When we separate successful films from failures, we look at several key factors. Sometimes the movie just isn’t very good. Sometimes it was a critical bomb but a hit with everyone. Sometimes the box office is enough to say whether a film was worth its own budget. Plenty of cinema and modern day masterpieces were instant theatrical hits, from Gone with the Wind to Jurassic Park to Titanic to Transformers: Dark of the Moon. For others, it takes a little longer for everyone to catch on to the genre.
Some films wait decades for their time to shine after being considered critical and/or commercial flops. Some just have to wait until they are released on DVD or streaming. When an unexpected, unlikely flop turns into a hit, it’s a different story every time. Several DVD extras might be enough to get loyal fans to cough up a few million dollars. Perhaps television syndication is enough to pull public films out of the archive of no return. A film that seemed like a failure at first may turn into a hit through consistent ticket sales and word of mouth hype. These ten films started out as theatrical runs, but went on to become certified classics in their own right, proving that sometimes it pays to be patient.
Big hits that came first in theaters
These films prove that word-of-mouth hype can turn a decade or two of flop recall into a smash hit.
READ MORE: Box Office Flops That Deserved To Be Big Hits
DVDs sold for outrageous amounts of money
These DVD discs and box sets were recently sold for hundreds of dollars on eBay.
