An aspect of the summer that I enjoy the most is waiting to see what movie is going to turn into a sleeper hit, a film that ends up connecting with audiences and blowing expectations out of the water. There are usually at least one each summer, and predicting them is impossible. When they occur they can leave people pondering what it was that made them a success as well as sometimes causing studios to knee-jerk into trying to make a similar movie, hoping to repeat the success.
With the summer season starting in only a few days, I thought I would take a few minutes and look at some of the movies that performed a lot better than people expected over the past five years. As with many things, this can be subjective. Some might argue with my definition of 'sleeper' and could argue that some of the movies mentioned actually performed as expected by the studio. I'm simply going off of memory, recalling the movies that made waves at the time of their release. The great news is there is nice diversity in this list, showing studio executives that movies don't always need a white male lead to be financially viable.
2013
We're The Millers - Starring comedy names such as Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, and Ed Helms, this August release truly caught people off guard. While the trailers did not seem especially enthralling, We're the Millers opened to $26 million and went on to make $150 million domestically and $269 million world-wide. This was the highest grossing movie that Sudeikis had been in, and the second highest for Aniston, behind Bruce Almighty. We also got a glimpse of rising star Will Poulter. The antics of an unusual road trip delivered the laughs for audiences.
Instructions Not Included - This Mexican film was a true shock in terms of success. It opened in only 348 theatres and debuted in fourth spot in the box office with $7.8 million. It was a constant earner, and ended up taking in $44 million in the domestic box office with another $54 million in foreign markets. That is a mammoth success for a film that expanded but was never reached a thousand theatres. There came from it a lot of talk in Hollywood at that time around the success of the growing latino market and how to tap into it.
2014
The Fault in Our Stars - Some people may say that this shouldn't be considered a sleeper because it was based off of a popular book and had a fan base to tap into. I would say that a movie with a budget of $12 million raking in $307 world wide has a case to be made as a sleeper. There was marketing around this movie, but the droves that went to theatres were larger than a lot expected. Not only did this movie succeed, but it could be argued that it lead to other movies like Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and Paper Towns. The movie solidified Shailene Woodley as a star and introduced us to Ansel Elgort (who, coincidently, is going to be mentioned again). The film made audiences laugh, have hope, lose hope, and cry all in one sitting. When was the last time a wide release movie for teens pulled all of that off?
2015
Straight Outta Compton - This film truly was a movement that rekindled an insane amount of energy for old school rap, the group N.W.A., and the amazing talents that came out of it. There are not many movies that literally buzz when you are at the theatres, and this was one of those films. It sparked something, a recalling of a subculture and what that subculture meant and stood for. It grabbed $60 million its opening weekend, averaging $21,000 per theatre. On the streets after the release, many Ice Cube and Dr. Dre shirts were worn. The film absolutely tapped into something, spawning an interest in 2017's biopic of Tupac that hoped to have the same sort of success. Not only was this a sleeper, but it was an exciting wave in pop culture that was a pure delight to be in on.
War Room - At the end of August, the faith-based film War Room came out. It was on a budget of $3 million, and was the highest grossing film of director Alex Kendrick. He had success prior in faith-based films like Courageous and Fireproof, but War Room exploded, almost doubling the gross of Courageous. With a solid opening weekend of $11 million, the film held up amazingly well and took in $67 million. Many films around then and the year prior had been trying to reach the Christian market, and War Room was the one that appeared to nail the efforts.
2016
Bad Moms - Mila Kunis successfully made the transition from television to film, heading from That 70s Show to the big screen. While she had been in big hits, such as Ted and Oz the Great and Powerful, Bad Moms was the first film where she was front and centre that really took off. With a supporting cast of people like Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn, this film created a fun premise of work-a-day moms letting loose. The audiences liked what was being offered and buoyed the film to $183 million world wide. It lead to a sequel, and I can't help but perhaps it helped influence 2017's Rough Night.
2017
Baby Driver - There could be some talk over this one as to whether it could be considered a sleeper based off of its budget of $34 million, but I point to director Edgar Wright's career. He is incredibly popular, but not for making films that roll in the dough. He makes modern day cult classics, and generally that means next to no money. The cumulative gross of his five films is two hundred million, with just over half of that coming from Baby Driver. This is easily Wright's first commercial hit, a film that made $226 world wide. With the history of how Wright's films did in theatres, like the $60 million budgeted Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, realistic projections didn't have this film being the success that it was. This movie also sees the second appearance of Ansel Elgort in this piece.
Girl's Trip - Not only did this film do well, but it shot Tiffany Haddish into the spotlight, with some people saying that she delivered and Oscar worthy performance. It wasn't just one person saying that, I read a number of people talking about her for an outside Oscar nomination. I was introduced to Haddish in 2016's Keanu, and can attest to her on screen charisma. With names like Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, and Jada Pinkett-Smith (who was also in the aforementioned Bad Moms) there was plenty to get the attention of audiences. I doubt anyone thought that this film would open to over thirty million, which it did, or only dropping a mystifyingly low 37% to its second weekend. This film stood in the top ten for seven weeks and banked $140 million world wide.
2018
Looking ahead to this summer, I am left pondering what could be the sleeper hits. There is an interesting case to be made for Tag, which sports a remarkably deep cast and could be a comedy smash hit. One that I am banking on is Uncle Drew, a film based off of a character in Youtube videos played by basketball superstar Kyrie Irving. Names such as Shaquille O'Neal, Tiffany Haddish, and LilRel Howery (who gained fans from his performance in Get Out). Another contender is Crazy Rich Asians, which is based off of a bestselling novel. Seeing as how a lot of the break out sleepers are about minorities and subcultures, there is nothing that should really get in the way of this movie breaking expectations.
My big hope is 'Crazy Rich Asians' is a massive sleeper hit along with 'The Spy Who Dumped Me' (Kunis brings it again) and of course, 'The Meg' making a billion. This has nothing to do with these three movies being my draft picks.
ReplyDeleteThis August has a bunch of viable possibilities for sleeper hit status. It will be really interesting to see which films end up striking it with audiences. I'm hoping that the three you mentioned flop, and that Uncle Drew takes it away.
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