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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. They beg and they plead for a movie to get made, but then never
00:09even bother supporting it when it hits cinemas. Now, of course, the reality is a little more
00:14nuanced than that, but there are a number of long-requested films that a lot of people
00:19wanted to see, only for everyone to categorically turn their backs when they finally came out.
00:24The reasons for this are myriad. Perhaps the film was poorly marketed, or the reviews were
00:29terrible, or the studio simply waited too damn long to make it. But in each case, fans
00:34failed to turn up for a movie they insisted had to be made. To make it sting worse, most
00:39of the films on this list are also pretty good, such that they actually deserve to enjoy some
00:44well-earned box office success, rather than tanking catastrophically and having to settle
00:49for, at best, selling some DVDs or being rediscovered on streaming. Everyone was enthusiastic about
00:55these films out of the gate, but by the time they finally hit cinemas, that excitement had long since
01:00faded. For shame. So, with that in mind, Ben, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture, here with 10 movies
01:06everybody wanted, but nobody watched.
01:09Number 10. The Lego Movie 2, The Second Part.
01:13The Lego Movie was one of the biggest cinematic surprises of the last decade. A shockingly clever and
01:19creative tribute to those teeny plastic blocks we all love, rather than the crass, cynical commercial
01:25exercise it could so easily have been. The film was consequently a stonking box office success,
01:31and a sequel was soon enough announced with The Lego Movie 2, The Second Part, finally releasing
01:36five years later in February 2019. Though there was considerable initial excitement about the
01:43sequel announcement, The Lego Movie 2 cratered at the box office despite solid reviews, grossing
01:48just $192.4 million worldwide, a 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 five-year gap
02:09between movies, and perhaps most persuasively, the ever-troubling notion of 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 18
02:30months before the Lego Movie 2's release, seemingly ensuring that all the initial excitement around a
02:36second 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 Lego
02:44Movie 2 is a respectively enjoyable animated sequel.
02:489. Blade Runner 2049
02:51Though 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 large
03:02swarms of sci-fi fans discovered it on home video.
03:05Blade 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 under
03:17director Denis Villeneuve in 2017.
03:19With 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. A slow-paced 163-minute sequel to an artsy philosophical sci-fi film was
03:50never going to make a billion dollars, but Warner Bros. clearly hoped it would pull at least $500
03:55million and prove a solid success. Despite all that passionate clamouring for a Blade Runner
04:01sequel, evidently a lot of people decided to stay home when it mattered most. Though it has since
04:06performed well on home video, that's not nearly enough to make Blade Runner 2049 profitable when
04:12you factor in Warner Bros. massive marketing spend.
04:168. Dread It can't really be understated just how much people loathe 1995's Sylvester Stallone
04:23starring Judge Dread film, primarily due to Stallone's ego-driven decision to commit the cardinal sin
04:29of removing Dread's helmet, as was never done in the comics. But when a Dread reboot was announced,
04:35comic book fans were giddy that Hollywood had a golden opportunity to get it right this time and
04:39redeem the property. And yet, while 2012's Dread received warmly positive reviews from critics,
04:46it bombed horridly at the box office, grossing just $41.5 million against a $45 million budget.
04:54That'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 the
05:033D aspect, enough that it was actually titled Dread 3D. Though Dread has been a strong performer
05:09on home video and streaming, it's a damn shame that more comic book fans didn't support it
05:13theatrically, as would have actually made a sequel possible. Given that there was a considerable
05:18uptick in the popularity of R-rated superhero films in the years following Dread's release,
05:23things could have gone so differently with a few years difference and a more confident,
05:28imaginative marketing campaign. 7. Serenity
05:32Joss Whedon'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 in December
05:432002 after just 11 of its 14 episodes had aired. Both fans and the show's cast, led by Nathan Fillion,
05:50were devastated, and despite a concerted effort to get the series picked up by another network,
05:56it went nowhere. Yet due to strong DVD sales, Whedon was able to get a follow-up film greenlit at
06:02Universal, with Serenity being released in 2005. Firefly fans, who typically refer to themselves as
06:09browncoats, helped spread word about the film online in an attempt to accentuate its modest marketing
06:14budget. But alas, when Firefly hit cinemas, it failed to break out into the wider mainstream,
06:20just barely recouping its 39 million dollar budget. Given Firefly's mighty home video sales,
06:25it was no doubt a disappointing result for Universal, who quite understandably figured they'd at least
06:30turn a decent profit off the lower budget sci-fi production. You can blame the lacklustre marketing,
06:36which fans, bless them, tried to bolster, or the fact that it was the glorified series finale to a
06:40cancelled TV show, but Serenity deserved to do so, so much better than this.
06:456. Watchmen An 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 an absolute slam
07:03dunk on paper, yet the complexity and ambition of the material also made studio executives wary.
07:10But Warner Bros. nevertheless gave Snyder $138 million to make an R-rated 163-minute adaptation of Moore's
07:19novel, and one which stirred up much excitement when its first trailer was put in front of the
07:25Dark Knight in the summer of 2008. Reviews ultimately skewed mixed positive, but in an era where R-rated
07:32superhero movies had yet to find their place with audiences, Watchmen's pre-release hype failed to
07:37translate into commercial success. Watchmen was an atrocious box office failure, grossing just $185.3
07:45million worldwide, with analysts citing both its long runtime and grim tones as turning mainstream
07:51audiences off. It did, however, perform phenomenally well on home video, enough that it's estimated to
07:57have actually turned a modest profit. Even though so much buzz online tanked so hard, when it mattered
08:06most was genuinely dispiriting. Watchmen is generally accepted to be one of Snyder's better films today,
08:12and it's easy to see how its more challenging content probably would have gone down better with today's
08:18more enlightened comic literate audiences. As such, it's little surprise that HBO's recent Watchmen series,
08:24a fair improvement over Snyder's film, admittedly, was both a massive critical and ratings hit.
08:30Number 5. Snakes on a Plane
08:33Oh, remember Snakes on a Plane? A 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 of Samuel L.
08:44Jackson complaining about the mother effing snakes on this mother effing plane. Snakes on a Plane was one
08:49of the world's first movies to be virally marketed online through internet memes, before the world at
08:55large even used the word meme. The excitement was palpable enough that New Line Cinema even commissioned
09:01a small round of reshoots to change the movie's rating from PG-13 to R, including the addition of
09:07Jackson's aforementioned one-liner. To 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 budget,
09:18the path to profitability seemed fairly straightforward. Yet, while not a catastrophic
09:23dud, it ended up underwhelming and grossing a mere $62 million, failing to even double its budget in
09:29the process. The consensus was that internet lols didn't translate one-to-one to box office success,
09:36with some suggesting that many online fans, especially those younger enthusiasts who couldn't
09:40see the R-rated movie in cinemas, simply pirated it instead.
09:444. Gremlins 2 – The New Batch
09:481984'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 born.
10:01Yet, it was an entire six years before the sequel Gremlins 2 – The New Batch arrived,
10:06and while there was plenty of initial demand for a second Gremlins,
10:10by 1990, interest had seemingly waned considerably. The kids who found Gizmo adorable in 1984 were now
10:17older and seemingly less interested, while the sequel's heavily satirical tongue-in-cheek
10:22tone caught many remaining fans of the original by surprise, as the first film was more of a darkly
10:27comedic horror film. As such, while saddled with a heftier $50 million budget, Gremlins 2 ended up
10:34grossing a poor $41.5 million worldwide. This was ultimately a textbook example of both what happens
10:41when you leave audiences waiting too long for a sequel, and when you deviate from the expected
10:46sequel formula. Gremlins 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
10:57if not an abject failure. 3. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
11:03It's easy to see why everyone was excited about Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, an adaptation of Brian
11:08Lee O'Malley's beloved comic book directed by rising cult fave filmmaker Edgar Wright, with a
11:13crackerjack cast of likeable young actors including Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Chris Evans,
11:19Anna Kendrick, Brandon Routh and Jason Schwartzman. If you were in geek nerd circles in 2010, it was
11:25easy to believe that Scott Pilgrim was going to be a huge hit. The hype train was chugging along,
11:31and backed by strong reviews out of the gate, it seemed like a forward-thinking comic book movie
11:35that couldn't miss. But Scott Pilgrim was ultimately a commercial dud, grossing just $49.3 million
11:42against an $85 million budget, no matter the rabid online enthusiasm for it. Much like Snakes on a
11:49Plane, this seemed to be a case of internet fandom failing to translate into 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 in, say,
12:022015. Arriving as it did before superhero movies ruled Hollywood and video game adaptations were
12:08taken seriously, Scott Pilgrim failed to make general audiences bite, even though the mainstream
12:14has come round to it more in recent years on streaming.
12:172. Sin City – A Dane 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. And though
12:32Rodriguez quickly got to work putting Sin City 2 together, the project was repeatedly delayed enough
12:38that it wasn't finally released until the summer of 2014, a whole nine years later. Against a $65
12:46million budget, Sin City – A Dane to Kill For made just $39.4 million, not even 25% of the original's
12:54$160 million haul. It was a catastrophic result for a film that frequently landed on lists of most
13:00anticipated movie sequels, but that ultimately took too damn long to get made. Sin City's stylistic
13:06innovations no longer seemed cutting edge in 2014, which in conjunction with the sequel's inferior
13:12script and reshuffled cast seemingly turned audiences off. Had Sin City 2 been made within,
13:18say, three years of the original's release, things might have turned out quite differently.
13:231. The Matrix – Resurrections
13:26Though The Matrix Revolutions brought the original trilogy to an underwhelming end back in 2003,
13:32there was still a lot of general audience goodwill for the series, and especially lead Keanu Reeves,
13:37enough that a two decades later follow-up certainly caught people's attention. The first
13:42trailer for The Matrix Resurrection stoked intense discussion online about the potential for it to
13:47revive the long-dormant franchise, whereby it could both satisfy long-time fans and earn itself a whole
13:53new generation of supporters. Yet even with the film releasing simultaneously on HBO Max,
13:59Resurrections box office figures were, to be kind, atrocious. On a $190 million budget,
14:06Resurrections grossed just $156.6 million globally, serving as a concrete vote of no
14:13confidence for Lana Wachowski's bold new vision. There were many factors to consider,
14:18from the pandemic to the script's aggressively meta-nature, the mediocre action sequences and
14:23the absences of cast members Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving. Releasing mere days after
14:29Spider-Man No Way Home as it did, the choice for casual audiences was a no-brainer, and the only
14:34folks who actually stepped out of their homes to see The Matrix Resurrections were the most devout
14:38faithful. Despite promising mainstream engagement in its marketing, Resurrections couldn't hold their
14:43attention, and once the polarising word-of-mouth got out, it was dead on arrival. And that concludes our
14:49list. If you can think of any that we missed, then do let us know in the comments below, and while you're
14:53there, don't forget to like and subscribe, and tap that notification bell. Also head over to Twitter
14:58and follow us there, at WhatCulture, and I can be found across various social medias just by searching
15:03Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with WhatCulture, I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you real soon!
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