10 Movies Everybody Wanted...But Nobody Watched
Everyone wanted Sin City 2, but nobody turned up for it.
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00:00If the history of Hollywood has proven anything, it's that audiences have shown themselves
00:04to be incredibly fickle.
00:06They beg and they plead for a movie to get made, but then never even bother supporting
00:10it when it hits cinemas.
00:11Now, of course, the reality is a little more nuanced than that, but there are a number
00:16of long-requested films that a lot of people wanted to see, only for everyone to categorically
00:21turn their backs when they finally came out.
00:24The reasons for this are myriad.
00:26Perhaps the film was poorly marketed, or the reviews were terrible, or the studios
00:30simply waited too damn long to make it.
00:32But in each case, fans failed to turn up for a movie they insisted had to be made.
00:38To make it sting worse, most of the films on this list are also pretty good, such that
00:42they actually deserve to enjoy some well-earned box office success, rather than tanking catastrophically
00:48and having to settle for, at best, selling some DVDs or being rediscovered on streaming.
00:54Everyone was enthusiastic about these films out of the gate, but by the time they finally
00:58hit cinemas, that excitement had long since faded.
01:01For shame.
01:02So, with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with What Culture, here with 10 Movies Everybody
01:07Wanted But Nobody Watched.
01:0910.
01:10The Lego Movie 2 – The Second Part
01:14The Lego Movie was one of the biggest cinematic surprises of the last decade.
01:18A shockingly clever and creative tribute to those teeny plastic blocks we all love, rather
01:23than the crass, cynical commercial exercise it could so easily have been.
01:27The film was consequently a stonking box office success, and a sequel was soon enough announced
01:32with The Lego Movie 2 – The Second Part, finally releasing five years later in February
01:382019.
01:39Though there was considerable initial excitement about the sequel announcement, The Lego Movie
01:442 cratered at the box office despite solid reviews, grossing just $192.4 million worldwide,
01:52a mere 41.1% of its predecessor's $468.1 million haul.
01:59The reason for its failure has been dissected by box office analysts ever since, some blaming
02:04samey marketing which failed to distinguish it from the first film, others citing the
02:08five year gap between movies, and perhaps most persuasively, the ever troubling notion
02:13of franchise fatigue.
02:15The Lego Movie 2 was actually the fourth entry into the Lego Movie franchise, with Lego Batman
02:20and Lego Ninjago films being released during the aforementioned five year gap.
02:25Though Lego Batman was a solid success, Lego Ninjago bombed at the box office less than
02:3018 months before The Lego Movie 2's release, seemingly ensuring that all the initial excitement
02:35around a second mainline Lego movie dried up, killing the franchise.
02:39It's a damn shame, really, as while failing to meet the highs of its predecessor, The
02:44Lego Movie 2 is a respectably enjoyable animated sequel.
02:489.
02:49Blade Runner 2049
02:50Though Ridley Scott's original Blade Runner was famously a box office bust upon its original
02:561982 release, its esteem grew exponentially in the years and decades that followed, as
03:01large swarms of sci-fi fans discovered it on home video.
03:06Blade Runner is basically a mandatory inclusion on any list of all-timer sci-fi films, enough
03:11that Warner Bros. greenlit a sequel, Blade Runner 2049, which finally came to fruition
03:16under director Denis Villeneuve in 2017.
03:20With a first-rate director and Avengers-worthy $185 million budget, fan excitement was through
03:27the roof that they were getting another mega-budget glimpse into this world some 35 years after
03:33Scott's original.
03:35Despite the anticipation, though, Blade Runner 2049 was a box office failure, grossing just
03:40$259.3 million worldwide.
03:44A slow-paced 163-minute sequel to an artsy, philosophical sci-fi film was never going
03:51to make a billion dollars, but Warner Bros. clearly hoped it would pull at least $500
03:55million and prove a solid success.
03:58Despite all that passionate clamouring for a Blade Runner sequel, evidently a lot of
04:02people decided to stay home when it mattered most.
04:05Though it has since performed well on home video, that's not nearly enough to make
04:10Blade Runner 2049 profitable when you factor in Warner Bros.' massive marketing spend.
04:168.
04:17Dread
04:18It can't really be understated just how much people loathe 1995's Sylvester Stallone-starring
04:24Judge Dredd film, primarily due to Stallone's ego-driven decision to commit the cardinal
04:28sin of removing Dredd's helmet, as was never done in the comics.
04:33But when a Dredd reboot was announced, comic book fans were giddy that Hollywood had a
04:37golden opportunity to get it right this time and redeem the property.
04:41And yet, while 2012's Dredd received warmly positive reviews from critics, it bombed horridly
04:47at the box office, grossing just $41.5 million against a $45 million budget.
04:53That's barely one third of what the Stallone film made 17 years earlier.
04:58The blame was largely levelled at the movie's marketing, which placed a heavy emphasis on
05:02the 3D aspect, enough that it was actually titled Dredd 3D.
05:06Though Dredd has been a strong performer on home video and streaming, it's a damn shame
05:11that more comic book fans didn't support it theatrically, as would have actually made
05:15a sequel possible.
05:16Given that there was a considerable uptick in the popularity of R-rated superhero films
05:22in the years following Dredd's release, things could have gone so differently with a few
05:26years' difference and a more confident, imaginative marketing campaign.
05:307.
05:31Serenity
05:33Sweden's cult sci-fi TV series Firefly wasn't given much of a chance by Fox, who aired the
05:38original run of episodes out of order and then unceremoniously cancelled the series
05:42in December 2002, after just 11 of its 14 episodes had aired.
05:48Both fans and the show's cast, led by Nathan Fillion, were devastated, and despite a concerted
05:53effort to get the series picked up by another network, it went nowhere.
05:57Yet due to strong DVD sales, Whedon was able to get a follow-up film greenlit at Universal,
06:03with Serenity being released in 2005.
06:06Firefly fans, who typically refer to themselves as browncoats, helped spread word about the
06:11film online in an attempt to accentuate its modest marketing budget.
06:15But alas, when Firefly hit cinemas, it failed to break out into the wider mainstream, just
06:20barely recouping its $39 million budget.
06:23In Firefly's mighty home video sales, it was no doubt a disappointing result for Universal,
06:28who quite understandably figured they'd at least turn a decent profit off the lower-budget
06:32sci-fi production.
06:34You can blame the lacklustre marketing which fans, bless them, tried to bolster, or the
06:38fact that it was the glorified series finale to a cancelled TV show, but Serenity deserved
06:43to do so, so much better than this.
06:466.
06:47Watchmen
06:48An adaptation of Alan Moore's legendary comic book series Watchmen had been in the works
06:52for roughly 20 years before the Zack Snyder version finally stuck and actually got made.
06:58One of the most iconic and acclaimed comics of all time, a Watchmen movie seemed like
07:02an absolute slam dunk on paper, yet the complexity and ambition of the material also made studio
07:09executives wary.
07:10But Warner Bros. nevertheless gave Snyder $138 million to make an R-rated 163-minute
07:18adaptation of Moore's novel, and one which stirred up much excitement when its first
07:23trailer was put in front of The Dark Knight in the summer of 2008.
07:28Reviews ultimately skewed mixed positive, but in an era where R-rated superhero movies
07:33had yet to find their place with audiences, Watchmen's pre-release hype failed to translate
07:38into commercial success.
07:40Watchmen was an atrocious box office failure, grossing just $185.3 million worldwide, with
07:47analysts citing both its long runtime and grim tones as turning mainstream audiences
07:51off.
07:52It did, however, perform phenomenally well on home video, enough that it's estimated
07:57to have actually turned a modest profit.
08:00Even so, that a film whose original trailer stirred up so much buzz online tanked so hard
08:05when it mattered most was genuinely dispiriting.
08:08Watchmen is generally accepted to be one of Snyder's better films today, and it's easy
08:13to see how its more challenging content probably would have gone down better with today's
08:18more enlightened, comic-literate audiences.
08:21As such, it's little surprise that HBO's recent Watchmen series, a fair improvement
08:25over Snyder's film, admittedly, was both a massive critical and ratings hit.
08:305.
08:31Snakes on a Plane
08:32Oh, remember Snakes on a Plane?
08:35A classic example of it-does-what-it-says-on-the-tin marketing.
08:39All this B-movie homage needed to sell itself was that ridiculous title and a trailer clip
08:43of Samuel L. Jackson complaining about the mother-effing snakes on this mother-effing
08:47plane.
08:48Snakes on a Plane was one of the world's first movies to be virally marketed online through
08:53internet memes, before the world at large even used the word meme.
08:57The excitement was palpable enough that New Line Cinema even commissioned a small round
09:01of reshoots to change the movie's rating from PG-13 to R, including the addition of
09:07Jackson's aforementioned one-liner.
09:10To the layperson, it seemed like Snakes on a Plane couldn't fail.
09:13The internet couldn't get enough of how hilarious it all was, and with a $33 million
09:17budget, the path to profitability seemed fairly straightforward.
09:21Yet while not a catastrophic dud, it ended up underwhelming and grossing a mere $62 million,
09:27failing to even double its budget in the process.
09:31The consensus was that internet lols didn't translate one-to-one to box office success,
09:36some suggesting that many online fans, especially those younger enthusiasts who couldn't see
09:40the R-rated movie in cinemas, simply pirated it instead.
09:444.
09:45Gremlins 2 The New Batch
09:471984's Gremlins was a massive box office hit, grossing an incredible $212.9 million
09:55against a mere $11 million budget, and clearly suggesting a new Hollywood franchise had been
10:01born.
10:02It was an entire six years before the sequel, Gremlins 2 The New Batch, arrived, and while
10:07there was plenty of initial demand for a second Gremlins, by 1990 interest had seemingly waned
10:12considerably.
10:13The kids who found Gizmo adorable in 1984 were now older and seemingly less interested,
10:19while the sequel's heavily satirical tongue-in-cheek tone caught many remaining fans of the original
10:24by surprise, as the first film was more of a darkly comedic horror film.
10:29As such, while saddled with a heftier $50 million budget, Gremlins 2 ended up grossing
10:34a poor $41.5 million worldwide.
10:38This was ultimately a textbook example of both what happens when you leave audiences
10:42waiting too long for a sequel, and when you deviate from the expected sequel formula.
10:47Gremlins 2 later found itself cult fandom on home video, though the fact that it grossed
10:52less than 20% of the first film while being produced at over four-fold the cost is nothing
10:58if not an abject failure.
11:003.
11:01Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
11:03It's easy to see why everyone was excited about Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, an adaptation
11:07of Brian Lee O'Malley's beloved comic book directed by rising cult fave filmmaker Edgar
11:12Wright, with a crackerjack cast of likeable young actors including Michael Cera, Mary
11:17Elizabeth Winstead, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Brandon Routh, and Jason Schwartzman.
11:23If you were in geek nerd circles in 2010, it was easy to believe that Scott Pilgrim
11:27was going to be a huge hit.
11:29The hype train was chugging along, and backed by strong reviews out of the gate, it seemed
11:33like a forward-thinking comic book movie that couldn't miss.
11:37But 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.
11:48Much like Snakes on a Plane, this seemed to be a case of internet fandom failing to translate
11:52into box office stubs.
11:54Given that nerd culture became considerably more mainstream in the years that followed,
11:58it's easy to see how Scott Pilgrim would have performed much better had it released
12:01in, say, 2015.
12:03Arriving as it did, before superhero movies ruled Hollywood and video game adaptations
12:08were taken seriously, Scott Pilgrim failed to make general audiences bite, even though
12:13the mainstream has come round to it more in recent years on streaming.
12:172.
12:18Sin City, a Dame to Kill For
12:21Robert Rodriguez's adaptation of Miller's legendary graphic novel Sin City was a massive
12:26critical and commercial success back in 2005, enough that a sequel seemed inevitable.
12:32And though Rodriguez quickly got to work putting Sin City 2 together, the project was repeatedly
12:37delayed enough that it wasn't finally released until the summer of 2014, a whole nine years
12:43later.
12:45Across a $65 million budget, Sin City, a Dame to Kill For, made just $39.4 million, not
12:51even 25% of the original's $160 million haul.
12:56It was a catastrophic result for a film that frequently landed on lists of most anticipated
13:01movie sequels, but that ultimately took too damn long to get made.
13:05Sin City's stylistic innovations no longer seemed cutting edge in 2014, which in conjunction
13:11with the sequel's inferior script and reshuffled cast seemingly turned audiences off.
13:16Had Sin City 2 been made within, say, three years of the original's release, things
13:20might have turned out quite differently.
13:231.
13:24The Matrix Resurrections
13:26Though The Matrix Revolutions brought the original trilogy to an underwhelming end back
13:30in 2003, there was still a lot of general audience goodwill for the series, and especially
13:36lead Keanu Reeves, enough that a two decades later follow-up certainly caught people's
13:41attention.
13:42The first trailer for The Matrix Resurrections stoked intense discussion online about the
13:46potential for it to revive the long-dormant franchise, whereby it could both satisfy long-time
13:52fans and earn itself a whole new generation of supporters.
13:56Yet even with the film releasing simultaneously on HBO Max, Resurrections' box office figures
14:01were, to be kind, atrocious.
14:03On a $190 million budget, Resurrections grossed just $156.6 million globally, serving as a
14:11concrete vote of no confidence for Lana Wachowski's bold new vision.
14:16There were many factors to consider, from the pandemic to the script's aggressively
14:20meta nature, the mediocre action sequences, and the absences of cast members Laurence
14:25Fishburne and Hugo Weaving.
14:28Releasing mere days after Spider-Man No Way Home as it did, the choice for casual audiences
14:32was a no-brainer, and the only folks who actually stepped out of their homes to see The Matrix
14:36Resurrections were the most devout faithful.
14:39Despite promising mainstream engagement in its marketing, Resurrections couldn't hold
14:43their attention, and once the polarizing word of mouth got out, it was dead on arrival.
14:48And that concludes our list.
14:50If you can think of any that we missed, then do let us know in the comments below.
14:53And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe, and tap that notification bell.
14:57Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, at WhatCulture, and I can be found across
15:01various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
15:04I've been Ellie with WhatCulture, I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you real soon.