12 Blockbuster Movies Overshadowed By Unexpected Hits

Three Men and a Little Lady was expected to become a blockbuster on the back of its predecessor, Three Men and a Baby, the number one box office hit of 1987 in the US. In the first film, directed by Leonard Nimoy (AKA Star Trek's Spock), a baby is left in the care of three apartment-sharing bachelors played by Ted Danson, Steve Guttenberg, and Tom Selleck. Mishaps and misunderstandings ensue as all three men develop a paternal relationship with the child. The sequel was directed by Emile Ardolino, who had a big hit behind him in Dirty Dancing. Three Men and a Little Lady picks up a few years later, wherein the baby is now five years old, living with her three dads and her mother Sylvia (Nancy Travis). When Sylvia becomes engaged to Edward (Christopher Cazenove), the posh English love rival of Peter (Selleck), the family dynamic is threatened. Audiences were evidently less interested in the little lady than the baby, and the sequel made less than half the amount of the first film. Meanwhile, a simultaneous release elbowed it to the curb. 

Home Alone, written by John Hughes and directed by Christopher Columbus, begins with eight-year-old Kevin McCallister (played by 1990s golden boy Macaulay Culkin) left alone with no supervision after his family departs for a holiday vacation without him. In their absence, Kevin crafts imaginative traps to fend off a pair of house burglars. Home Alone earned nearly $300 million domestically and over $475 million worldwide, kicking off a series of sequels and a major run of fame for Culkin.

Smokey and the Bandit spelt the end of the road for the biggest star in the world at that time. Leading man Burt Reynolds, who ruled much of 1970s cinema with his wry-humored machismo, had gotten comfortable in the comedy-action genre, until this flick didn't dominate like it should've. Directed by stuntman Hal Needham (his directorial debut), Smokey and the Bandit follows a bootleg beer journey across state lines with diversions and near misses along the way. Opposite Reynolds as “The Bandit” were Jackie Gleason as Sheriff “Smokey Bear” Justice and Sally Field as “Frog,” who had taken the role so as to improve her reputation as an attractive star. 

Although Smokey and the Bandit was a massive hit that generated two sequels, it remained overshadowed by a competitor that came completely out of left field. Nobody could have seen Star Wars - a space fantasy film starring a cast of young unknown actors - coming in quite the way it did. Though it may be hard to believe in retrospect, George Lucas's first film (retroactively dubbed Episode IV - A New Hope) in the now-massive franchise was hardly expected to succeed, let alone to overshadow such a major release at the same time. The success of Star Wars changed the film industry forever, propagating a universe of sequels and spin-offs which are assumed blockbusters of subsequent decades.

In the couple of years before the 2002 release of rom-com Life or Something Like It, Angelina Jolie had won multiple awards for Gia and Girl Interrupted, including an Oscar for the latter. Portraying an ambitious blond bombshell in Life or Something Like It suited Jolie's femme fatale public persona at the time, so every expectation was that this film would succeed. The story begins with Seattle TV reporter Lanie Kerrigan (Jolie) interviewing Jack (Tony Shalhoub), a self-professed prophet, live on-air. When he predicts her impending death, panic-stricken Kerrigan spends the rest of the film reevaluating her life and her relationships, before finding romance with her workplace enemy, cameraman Pete Scanlon (Edward Burns). The attempts at romance and comedy didn't go over well, resulting in a shockingly poor box office gross of $16 million total against a budget of $40 million.

Another rom-com released in the same month proved far more successful. Made on a tiny $5 million budget, My Big Fat Greek Wedding was a surprise hit, making over $240 million. Written by and starring Nia Vardalos, the plot revolves around the inexperienced and family-oriented Toula (Vardalos), who pursues a career outside of her family's Greek restaurant, has a makeover, and falls in love with a handsome non-Greek man called Ian (John Corbett). In order to help Toula's family to accept Ian, he and Toula get hitched in a big fat Greek wedding. Unlike Life or Something Like It, Vardalos's film has a personal touch and the requisite rom-com warmth to connect with wide audiences. 

Audiences had come to expect purposefully ostentatious films from director Baz Luhrmann long before Australia. His previous films, Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, and Moulin Rouge! each provided a heady mix of visual and aural stimulation, and all were quite well-received. Australia cast two megastars, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, as English aristocrat Lady Sarah Asley and The Drover, respectively. With World War II looming, the pair embark on an epic journey across the Australian Outback to a cattle sale, finding a love story along the way. Despite the scenic feast for the eyes and the big name leads, Australia under-performed at the box office. Though its international ticket sales fared better than US sales, many criticized the film's sheer melodrama and length (a whopping 165 minutes).

At the same time, Slumdog Millionaire, directed by Danny Boyle, about a teenager, Jamal (Dev Patel), recalling the tragedies and criminal escapades that led to him being a knowledgeable contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, became a sleeper hit, winning eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. In contrast to Australia, Slumdog Millionaire cast relative unknowns, Patel and Freida Pinto, as the film's romantic leads. The hit film gave a fresh and colorful spin on the rags to riches story and pulled $378 million in worldwide box office earnings.

In John Carter, the eponymous hero (played by Taylor Kitsch) is transported from the Reconstruction era in the Arizona Territory to Barsoom (Mars). Based on the early 20th-century Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom book series, John Carter was meant to appeal to fans of the epic sci-fi fantasy genre while capitalizing on Kitsch's rising fame (thanks to several years on the TV series Friday Night Lights). Expectations were especially high since a John Carter movie adaptation had been in the works since the 1930s. In the end, the would-be blockbuster barely earned back its massive budget at the box office, thanks to unwieldy special effects, and competition from two very different films. 

The Lorax, a computer-animated film based on the Dr. Seuss book of the same name, is an unabashed yet topical rallying cry for environmental activism. Balanced out by songs and Danny DeVito (the Lorax) injecting fun into the customary Seuss rhyming couplets, the story of a young boy embarking on a quest to restore the natural world appealed to wider audiences, making almost three times as much as John Carter in its opening weekend. Likewise, 21 Jump Street, based on the 1987 TV series starring Johnny Depp, was a refreshingly funny film, with Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill as two undercover cops infiltrating a high school for a case. Though it was also based on an existing property, it was not nearly as highly anticipated as John Carter, and, unlike the sci-fi flop, the success of 21 Jump Street was substantial enough to afford a sequel.

Lake Placid arrived on the tail-end of the 1990s with a cool all-star cast specific to that decade. Bridget Fonda, Bill Pullman, and Oliver Platt had enough combined star power to turn a profit. Meanwhile, Irish actor Brendan Gleeson played against type as the local sheriff, who, along with a panicked group of Maine residents and specialists, attempts to get to the bottom of a series of gruesome deaths caused by a peckish, prehistoric crocodile. Played for laughs and scares, Lake Placid scored low on both fronts, with a mediocre worldwide gross of $56 million against a $30 million budget. 

Another horror film, bereft of laughs and intentionally so, came out of left field and quickly outdistanced Lake Placid. Made on a shoe-string budget by first time writer-directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez and starring unknown actors, The Blair Witch Project follows a trio of film students who head to the woods to make a documentary about a legendary killer. Kick-starting the modern spate of found footage horror films, The Blair Witch Project generated massive hype - and massive sales - by marketing the film as if the characters were real people who had disappeared after filming this indie documentary. The clever premise, brilliant marketing, and low budget made The Blair Witch Project one of the most unexpectedly profitable movies of all time, pulling in almost $250 million worldwide against a production budget of $60,000.