun: Maverick Had One Unexpected Real-World Impact on the US