# Movies that you were most surprised were hits? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 10, 2005, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-you-were-most-surprised-were-hits/293794 "2005-03-10T05:35:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-you-were-most-surprised-were-hits/293794/1 "2005-03-10T05:35:40Z")
So, the box office has had two unexpected #1’s in a short period: Diary of a Mad Black Woman (because of the percieved niche appeal) and The Pacifier (because it’s a family comedy whose formula has failed many more times than it’s succeeded). What movies have YOU been most surprised at in terms of success, whether you were happy about it or not? ---
**Author:** ![Duderdude2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@Duderdude2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duderdude2)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-you-were-most-surprised-were-hits/293794/2 "2005-03-10T06:03:05Z")
Although born after the fact, I’m still surprised Star Wars is as successful as it is. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-you-were-most-surprised-were-hits/293794/3 "2005-03-10T06:08:06Z")
_Charlie’s Angels_ and _Pirates of the Caribbean_ were two movies getting terrible “buzz” right up to the openings. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-you-were-most-surprised-were-hits/293794/4 "2005-03-10T06:12:19Z")
I’m happy for _Constantine_. It’s not breaking any records but it’s doing pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-you-were-most-surprised-were-hits/293794/5 "2005-03-10T06:17:50Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > _Charlie’s Angels_ and _Pirates of the Caribbean_ were two movies getting terrible “buzz” right up to the openings. I thought Pirates was a terrible idea, but I remember it getting great buzz before it came out. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-you-were-most-surprised-were-hits/293794/6 "2005-03-10T06:57:39Z")
This isn’t especially recent but I was surprised \*\*Home Alone \*\* was as hugely successful as it was. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-you-were-most-surprised-were-hits/293794/7 "2005-03-10T08:28:00Z")
_Passion of the Christ_: I was pre-emptively gloating at the thought of Mel losing his shirt over such an obvious vanity {humility?} project, and then it ended up doing _Spiderman_ money. Still no news on the sequel, though… ---
**Author:** ![unclviny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e274bd/32.png) [@unclviny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unclviny)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-you-were-most-surprised-were-hits/293794/8 "2005-03-10T11:20:55Z")
**CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON** what a POS!, it’s a badly done **KUNG FU** soap opera with craptacular effects and it cleaned up!. I got a free copy from Sony and I only made it about 20 minutes into the movie before pulling it out of the player, the folks at the used DVD store didn’t even want it so I ended up giving it away. Unclviny