10 Movies Everybody Wanted...But Nobody Watched
Everyone wanted Sin City 2, but nobody turned up for it.
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00:00 If the history of Hollywood has proven anything, it's that audiences have shown themselves
00:04 to be incredibly fickle.
00:06 They beg and they plead for a movie to get made, but then never even bother supporting
00:10 it when it hits cinemas.
00:11 Now, of course, the reality is a little more nuanced than that, but there are a number
00:16 of long-requested films that a lot of people wanted to see, only for everyone to categorically
00:21 turn their backs when they finally came out.
00:24 The reasons for this are myriad; perhaps the film was poorly marketed, or the reviews were
00:29 questionable, or the studio simply waited too damn long to make it.
00:33 But in each case, fans failed to turn up for a movie they insisted had to be made.
00:38 To make it sting worse, most of the films on this list are also pretty good, such that
00:42 they actually deserve to enjoy some well-earned box office success, rather than tanking catastrophically
00:48 and having to settle for, at best, selling some DVDs or being rediscovered on streaming.
00:54 Everyone was enthusiastic about these films out of the gate, but by the time they finally
00:58 hit cinemas, that excitement had long since faded.
01:01 For shame.
01:02 So, with that in mind, I'm Ellie with What Culture, here with 10 Movies Everybody Wanted,
01:08 But Nobody Watched.
01:09 10.
01:10 The Lego Movie 2 - The Second Part
01:13 The Lego Movie was one of the biggest cinematic surprises of the last decade; a shockingly
01:18 clever and creative tribute to those teeny plastic blocks we all love, rather than the
01:23 crass cynical commercial exercise it could so easily have been.
01:27 The film was, consequently, a stonking box office success, and a sequel was soon enough
01:32 announced with The Lego Movie 2 - The Second Part, finally releasing five years later in
01:37 February 2019.
01:38 Though there was considerable initial excitement about the sequel announcement, The Lego Movie
01:44 2 cratered at the box office, despite solid reviews, grossing just $192.4 million worldwide,
01:52 a mere 41.1% of its predecessor's $468.1 million haul.
01:59 The reason for its failure has been dissected by box office analysts ever since, some blaming
02:04 samey marketing which failed to distinguish it from the first film, others citing the
02:08 five year gap between movies, and, perhaps most persuasively, the ever troubling notion
02:13 of franchise fatigue.
02:15 The Lego Movie 2 was actually the fourth entry into the Lego Movie franchise, with Lego Batman
02:20 and Lego Ninjago films being released during the aforementioned five year gap.
02:25 Though Lego Batman was a solid success, Lego Ninjago bombed at the box office less than
02:29 18 months before The Lego Movie 2's release, seemingly ensuring that all the initial excitement
02:35 around a second mainline Lego movie dried up, killing the franchise.
02:39 It's a damn shame, really, as while failing to meet the highs of its predecessor, The
02:44 Lego Movie 2 is a respectably enjoyable animated sequel.
02:48 9.
02:49 Blade Runner 2049
02:50 Though Ridley Scott's original Blade Runner was famously a box office bust upon its original
02:56 1982 release, its esteem grew exponentially in the years and decades that followed, as
03:01 large swarms of sci-fi fans discovered it on home video.
03:05 Blade Runner is basically a mandatory inclusion on any list of all-timer sci-fi films, enough
03:11 that Warner Bros. greenlit a sequel, Blade Runner 2049, which finally came to fruition
03:16 under director Denis Villeneuve in 2017.
03:20 With a first-rate director and Avengers-worthy $185 million budget, fan excitement was through
03:27 the roof that they were getting another mega-budget glimpse into this world, some 35 years after
03:33 Scott's original.
03:35 Despite the anticipation, though, Blade Runner 2049 was a box office failure, grossing just
03:40 $259.3 million worldwide.
03:44 A slow-paced 163-minute sequel to an artsy, philosophical sci-fi film was never going
03:51 to make a billion dollars, but Warner Bros. clearly hoped it would pull at least $500
03:55 million and prove a solid success.
03:58 Despite all that passionate clamouring for a Blade Runner sequel, evidently a lot of
04:02 people decided to stay home when it mattered most.
04:05 Though it has since performed well on home video, that's not nearly enough to make
04:10 Blade Runner 2049 profitable when you factor in Warner Bros.' massive marketing spend.
04:16 8.
04:17 Dread
04:18 It can't really be understated just how much people loathe 1995's Sylvester Stallone-starring
04:24 Judge Dredd film, primarily due to Stallone's ego-driven decision to commit the cardinal
04:28 sin of removing Dredd's helmet, as was never done in the comics.
04:33 But when a Dredd reboot was announced, comic book fans were giddy that Hollywood had a
04:37 golden opportunity to get it right this time and redeem the property.
04:41 And yet, while 2012's Dredd received warmly positive reviews from critics, it bombed horribly
04:47 at the box office, grossing just $41.5 million against a $45 million budget.
04:53 That's barely one third of what the Stallone film made 17 years earlier.
04:58 The blame was largely levelled at the movie's marketing, which placed a heavy emphasis on
05:02 the 3D aspect, enough that it was actually titled Dredd 3D.
05:07 Though Dredd has been a strong performer on home video and streaming, it's a damn shame
05:11 that more comic book fans didn't support it theatrically, as would have actually made
05:15 a sequel possible.
05:16 Given that there was a considerable uptick in the popularity of R-rated superhero films
05:22 in the years following Dredd's release, things could have gone so differently with
05:25 a few years' difference and a more confident, imaginative marketing campaign.
05:30 7.
05:31 Serenity
05:32 Joss Whedon's cult sci-fi TV series Firefly wasn't given much of a chance by Fox, who
05:37 aired the original run of episodes out of order and then unceremoniously cancelled the
05:42 series in December 2002, after just 11 of its 14 episodes had aired.
05:48 Both fans and the show's cast, led by Nathan Fillion, were devastated, and despite a concerted
05:53 effort to get the series picked up by another network, it went nowhere.
05:57 Yet due to strong DVD sales, Whedon was able to get a follow-up film greenlit at Universal,
06:03 with Serenity being released in 2005.
06:06 Firefly fans, who typically refer to themselves as "browncoats", helped spread word about
06:11 the film online in an attempt to accentuate its modest marketing budget.
06:15 But alas, when Firefly hit cinemas, it failed to break out into the wider mainstream, just
06:20 barely recouping its $39 million budget.
06:23 Given Firefly's mighty home video sales, it was no doubt a disappointing result for
06:28 Universal, who quite understandably figured they'd at least turn a decent profit off
06:32 the lower-budget sci-fi production.
06:34 You can blame the lacklustre marketing which fans, bless 'em, tried to bolster, or the
06:38 fact that it was the glorified series finale to a cancelled TV show, but Serenity deserved
06:43 to do so, so much better than this.
06:46 6.
06:47 Watchmen
06:48 An adaptation of Alan Moore's legendary comic book series Watchmen had been in the
06:52 works for roughly 20 years before the Zack Snyder version finally stuck and actually
06:57 got made.
06:58 One of the most iconic and acclaimed comics of all time, a Watchmen movie seemed like
07:02 an absolute slam dunk on paper, yet the complexity and ambition of the material also made studio
07:09 executives wary.
07:10 But Warner Bros. nevertheless gave Snyder $138 million to make an R-rated 163-minute
07:18 adaptation of Moore's novel, and one which stirred up much excitement when its first
07:23 trailer was put in front of the Dark Knight in the summer of 2008.
07:28 Reviews ultimately skewed mixed positive, but in an era where R-rated superhero movies
07:33 had yet to find their place with audiences, Watchmen's pre-release hype failed to translate
07:38 into commercial success.
07:40 Watchmen was an atrocious box office failure, grossing just $185.3 million worldwide, with
07:47 analysts citing both its long runtime and grim tones as turning mainstream audiences
07:51 off.
07:52 It did, however, perform phenomenally well on home video, enough that it's estimated
07:57 to have actually turned a modest profit.
08:00 Even so, that a film whose original trailer stirred up so much buzz online, tanked so
08:04 hard when it mattered most was genuinely dispiriting.
08:08 Watchmen is generally accepted to be one of Snyder's better films today, and it's easy
08:13 to see how its more challenging content probably would have gone down better with today's
08:18 more enlightened, comic-literate audiences.
08:20 As such, it's little surprise that HBO's recent Watchmen series - a fair improvement
08:25 over Snyder's film, admittedly - was both a massive critical and ratings hit.
08:30 5.
08:31 Snakes on a Plane
08:32 Oh, remember Snakes on a Plane?
08:35 A classic example of "it does what it says on the tin" marketing.
08:39 All this B-movie homage needed to sell itself was that ridiculous title and a trailer clip
08:43 of Samuel L. Jackson complaining about the "mother effin' snakes on this mother effin'
08:47 plane".
08:48 Snakes on a Plane was one of the world's first movies to be virally marketed online through
08:53 internet memes, before the world at large even used the word "meme".
08:57 The excitement was palpable enough that New Line Cinema even commissioned a small round
09:01 of reshoots to change the movie's rating from PG-13 to R, including the addition of
09:07 Jackson's aforementioned one-liner.
09:10 To the layperson, it seemed like Snakes on a Plane couldn't fail.
09:13 The internet couldn't get enough of how hilarious it all was, and with a $33 million
09:17 budget, the path to profitability seemed fairly straightforward.
09:21 Yet, while not a catastrophic dud, it ended up underwhelming and grossing a mere $62 million,
09:27 failing to even double its budget in the process.
09:31 The consensus was that internet lols didn't translate one-to-one to box office success,
09:36 with some suggesting that many online fans, especially those younger enthusiasts who couldn't
09:40 see the R-rated movie in cinemas, simply pirated it instead.
09:45 4.
09:46 Gremlins 2 - The New Batch
09:47 1984's Gremlins was a massive box office hit, grossing an incredible $212.9 million
09:55 against a mere $11 million budget, and clearly suggesting a new Hollywood franchise had been
10:01 born.
10:02 It was an entire six years before the sequel, Gremlins 2 - The New Batch, arrived, and while
10:07 there was plenty of initial demand for a second Gremlins, by 1990 interest had seemingly waned
10:12 considerably.
10:13 The kids who found Gizmo adorable in 1984 were now older and seemingly less interested, while
10:19 the sequel's heavily satirical tongue-in-cheek tone caught many remaining fans of the original
10:24 by surprise, as the first film was more of a darkly comedic horror film.
10:29 As such, while saddled with a heftier $50 million budget, Gremlins 2 ended up grossing
10:34 a poor $41.5 million worldwide.
10:38 This was ultimately a textbook example of both what happens when you leave audiences
10:42 waiting too long for a sequel, and when you deviate from the expected sequel formula.
10:47 Gremlins 2 later found itself cult fandom on home video, though the fact that it grossed
10:52 less than 20% of the first film while being produced at over four-fold the cost is nothing
10:57 if not an abject failure.
10:59 3.
11:00 Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
11:03 It's easy to see why everyone was excited about Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, an adaptation
11:07 of Brian Lee O'Malley's beloved comic book directed by rising cult fave filmmaker Edgar
11:12 Wright, with a crackerjack cast of likeable young actors including Michael Cera, Mary
11:17 Elizabeth Winston, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Brandon Routh, and Jason Schwartzman.
11:23 If you were in geek nerd circles in 2010, it was easy to believe that Scott Pilgrim
11:27 was going to be a huge hit.
11:29 The hype train was chugging along, and backed by strong reviews out of the gate, it seemed
11:33 like a forward-thinking comic book movie that couldn't miss.
11:37 But Scott Pilgrim was ultimately a commercial dud, grossing just $49.3 million against an
11:43 $85 million budget, no matter the rabid online enthusiasm for it.
11:48 Much like Snakes on a Plane, this seemed to be a case of internet fandom failing to translate
11:52 into box office stubs.
11:54 Given that nerd culture became considerably more mainstream in the years that followed,
11:57 it's easy to see how Scott Pilgrim would have performed much better had it released
12:01 in, say, 2015.
12:04 Arriving as it did, before superhero movies ruled Hollywood and video game adaptations
12:08 were taken seriously, Scott Pilgrim failed to make general audiences bite, even though
12:13 the mainstream has come round to it more in recent years on streaming.
12:17 2.
12:18 Sin City - A Dame to Kill For
12:21 Robert Rodriguez's adaptation of Miller's legendary graphic novel Sin City was a massive
12:26 critical and commercial success back in 2005, enough that a sequel seemed inevitable.
12:32 And though Rodriguez quickly got to work putting Sin City 2 together, the project was repeatedly
12:37 delayed enough that it wasn't finally released until the summer of 2014, a whole nine years
12:43 later.
12:45 With a $65 million budget, Sin City - A Dame to Kill For made just $39.4 million, not even
12:52 25% of the original's $160 million haul.
12:56 It was a catastrophic result for a film that frequently landed on lists of most anticipated
13:01 movie sequels, but that ultimately took too damn long to get made.
13:05 Sin City's stylistic innovations no longer seemed cutting edge in 2014, which in conjunction
13:11 with the sequel's inferior script and reshuffled cast seemingly turned audiences off.
13:16 Had Sin City 2 been made within, say, three years of the original's release, things might
13:21 have turned out quite differently.
13:23 1.
13:24 The Matrix Resurrections
13:26 Though The Matrix Revolutions brought the original trilogy to an underwhelming end back
13:30 in 2003, there was still a lot of general audience goodwill for the series, and especially
13:36 lead Keanu Reeves, enough that a two decades later follow up certainly caught people's
13:41 attention.
13:42 The first trailer for The Matrix Resurrections stoked intense discussion online about the
13:46 potential for it to revive the long-dormant franchise, whereby it could both satisfy long-time
13:52 fans and earn itself a whole new generation of supporters.
13:56 Yet even with the film releasing simultaneously on HBO Max, Resurrections' box office figures
14:01 were, to be kind, atrocious.
14:03 On a $190 million budget, Resurrections grossed just $156.6 million globally, serving as a
14:11 concrete vote of no confidence for Lana Wachowski's bold new vision.
14:16 There were many factors to consider, from the pandemic to the script's aggressively
14:20 meta nature, the mediocre action sequences, and the absences of cast members Lawrence
14:25 Fishburne and Hugo Weaving.
14:28 Releasing mere days after Spider-Man No Way Home as it did, the choice for casual audiences
14:32 was a no-brainer, and the only folks who actually stepped out of their homes to see The Matrix
14:36 Resurrections were the most devout faithful.
14:39 Despite promising mainstream engagement in its marketing, Resurrections couldn't hold
14:43 their attention, and once the polarizing word of mouth got out, it was dead on arrival.
14:48 And that concludes our list.
14:50 If you can think of any that we missed, then do let us know in the comments below.
14:53 And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification
14:56 bell.
14:57 Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there @whatculture, and I can be found across various
15:01 social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
15:03 I've been Ellie with What Culture, I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you real