So, some co-workers and I started a conversation on this topic, but I couldn't come up with much of a list on my own.

What movies did NOT start with a wide release, but ended up doing better than expected at the box office eventually (or home video...) or were reviewed well by critics and/or moviegoers?

Many limited release movies are well reviewed by critics.

Stuff like Memento, Donnie Darko, and Mulholland Drive mostly stayed in limited release. Memento became something of a surprise hit by pulling in a decent amount for a small movie.

Paranormal Activity started with college and festival screenings. Similarly, My Big Fat Greek Wedding was a limited release that slowly expanded and eventually grossed $241m in the US ($369m worldwide) during its 52 week run -- its highest grossing weekend was its 20th week in theaters where it pulled roughly $11m.

Boondock Saints (5 theaters), Equilibrium (301 theaters), and Idiocracy (130 thetaers) had nearly non-existant theatrical releases but have become well known since then.

I remember when pretty much every decent movie opened small and went wide weeks or months or even a year later. As a kid, I had to wait till movies came to my neighborhood theaters after playing at a Manhattan theater or two for what seemed like forever. I was eager to see IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD the day it opened in November 1963. But it didn't come to my local theater until Feb. 1965, which is when I finally saw it. We had delayed gratification back then.

Blair Witch Project is another example. Just this nothing little indie movie that built up huge word of mouth from festival showings. Then it had a few weeks of massive per-screen grosses while just playing in a few dozen theaters. The studio took notice and it went to 1000 screens ... then 2000 ... then 2500. When all was said and done it made over $140M.

The most obvious answer is the last two winners of the Best Picture Oscar. Kings Speech and Hurt Locker both opened very small before going on to high praise, wide release, and major awards.

And isn't this release strategy the norm, and not the exception, for late-year Oscar contenders? With the studios sneaking the movies out in limited release, so it qualifies for the next year's Oscars. Then they take advantage of nomination publicity to go into wider release.

The Hurt Locker came out during the summer of 2009.

Nobody watched it when it came out, nobody watched it after it was nominated and nobody watched it after it won.

Would Usual Suspects count? I don't think nobody (Aside from the critics & *Award-watchers) saw that movie til it came out on video.

*Since the movie was released on video after the Oscars aired, I remember some dumb broad on an entertainment show said that _______ won the best supporting actor for playing "Keyser Soze".

Tell me you're joking.

Black Swan. I'm sure had it not had insane numbers its first 2 weekends (over 2 million bucks in its first weekend on only 18 theaters) it would def not been released in over 2000 screens. If i remember correctly, the original plan was the small week by week opening to see how it would do

The original Halloween

Juno, Little Miss Sunshine, Borat (debatable), The King's Speech, Slumdog Millionaire, Black Swan, 127 Hours

There's many of these each year. I think BOM keeps a list.

How about The Last Seduction? It actually debuted on HBO before theaters, then generated some Oscar buzz for Linda Fiorentino before being ruled ineligible because of the TV debut.

In terms of theatrical gross he is correct, it didn't make much in theaters at any time. It's pretty well known and popular now though, no small part thanks to repeated showings on the tele.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was a surprise hit that opened in only 15 theaters, eventually expanding to over 2,000 theaters and grossing $129 million:
http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?pag...ddendragon.htm

The next highest-grossing foreign language film is Life is Beautiful, which was considered a surprise hit back when it was released, with less than half the gross of CTHD. LiB opened in only 6 theaters:
http://boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=foreign.htm

http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?pag...hurtlocker.htm

Weekly totals.

It never made more than $2.8 million for any week that it was out and that was the first part of August after it had received a little buzz. It was re-released in March and made a total of $1.7 million during a 2 week span. It did take in another $30 million worldwide though, but $17 million domestic says to me that "nobody" watched it.

Piece of shit movie that didn't deserve to win anything and apparently the rest of the movie going population felt the same way since it was never popular even after it got a bunch of unwarranted praise. I guess only the critics felt it was good enough to pay money to see.

And another $33,614,050 in DVD sales. Maybe you should ask those record-breaking 24,583 IP addresses that are getting sued for downloading if they watched it as well? Adds up to a pretty big audience... when all totalled.

I saw CROUCHING TIGER first at a Manhattan arthouse and I took my nephew. He loved it, I didn't. So I lent him a ton of much better Hong Kong wu xia films to show him how it's supposed to be done.

Then I got into heated debates on the internet about the film, so I decided to give it a second chance. By this time, it had opened wide and was playing at a multiplex in the Bronx. So I went to see it there, the first time I saw a subtitled film at a theater in the Bronx. (Well, English subtitles, that is. I once saw WEST SIDE STORY subtitled in Spanish!) The multiplex had a big sign on the cashier's window announcing that CROUCHING TIGER was in Chinese with subtitles. Evidently, they'd gotten some complaints. In any event, the film improved on a second viewing, but I still compare it unfavorably to all the Hong Kong classics in that genre that I've come to love.

I'm not sure how you went in thinking what CTHD was BUT whenever I saw it as a kid I was going in thinking it was like the rest of the HK flicks I'd grown up on. What I saw was a drama film w/ Wuxia elements that were very well done, which I wasn't bored by either. This was an artistic Wuxia film, I guess you can call it that. I still like it as well...just wish we got better subtitles on the US BD...fucking sony...

I think you just gave him a bitch slap...

So now we have to talk about illegal downloads when comparing the success of movies? Wow...that's a new one.

I'm talking about domestic ticket sales here. The only time dvd sales are brought up is when fans of unpopular movies get into a stink and try to prove a point. Sure dvd sales are part of the overall success of a movie but nobody talks about it. King Kong was considered somewhat of a theatrical flop. What are the dvd sales for that?

And illegal downloads???? Gimme a break. Face it...nobody went and saw The Hurt Locker in theaters. Maybe they bought the dvd and downloaded it illegally but it doesn't change the facts that it's box office performance was next to nothing.

Box Office doesn't determine Quality. Not sure what your hate for that film is to...loath is so much but...it was a solid film that I probably would have cut whatever that subplot element took up...but it was still well made.

My answer fits with the OP question.



And added that additional people probably saw it through another outlet. I am sure I can dig out pay per view numbers and other ratings on TV but you get the point. It did not open wide but found an audience. You tried to state otherwise and I provided evidence to the contrary.

So people know it's a piece of shit movie (which it's not) because they didn't see it? Good call. Movie was a prime example of an abstract script made into a solid movie through excellent directing.

I didn't think it was a good movie. The film did very poorly at the box office. Pretty simple.