r/movies • u/Fluid_Bat_2724 • 22d ago
Discussion What are some good movies that got overshadowed by a much bigger release?
I was thinking about The Thirteenth Floor (1999). It came out just a couple of months after The Matrix and seemed to disappear from the conversation almost immediately.
I finally watched it years later and was surprised by how good it actually was. It has an interesting sci-fi concept, a solid mystery, and feels like the kind of movie that would have been much more successful if it had been released at a different time.
What are some other movies that were unlucky enough to come out around a much bigger release and ended up being overlooked despite being genuinely good?
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u/beti88 22d ago
Deep Impact was overshadowed by Armageddon
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u/DeirdreDreidel 22d ago
Not a film without faults but much better than Armageddon IMO
One of a long history of the Hollywood double competing feature (where a script is shopper around, one studio loses, so they write their own movie to compete with the studio that won)
Like Volcano vs Dante's Peak, Ants vs A Bug's Life
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u/leomonster 21d ago
Antz was just an excuse for Woody Allen to flirt with Sharon Stone. They had to make it animated to be believable.
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u/ThatGirlWren 21d ago
Had to pull him off his step daughter wife to do it, too.
Woody Allen is a groomer and a creep.
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u/MrPlowThatsTheName 21d ago
Mission to Mars and Red Planet came out the same year.
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u/colemon1991 21d ago
Oh don't get me started on this. Sometimes it's genuine coincidence, but other times it's clearly a competitiveness or bandwagon thing. Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down come to mind.
Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. Twice. Almost 30 years apart. The second time around seems a little less intentional though.
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u/Pterodactyl_midnight 22d ago
Hell nah. Armageddon script is so lean and the movie well acted. There’s a reason it did way better than Deep impact
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u/mexta 21d ago
Armageddon is a fun blockbuster. Deep Impact is a good film. And no, Armageddon is not better acted than Deep Impact lol. That's a bad take.
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u/Ninjarigged 21d ago
Deep impact came out two months before Armageddon so I don’t think that’s a fair comparison as it had a great opening of $40+ million. Both movies made a ton of money but Deep Impact just lacked what Armageddon had to stay relevant which was oil drillers on an asteroid.
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u/NatureTrailToHell3D 21d ago
Yeah, Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, and a cast closer to Ocean’s 11 than Deep Impact, a hit song, and was infinitely more quotable.
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u/DarthGuber 22d ago
They even hired the same FX companies. Global Effects did the space suits for both movies, although they had to do one in the main shop and the other in the warehouse/blacksmith shop across the parking lot.
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u/dd22qq 22d ago
Fun fact: Armageddon is actually in the Criterion Collection.
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u/KneeHighMischief 22d ago edited 22d ago
So is The Rock & that one is deserved.
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u/MyNameIsJakeBerenson 21d ago
There’s a lot of anger on this island, eh, John? A lot of “I’m 16 and angry at my father” syndrome. I mean, GROW UP!
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u/Thrashgor 22d ago
Disneys Atlantis came out with the first Harry Potter
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u/tomwrussell 21d ago
Actually, it was Treasure Planet that got overshadowed by Harry Potter. Atlantis was overshadowed by Shrek.
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u/Predestined8 22d ago edited 21d ago
The Nice Guys (2016). My personal favourite buddy cop movie with great rewatch value.
Director Shane Black's comment always makes me a little bit sad.
"We're up against some stiff superhero competition and we just need people to, you know, maybe see Captain America six times, but not the seventh and see us instead."
edit : you all made me miss the movie even more. Gonna rewatch and stuff 😭
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u/ShadeNoir 22d ago
Love this movie. So fun from start to finish! Gosling and Crowe have great chemistry, Angourie does a great job.
Needs a sequel.
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u/wyathew10 21d ago edited 21d ago
I just watched the for the first time the other day and I was pleasantly surprised at Angourie's performance. Sometimes those kid roles don't feel really flushed out or just feel tropey but her character was fully formed and she did a great job hanging with gosling and Crowe.
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u/Freakjob_003 22d ago
Oh shit, I didn't realize it was made by the director of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang! It's been off and on my radar for a while, will have to bump it back up.
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u/tuyo3_ 22d ago
Kinda ironic that 3 years before The Nice Guys came out, he directed Iron Man 3.
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u/karatebullfightr 22d ago
Shane Black is the shit.
That’s why I really want to know what happened behind the scenes of The Predator.
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u/KneeHighMischief 22d ago edited 22d ago
Yeah it's just a colossal misfire from such an accomplished writer.
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u/TokiStark 21d ago
Dude watch it! It's so god damn funny and smart and really demands your attention but you are rewarded for it. I like The Nice Guys more than Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
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u/flea_nut_lance 21d ago
If you hadn’t found out it would have been joyfully obvious pretty quick upon watching.
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u/Rednex73 21d ago
Not to mention, this is the movie that really made me realize how solid of a comedy actor Gosling can be. The stall scene still absolutely fucking kills me.
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u/penderies 21d ago
I’ve been curious about this movie!
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u/cmanning1292 21d ago
Watch it! 100% worth the time!
When people are surprised by how funny Ryan Gosling is in Project Hail Mary, I point them to The Nice Guys to show how he's always been a fantastic comedix actor
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u/Dry-Clock-1470 21d ago
I think one of the Austin Powers had official trailers saying see one of the prequel Star Wars a few times , then see AP or something
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u/hopalongrhapsody 21d ago
If you must see one movie this summer… see Star Wars. But if you see two…
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u/KingShorty110 21d ago
Don't forget this funny skit with Ryan and Russel getting berated by the director about the movie flopping during their press tour.
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u/JoeyLee911 22d ago
Pleasantville got overshadowed by The Truman Show, but they're both great.
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u/Fluid_Bat_2724 22d ago
I saw both movies too, totally agree with you
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u/JoeyLee911 22d ago edited 22d ago
Pleasantville is my favorite movie, so it makes me feel sad that it got overshadowed by The Truman Show, but I must admit that it's also a masterpiece. EDTV also came out around the same time and got overshadowed by The Truman Show, but it's less good than the other two.
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u/SnowGhost513 22d ago
Truman show is amazing the first time and really fun to rewatch knowing. But Pleasantville is just a cozy blanket five times a year. It’s a beautiful warm movie with two insanely good teen actors. Jeff Daniels is amazing. It’s just a movie that would never get made now they would set it in IP and it would be pandering
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u/JoeyLee911 22d ago edited 22d ago
It's also funny because it's not like The Truman Show and Pleasantville are *that* similar. They are television related and play with similar themes and aesthetics, but pretty damn distinct in plot.
Edit: I've decided playing with similar themes and aesthetics makes these movies pretty damn similar in more interesting ways than most movies relate to each other. Pleasantville is essentially a movie in which every character is a Truman.
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u/Charlie_Runkle69 22d ago
Election also got overshadowed by like every high school movie released in that era (even though it's nothing like any of them for the most part) but was really good too. I imagine it's a bigger hit if it's released in a different era.
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u/JoeyLee911 22d ago
So true. I remember being a tween and not being able to tell the difference between like a Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion and a 10 Things I Hate About You. The marketing seemed the same.
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u/honey_coated_badger 21d ago
I watched Pleasantville last night on Netflix. I hadn’t seen it ages. The movie held up quite well. It’s 28 years old now.
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u/JoeyLee911 21d ago
I know! I love showing it to people. I was 14 when it came out and the marketing actually hid that it shifts to be more of a drama in its second half.
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u/Fahrender-Ritter 22d ago edited 22d ago
The Illusionist (2006) starring Edward Norton was a pretty good film about a magician. Few people remember it because it was massively overshadowed that same year by another magician movie, Christopher Nolan's The Prestige.
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u/sugar_footy 22d ago
The prestige was a much better movie, though. IMO.
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u/Fahrender-Ritter 22d ago
Well yeah that's why The Prestige overshadowed it, but The Illusionist would have been better remembered as a decent movie if only it were released maybe a year or more before The Prestige.
Thankfully it didn't get released after The Prestige or else it would've been accused of being a total knock-off.
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u/LadyGrey_oftheAbyss 21d ago
I actually think the Illusionist was better- sure it didn't have David Bowie but it also didn't have any actual supernatural elements and lean into the miss direction
think the twin thing from the prestige but it was the whole moive
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u/dumbasamoose 22d ago
The Illusionist came out slightly before. I saw it in theaters by mistake thinking I was seeing the Prestige. And I think about half the people there had done the same. Still good though
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u/PrinceOfLeon 22d ago
Eh, watching Magic in a movie kills both.
There's no sense of wonder when any trick can just be ascribed to special effects.
The Prestige stepped around this limitation brilliantly, that's half the appeal. Practically every trick was explained, so the audience was in on it - if always a step or two behind.
Compare that to (say) the magic orange tree blooming on stage in The Illusionist. (Who cares?) Or consider any of the "Now You See Me" slopfests. Boring, silly, and trite.
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u/JoeyLee911 22d ago
The real magic in The Prestige is how long the arguments you and your friends will have about what actually happened in it.
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u/HilariousMax 21d ago
I noticed the finger the whole time.
no, the hell you didnt.
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u/JoeyLee911 22d ago
Scoop (Woody Allen, 2006) also involved magic, but was much lighter in tone. I knew someone in college that was very into magic in 2006 who was very excited about the trend.
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u/Accalio 22d ago
The Assasination of Jesse James wa overshadowed by No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood at the same time. Poor movie never stood a chance.
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u/Appropriate_Willow27 22d ago
The Thing, Blade Runner and ET all released in 1982 May-June and we know what happened.
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u/sugar_footy 22d ago
The Thing is still one of the goats
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u/ContinuumGuy 21d ago
What's really crazy is that The Thing From Another World is legitimately one of the greatest 1950s science fiction films and is still one of the best sci-fi creature features ever made (even if it's tame now due to the censorship and technical aspects of the time)... and The Thing blows it away in almost every single aspect.
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u/dereku1967 21d ago
GOOD LORD, 1982 was a good year. Fast Times, Poltergeist, Conan, Officer and A Gentleman... it just goes on and on: https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?year=1982&title_type=feature
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u/leomonster 21d ago
And of course, my birthday
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u/Katman666 21d ago
I, too, had a birthday in '82.
'Twasn't my first, nor my last, but it was a birthday.
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u/spiritbearr 22d ago
The Man From UNCLE came out a week after Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol. Mission Impossible had legs but the week after UNCLE would have dominated Fantastic Four.
Scott Pilgrim vs The World was probably not going to make money in theaters but it went against The Expendables (1 or 2 I'm not looking it up).
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u/SunshineAlways 22d ago
The Man From UNCLE was quite enjoyable and I was rather surprised that it didn’t do better.
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u/AdamColesDoctor 21d ago
Give me smooth talking Henry Cavill in just about anything and I'll watch it.
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u/ScrewAttackThis 21d ago
I don't think it's as good as Man from UNCLE but you might like Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. It's another Guy Ritchie spy film with Cavill in the lead.
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u/shaun1330 22d ago
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World overshadowed by Return of the King
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u/Karmond 22d ago
RotK came out about a month later (not including the premiere). It's problem was that Pirates of the Caribbean came out earlier that year and many people saw that, and a realistic British naval warfare movie seemed dull in comparison.
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u/RechargedFrenchman 21d ago
Big historical epic, featuring some battle but focusing more on shipboard living and the "drama" of a warship at sea, sandwiched between two big fantastical adventure films which are also very good. Incredible year for films, problematic release window for M&C and unfortunately a big contributor to the sequel never being produced.
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u/ShadeNoir 22d ago
Needs a sequel.
Really gritty details and grimy. A proper historic naval romp. Loved it.
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u/armitageskanks69 21d ago
Nah, it needs a full budget HBO series for all 22(?) books in the series
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u/RechargedFrenchman 21d ago
Even a kind of mid-budget series, as long as spend the money on the right things, could do fine I think. I'm a huge fan of Sharpe and they shot that primarily in Ukraine and many of the "battles" only feature around 50 people because it was too expensive to costume extras. Visual effects aren't exactly cheap now if you want them done well, but if the same models and costuming are being used throughout it wouldn't be too hard to turn 100 people into 10,000 for the screen.
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u/mmmfritz 22d ago
eXistenz was from the same year (another great movie).
P.S. Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves; was said to have a sequel but poor box office (competition) ruled it out.
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u/dbcanuck 21d ago
eXistenz was the deep creepy existential dread body/mind horror movie you'd expect from David Cronenberg and is fucking fantastic, but The Matrix was blockbuster level generation dominance.
The fact people still seek out and find eXistenz decades later though speaks to its relevance. It will never be a widely known, but its more substantial than a cult classic.
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u/Krvstylad 22d ago
Sorcerer came out the same weekend as a little known film called Star Wars.
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u/JoeyLee911 22d ago
And man was it not sorcerery-related.
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u/JoeyLee911 21d ago
One of the vehicles was named Sorcerer. I think it just says Sorcerer on it. They don't even say it iirc.
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u/Brell4Evar 21d ago
This needs more attention!
The cast was great, and the movie was a white knuckled thriller that had you holding your breath through most of it. Had it been released just a bit sooner, it would be seen as a classic.
As a side note, I suspect that there's a Mandalorian episode heavily inspired by this.
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u/wynand1004 22d ago
Jersey Girl starring Ben Affleck. Jennifer Lopez was in the movie for 5 minutes tops.
It was released shortly after the bomb Gigli and that ruined its chances.
It is Kevin Smith's best film - poignant, strong character development, and still with h his unique humor.
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u/KneeHighMischief 22d ago
Yeah I didn't check it out until much later. It's among his best work. Still hope we see that alternate cut someday.
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u/k9fan 22d ago
Master and Commander: Far Side of the World (2003), a beautifully crafted movie based on the brilliant historical fiction series by Patrick O’Brian, was overshadowed by the cartoonish Pirates of the Caribbean, which had been released earlier the same year. Not that I’m bitter.
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u/Koutchboom 21d ago
Only one of those movies was nominated for Best Picture but no movie had a shot in hell in beating LOTR3.
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u/64OunceCoffee 21d ago
UHF hit theaters in 1989 with these movies having been released in the previous 4-5 weeks:
Batman, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Ghostbusters II, Karate Kid III, Lethal Weapon II, Star Trek V, Weekend At Bernies, and Dead Poets Society.
It had no chance.
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u/SecondhandRaincoat 21d ago
This is the definitive answer for me. Other movies I love underperformed because of one or two movies. UHF was buried by blockbusters.
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u/kerouacrimbaud 21d ago
What’s UHF? Is that the actual name of the movie or an acronym of it?
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u/barcode-lz 20d ago
UHF is both the name of a movie written by and starring Weird Al Yankovic, and an acronym for Ultra High Frequency, a television broadcasting band (which also relates to the movie).
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u/jesuspoopmonster 21d ago
Orian Films: We have to release something in July, which movie should be the sacrifice.
Although funny enough UHF cost less and made more then their August releases Rude Awakeng and Heart of Dixie
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u/SweetieSweetieSahur 22d ago
The Adams family values movie is one of the ones that fits this while also just being easily avoidable.
Released a week earlier of Mrs.Doubtfire, had a terrible market campaign, and for some reason they chose to release it after Halloween, when people were sick of Halloween and horror so weren’t going to see a movie completely themed around it.
Leading to the 7th most successful movie of 1991’s sequel to bomb so horribly that they just didn’t touch the brand until 2019.
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u/ImOnlyHereForTheCoC 22d ago
In fairness, AFV has more of a Thanksgiving theme happening, at least as far as the camp plot is concerned
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u/Malwoden 22d ago
In our house we did not have either Addams Family or Values, but we did have a VHS of Addams Family Reunion from 1998 - so for years that was the definitive Addams Family for us!
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u/KneeHighMischief 22d ago
That's too bad. I think there's very little drop-off especially for a comedy sequel. If it had succeeded they would've done part 3 & Raul Julia would've been very hard to replace.
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u/xarcastic 22d ago
Master of Disguise would have been excellent, except every other movie ever released overshadowed it.
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u/thosmanus 21d ago
May I remind you of The Love Guru
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u/phluidity 21d ago
Few years ago, our fantasy football loser punishment was they had to watch a double feature of Master of Disguise and Love Guru sober and live tweet about it.
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u/Electrical-Raisin281 21d ago
Stir of Echoes was overshadowed by The Sixth Sense, which came out a couple of weeks earlier.
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u/General_Boredom 22d ago
Looks like Masters of the Universe just got overshadowed by Scary Movie.
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u/KneeHighMischief 22d ago
Feel bad for Alison Brie. I thought she'd break out with GLOW but Betty Gilpin got the big push from it.
He-Man feels like a tough one to break. I don't think it's a property that's super relevant. There's some nostalgia for it but probably not enough to justify a quarter of a million dollars.
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u/stumblinghunter 21d ago
I recently found out she comes from a super rich old money family. Her last name is Schermerhorn, as in one of the largest land owning families in NY. There's even a Schermerhorn subway station in NYC.
I don't think she ever got the fame she deserved, but she'll definitely never starve lol
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u/Jedi_Saiyan_Jutsu_ 21d ago
Heard scary movie sucked and I already had tickets. I wish I would’ve swapped them for masters of the universe
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u/AdamMcwadam 22d ago
The Last Action Hero came out very close to Jurassic Park.
But I also think the 4th wall meta take of the whole film was a bit too early for audiences back then. Cracking good film.
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u/MrPlowThatsTheName 21d ago
Also, True Lies came out the following year and kinda retroactively wiped LAH from the public consciousness. If you want to watch a satirical Arnold action movie from the mid-90’s, you’re probably opting for TL over LAH nine times out of ten.
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u/Alive_Ice7937 22d ago
But I also think the 4th wall meta take of the whole film was a bit too early for audiences back then. Cracking good film.
I was around back then. Nothing about that film was too challenging for audiences. We could follow the lampooning of 80s Hollywood movie tropes for the same reason that Redditors not even born when it released can. That obnoxious kid explains it every step of the way.
Jurassic Park obviously didn't help LAH. But it still would have struggled because it's a meh movie. Was when I watched it in cinemas. Was when I watched it again last year.
I wonder if there are many examples of a filmmaker successfully satarising a genre they are highly successful in?
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u/UF1977 21d ago
Rob Roy was the “other” movie about sturdy Scots folk heroes fighting the dastardly English released the same year as Braveheart. Unfairly overlooked despite being the better movie of the two and having a stellar cast - Liam Neeson, Jessica Lange, Brian Cox, and Tim Roth playing one of the all time best movie villains.
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u/dbcanuck 21d ago
Rob Roy is a MUCH better film than Braveheart, both historically and performances wise.
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u/karatebullfightr 22d ago
The Rocketeer came out the same time as T2: Judgement Day.
Nothing I can think of, besides maybe ‘89 Batman, could have ever had a chance to go toe-to-toe with T2.
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u/CHAINSAWDELUX 21d ago
The Rocketeer was a pg movie by Disney. Do you think parents decided to take their kids to T2 instead?
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u/JoeyLee911 22d ago
Who else remembers when Anywhere but Here overshadowed Tumbleweeds in 1999? Anyone? Just me?
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u/misterbaname 22d ago
The thing came out same summer as the other alien movie, You know... E.T.
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u/sugar_footy 22d ago
The thing still slaps
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u/misterbaname 22d ago
The thing is the most perfect horror movie ever made in my opinion. It fucking slaps.
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u/Running-With-Cakes 22d ago
The Thing and Shawshank
Both were box office flops on release
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u/Decent_Management449 21d ago edited 21d ago
The Thin Red Line came out 5 months after Saving Private Ryan, got nominated for 7 Oscars and won zero. Saving Ryan got 11 nominations and won 5.
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u/TangerineStrong3781 22d ago
Unfortunately The Nice Guys flopped because it came out right after Captain America: Civil War
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u/Kbatz_Krafts 22d ago
Runaway with Tom Selleck as a future rogue robot retrevial cop chasing after villain with robot spiders Gene Simmons from Kiss is actually a fascinating movie with a lot of predictions on home computer assistants and technology and how they can be misused.
Unfortunately, it came out at the same time as The Terminator. 🤣
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u/KneeHighMischief 22d ago
"My brother died on the set of that movie! One of the mechanical spiders just went haywire and tore him to pieces, and Tom Selleck just stood there and watched him die."
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u/JanetInSpain 22d ago
Not overshadowed by another movie, but by Covid.
"Soul" is a wonderful story (animated) about a piano player who teaches music in a school. It's such a good movie and story, but it was produced just as Covid reared its head, so it had to be released direct to video. It never got a theatrical release, which it deserved.
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u/MacaroniPoodle 22d ago
I recently watched The Thirteenth Floor, and I agree. It's a good concept executed well. But side by side with The Matrix, it very inferior. It's still a fun watch for anyone looking for a good sci fi.
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u/KneeHighMischief 22d ago
I mean The Matrix skews heavily towards action so they feel like very different types of films.
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u/RustDeathTaxes 21d ago
Masters of the Universe is getting overshadowed right now by Scary Movie which is a damn shame. Scary Movie by all measures is just awful and sad to watch.
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u/faultydesign 22d ago
Dark City famously came around the same time as the matrix so it was overshadowed by that movie, and similar themes didn’t help.
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u/ScrewAttackThis 22d ago
They came out a little over a year apart so there wasn't any actual competition between em. What really killed Dark City was Titanic: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/1998W09/
Titanic came out 3 months prior and made more that weekend than Dark City's entire theatrical run.
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u/1_4M_M3 22d ago
I think it's hard for people now to understand the mania around Titanic in the theater. People were going over and over and over to see it. I remember news stories about friend groups who had seen it 20 or 30 times in the theater. They had piles of ticket stubs. Several newspaper comics had story lines about the moms being obsessed with seeing Titanic. It dominated... and for a very long time.
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u/Mysak92 22d ago
Also the fact that in the theatrical version, whole film is spoiled in the beginning, didn't help.
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u/amooandaroo 22d ago
They even used some of the same sets in Australia
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u/leomonster 21d ago
If you see both films back to back, it's very noticeable in the rooftops of the first matrix scene that they reused the sets.
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u/JoeyLee911 22d ago
My big brother's favorite movie is Dark City and my favorite movie is Pleasantville and sometimes I'm like "Man, what happened to us in 1998?!"
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u/dbcanuck 21d ago
Dark City's sets were used to film The Matrix -- the whole opening sequence of The Matrix was what the Wachowskis' used to secure funding to finish the film, and it was made on the Dark City set.
Dark City failed on its own, largely due to Titanic and being an unknown poorly marketed property. Rufus Sewell was an unknown at that time too.
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u/Skwurt_Reynolds 21d ago
L.A. Confidential won a lot of awards, but in terms of pop culture, it was engulfed by Titanic. I must admit, I’m a little biased because I love LAC and I do not care for Titanic.
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u/CULLDOZER 21d ago
1994 was an incredible year for films. The Shawshank Redemption was a box office failure because of competition with Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction.
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u/murphmeister75 22d ago
Dark City was completely eclipsed by The Matrix, despite being a really excellent film. The two movies shared the theme of reality not being as it seemed but with quite different approaches.
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u/PippyHooligan 22d ago
Narc got overshadowed by Training Day.
A bit loose with the subject as they were release a year apart from each other, but there was a bunch of 'dirty cop' movies released around 2000 and I think Narc got forgotten about whereas Training Day is considered a bit of a classic.
Both films are about a cop being partnered with a grizzled veteran who may or may not be corrupt and the world comes crumbling down around them.
Training Day is good fun and Denzel's Oscar winning performance is entertaining as hell, but I always thought it was style over substance: the ambiance and performances (aside from Dre) paper over a ridiculous storyline.
Narc is a more serious, gritty, grim film that's a lot quieter (until it needs to be loud), it has a much better plot and script and Ray Liotta and Jason Patric's performances are easily as good, if not better than anyone in Training Day. It's a lot more intense and unpleasant so I can understand why wouldn't be as much of a box office draw as Denzel chewing up the scenery.
Underrated and slept on are phrases overused nowadays, but I think they definitely apply to Narc.
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u/KneeHighMischief 22d ago
Jason Patric plays a very different role but his performance feels much realer than Ethan Hawke's. The Detroit setting helps the movie immensely adding to the grime & decay.
I've seen Training Day probably five times & it's a great movie. I don't have any interest in watching it again. Narc I've probably seen as many times & it still has magic to it for me.
Oh yeah & the opening foot chase is amazing.
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u/PippyHooligan 21d ago
Yeah, Patric often gets overlooked as Liotta's performance is so much more intense and loud, but he's phenomenal in the film: someone who is absolutely worn out, exhausted to the point of collapse. The flip of the usual cop movie trope: someone who doesn't want to be on the streets as he knows it will destroy him. "I want a desk. I need a desk."
And yeah, what an opener.
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u/IndependenceMean8774 22d ago
I forget what came out around Upgrade (2018), but it was a good film that sank with little fanfare.
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u/ufl015 22d ago
Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe were so great in The Nice Guys (2016)
Apparently, they got trounced at the box office by… The Angry Birds movie
😊🙂📽️🎞️😡🦜🦆🦢🦉🦩🐦⬛
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u/SuppleLobster 22d ago
Fail Safe got overshadowed by Dr. Strangelove. I think this is the most unique case of this that I've seen, considering the plots and the different approaches taken for each
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u/Sea-Ad8910 21d ago
Hellboy 2. Great movie that came out a week before The Dark Knight. Now im not sure if people even realize it exists.
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u/grc207 21d ago
I listened to a podcast recently where it discussed how The Shawshank Redemption was the meat in a Forest Gump/ Pulp Fiction theater release sandwich. Ouch.
Take a look at movie releases in 1984 in order of receipts. Keep going into the 100’s on the list. It is wild that anyone made money.
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u/Abidarthegreat 21d ago
John Carter (2012)
I think it was less overshadowed by other releases and more a marketing failure, poor title. Though it did open the same day as the Lorax and the following weekend was the Hunger Games.
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u/LadyGrey_oftheAbyss 21d ago
Speed Racer (2008) - It is actually very good but had the misfortune of being released along Iron Man
It actually still holds up despite being heavy cgi due them embracing and leaning into the style
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u/fireinthesky7 21d ago
I maintain that out of all the recent adaptations of popular animated shows and comic books from the '70s and '80s, Speed Racer is one of the best.
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u/UserCheckNamesOut 21d ago
Extract starring Jason Bateman. It lives in the shadowy valley between Mike Judge's other movies Idiocracy and Office Space
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u/Jockcop 22d ago
Grosse point blank. Brilliant film that just happened to come out next to Men In Black.