chess

Donnie Darko came out just after 9/11 and didn't do nearly as well as it deserved to.

I don't wish failure on any movie...since every movie that makes it does so for a reason.

Instead, I'd give a boost to...(stopped typing here and thought for about 5 minutes)...sorry, but Serenity is the only thing that comes to mind. It may not have been everybody's cup of tea, but it should have made 80-100M.

As for previous comments:

Pirates was an intensely charming movie and deserved its take.
Pearl Harbor was a turd, but it had pretty impressive production value.
Batman Begins should have made Spider-man type money (earlier ones hurt it)
Thumbs up to Gattaca
Disagree about Shrek (every bit as good as Pixar)
King Kong made about what it should have...brilliant but bloated.

BellsOfWar

that's now thanks in part to high tension. up until that we rarely had r horror movies. i never said scream was pg13. i said teens will go to a pg13 horror since they loved scream.

BellsOfWar

donnie darko is one of the most overrated movies i've ever seen. it's for the psedo intellects to enjoy so they can feel proud of themselves for understanding it.

HN

Shawshank Redemption

I'd love to see what kind of antics Andy and Red get into (and out of) in a follow-up

RichC2

Disagree. If Appleseed had made it big we'd have plenty of equally mediocre big budget animes.

My picks:

Dark City and Fight Club - both deserved far more success in theaters than they achieved. Then maybe studios would have been less apprehensive about releasing more off kilter pics.

Equilibrium, because it's a fairly mediocre flick that's loved for being so unknown, if it had been moderately successful, it'd be long forgotten.

Filmmaker

I'd make a hit out of TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME so it would provide the impetus for David Lynch to complete his 2nd film in the series, the one that would have resolved the TV show's cliffhanger ending; now, due to FWWM's failure, we'll never know if .

Half a step behind this would be STRANGE DAYS, an astonishing sci-fi tour-de-force that deserved so much better than it got.

Mr. Cinema

I'm still shocked that Shrek 2 made $920 million worldwide!

Aside from Puss n Boots, this movie had nothing going for it. I thought it was extremely average compared to the original.

OldBoy

what are you talking about? ht did not start the trend or any trend for that matter. "Scream" started the horror kick again, 'R' or 'PG-13'.
and the way you worded your response absolutely implied you thought it was 'PG-13'.

BellsOfWar

nah, before HT (or saw) there were only a handful of r movies. now, within the last year there have been many more compared to the years prior. all scream did was bring horror film to the attention of people who wouldn't normally watch it, i.e. teens, by going mainstream, thanks to the likes of drew barrymore, neve campbell and rose mcgowan.

bhk

I would have liked T3 to make more money. I really liked the story and the fact that it had the guts to stick with a down type ending.

majorjoe23

I don't see how High Tension could have kicked off the trend, it came out last year and did pretty poorly at the box office, making only 3 million at the box office.

Saw, House of 1000 Corpses and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake are much more likely inspirations for the resurgence in low-budget, R-rated horror films.

cornbetts

I would make The Passion of the Christ a bomb.

This film was virtually critic proof because of the subject matter. People went to see it because of the subject matter. It made as much as it did because of the subject matter. Sadly, there was no background story, no character development, no real plot (aside from killing someone) and no "passion."

The cinematography was about the only redeeming quality. Otherwise this is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

And before people start bashing me, I am not being critical of Jesus, the bible or anything religious. I am being 100% critical of Mel Gibson's vision for the film. Compared to Braveheart and even Man Without a Face, Passion is a dud!

On the flip side, I would like to see Office Space, Napoleon Dynamite and Kentucky Fried Movie all $100 million or more winners!

Filmmaker

So the Bible got it right, but the film gets it wrong???

boredsilly

The Rundown starring the Rock was a really fun movie (outside of the clunky last battle) that should have crossed the 100 mill mark making it a modest hit.

If I had to make a movie bomb I would go with Mr and Mrs Smith. This movie didn't click with me at all.

Nesbit

\I'd make every Norm McDonald movie make $50 million. Enough to allow him to keep staring in low budget comedies.

Phantom Menace would have make $85 million.

Batman Begins would have made $320 million.

Napoleon Dianomite would have made $12.

Corvin

You can say whatever you would like about the film, but there was plenty of "passion."

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=passion

Check out definition five.

riley_dude

I would make Innerspace and Serenity more sucessful.
I would take the Box office totals from the last three Star wars movies and substantially reduce them to make to under 50 million each.

Rockmjd23

I would decrease the intake of Harry Potter movies, Finding Nemo, and Independence Day. I would increase the box office of the Terminator films, the Indiana Jones series, and Back to the Future films.

whoopdido

You've got to be kidding me. What kind of background story and character development did you want? This was not a movie about Jesus' life. It was a movie about his final hours on Earth. I mean did you want the movie to show his birth in the manger, walking on water and all that stuff? The entire point of the movie was that the audience already knew the entire story, so there was no need for a backstory or character development. Mel Gibson seriously considered not even having subtitles and frankly that decision wouldn't have bothered me very much. Subtitles were not even needed because the story was very simple and MOST people (at least those of the Christian faith) could follow the story just fine without having subtitles. The story of the Passion basically is that Jesus is betrayed, Jesus accepts his fate, Jesus has the last supper, Jesus is scoured, Jesus carries the cross to the place, Jesus dies on the cross and finally Jesus rises from the dead. The core story is one of the simplest ever told and it didn't need character development or a backstory.

cornbetts

This is exactly what I am talking about. People cannot accept any criticism on The Passion because of it's biblical background. Yes most people who are Christian don't need to know the back story, however I did not feel the film gave much outside of a blood bath.

In order for a film to work and for the audience to care about the characters there has to be "something" there on screen, not something that you are supposed to know through a religion class. I just felt like there was not enough being told on screen for the audience.

You know how you see a sequel to a film and it doesn't make sense because you didn't see the original? That is how I feel about this film. This film should be able to stand on it's own without having to know the bible or even have heard of the bible. To me all I got was 2 hours of watching a man die.

I agree with you on the subtitles. I am not upset about that. In fact, I thought that was actually distracting to the film and could have tolerated the film in it's spoken language.

Sorry, I just hated this movie. Much like some people hate Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Jaws. I mean no offense to people who love it or those who are religious. I just hated The Passion.

toddly6666

OFFICE SPACE and DARK CITY should have made massive amounts of money at the box office. I'm sure they made more money on DVD, but they should have been huger films considering that they are classic masterpieces of their genre.

HARRY POTTER should make less. I don't get those films.


And by the way, TRANSFORMERS will rock, especially with Michael Bay as director. It's going to be the best action movie next year!

SuicycoDave

I would have made Mallrats and Jersey Girl do alot better at the time as I feel they deserved to be much bigger hits when they were in the cinema.

Numanoid

Why?

silentbob007

Does "accept criticism" mean "not debate points"? The way I see it, your criticism was (for-the-most-part) civily noted and responded to without namecalling ... hence the nature of discussion.

Hospitaller

I would have made Return of the Jedi tank... the original trilogy will forever be a part of my childhood, but this way Lucas would have been punished for the Ewoks, and maybe there would not have been special editions or prequels which would be just fine in my book.

And Cabin Boy should have made $100 mil easily