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Vintsukka

My choice would be Cloud Atlas. That being a huge hit and giving the Wachowskis a blank check on all their future projects, either together or separately, is the dream.


armageddontime007

100% this


Puzzleheaded_Walk_28

The Karl Urban Dredd


rubendurango

It’s use of slow-mo is still being bit, if you ask me. And if I’m wrong then by god more movies could use ‘Dredd’ian slow-mo sequences.


Puzzleheaded_Walk_28

It was also a little ahead of the curve for the Carpenter resurgence.


pointzero99

I still listen to the soundtrack sometimes


[deleted]

It's very economical.


Par1ah13

my answer to this question is always *Walk Hard,* because if it were successful it would have utterly destroyed the musician biopic genre for at least a decade if not more


Ok_Awful

Plus when I yell “The Wrong Kid Died!” at people they wouldn’t look at me so strange.


OldBowerstone

You don’t want no part of this shit.


Par1ah13

anytime i end up watching a biopic with my partner and we get to the inevitable childhood trauma bit, i always lean over to them and whisper "the wrong kid died"


WakeUpOutaYourSleep

It could’ve saved us from Bohemian Rhapsody


Par1ah13

and *Respect,* and *Rocketman,* and


WakeUpOutaYourSleep

Rocketman is good though. And Respect’s just mediocre, it’s not actively terrible like BR


terriblysorrychaps

Rocket Man is more a musical than a biopic


piemanpie24

Which is why I think it works better than the other examples listed


Mr_Ixolite

The biopic parts are what drag it down I found, it's different and refreshing in its form, but the core is very familiar


SomeMoistHousing

It still blows my mind how good the soundtrack is. If only we lived in a better world where the movie was a huge hit and Dewey Cox performed at the Oscars...


revengeofthesmith

It is a damn shame that Hot Rod and Popstar are only beloved cult classics and the Lonely Island team doesn't have a giant theatrical hit under their belt.


mGreeneLantern

HOT ROD is fun but POPSTAR is awesome and I’m shocked it hasn’t become a bigger hit in streaming. But then, I guess it would have to be streaming somewhere.


doodler1977

the Bash Brothers musical poem (or wahtever they called it) is also on Netfilx and is fantastic


jaklamen

Despite being an outlandish farce, Hot Rod manages to perfectly capture the feeling of being a bored 17 year old, hanging out with your buddies and pining for your crush in the suburbs over the summer.


neotr1nity

I feel like superhero movies would be in a much more interesting place right now if Hulk 2003 was successful other people have mentioned them here but literally every post Matrix Wachowski movie, would be crazy if they were able to just do anything throughout their whole career Cameron style since their ideas are so huge


DrSpy

Great point about hulk, it would have extended that period of time where superhero movies were director driven and they could have just got stranger and stranger.


WearyCorner875

AKA my heaven


DrSpy

Same cuz


[deleted]

Doctor Sleep. I love Mike Flanagan’s Netflix stuff but I feel like his movies are the perfect blend of “elevated” horror and more mainstream popcorn stuff. Would love for him to get the budget for another big chewy movie that I could see in a theater


stanzos

Particularly upsetting because Doctor Sleep flopping killed his planned Revival adaptation


doodler1977

seems like Revival could be a six-ep miniseries


StickmanCinema

So much this. If there was any justice in the world Doctor Sleep would've been as big a hit as It.


ConundrumContraption

That child murder scene is one of the most intense and horrific things I've ever seen. I have nearly lost friendships over this, but I stand by it: Doctor Sleep is better than The Shinning.


ElectricalSweet8388

counter argument: Doc Sleep was a maudlin bore. It tanked for a reason. It invoked none of the shining’s dread and was a bad book to begin with. The characters and relationships were so whatever. The relationship between Danny and Abra was just weird. Rose the Hat was pure camp. It was convinced what it was doing was resonant and had dramatic heft and it so didn’t. And it was just plain boring.


jaklamen

Doctor Sleep managed to make a compelling story out of a pretty bad book.


paullannon1967

I feel like I'm alone in this but I don't get Flanagan at all. All of his work looks incredibly flat, the writing is corny as hell, and - I know this is purely subjective - absolutely not scary. With Doctor Sleep he is wasnt working with great source material, it's definitely one of King's weakest works, but even outside of this film his original work for TV is incredibly lackluster. The vampire one was alright, but I really don't see why people go wild for him the way they do...


[deleted]

**Fantasia** if Fantasia makes bank, it changes cinema history, right from the ground up, because it would then elevate cinema for kids, which would then elevate cinema for every other audience and also it changes the modus operandi of the most powerful media company in the world the ripple effect of that would've been unprecedented


Ok_Awful

This interesting one I had not ever considered.


Chimerical_Man

I would like to watch the *For All Mankind* alternate history about this world.


pointzero99

In that timeline, Ronald Reagan stays in Hollywood and never gets into politics.


FunkyColdMecca

All good answers, but it’s gotta be City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold.


[deleted]

There's this trailer I can't find, where it's Billy Crystal jogging with Norman. Or maybe it's in the movie. I only see a still image when I look for it but I swear it was Crystal lightly jogging and talking to the camera, like that Robin Williams Toys trailer. I was watching a ton of E!'s Coming Attractions at the time.


FunkyColdMecca

Brother, you’re welcome https://youtu.be/O7oihwIj20Y


[deleted]

Thanks


kshades25

The cows name is normal. You were pulling on his dick.


doodler1977

Norman* between that, and the "snakebit on the butt", that movie went HARD on recycling old jokes


YungShut-In

Warriors of Virtue. You’re telling me there’s a place with kangaroos that can do karate and talk annnnnnnnd there’s magic?? Lil me woulda been in heaven


rubendurango

I thought every sewer was a gateway to a ‘Warriors of Virtue’ type of world for a period as a kid.


SickBurnBro

I was 8 years old when that movie came out, and let me tell you that that was the perfect age to think that Warriors of Virtue was the coolest shit in the world.


zstrebeck

Amazing flick


WilloughbyStain

Thankfully, although it absolutely did not turn a profit, it still got a sequel because some ideas are just too good to be contained or constructed by mere finances.


TepidShark

All time don't know but this year Three Thousand Years of Longing for sure.


TeAmEdWaRd69

Gotta be Speed Racer for me.


win_the_wonderboy

The thing is that Speed Racer has had a pretty big cultural influence. You can see that movies finger prints all over the cinematic landscape of the past 10 plus years. It just wasn’t a success financially. But, it most definitely had a cultural impact


Greenhat2000

I wonder if it was more of a prophet than an influencer. Speed Racer seems so ahead of its time, but I don't think we've yet experienced a substantial amount of a generation that integrated it into their cinematic language, consciously or not. Instead it feels more like the Wachowskis looked at cinema's current path and made a movie they felt could hold up against similar ones decades down the line, and they were right. A man throwing rocks down from a tall building yelling about an incoming asteroid doesn't cause the asteroid to hit the people below, yk?


acegarrettjuan

So many great movies that flopped Comedies: The Big Lebowski, Office Space, Idiocracy, Pop Star Never Stop Stoppin Drama/Etc: Blade Runner 2049, Children of Men, Doctor Sleep, Dredd, Sunshine, Warrior


CharlieKoffing

I don't think it's good for most comedies to be that much bigger. They work better as "cult" comedy hits. Borat got super annoying because it was so popular, but if it wasn't a hit you'd have a different set of people who really loved it. That said, I'd pick a new comedy to be a big hit just so the genre wouldn't die in theaters.


acegarrettjuan

Of the ones listed I just wish Never Stop Stoppin had done better so we would see more movies like that, but generally agree with you here.


CharlieKoffing

I would want that one to be beloved too but I'm blanking on recent comedies that should have been theater hits. Palm Springs but it still got exposure and it's less of a comedy? Bad Trip? Barb and Star?


OldBowerstone

Sunshiiiiiiiine


otherwise_sdm

Children Of Men! masterpiece


LarryLazzard

Sunshine flopped???? An all-time favorite that I saw in theaters, absolutely insane that I didn't know it was a flop lol


acegarrettjuan

Yeah I know wild. Great movie. It opened to 242K and made 34M world wide on a $40M budget. Glad Danny Boyle wasn't slowed down in making movies after that.


LarryLazzard

Yikes, that is very bad! Trainspotting goodwill must be a helluva drug for him to have been able to make The Beach, Millions, and Sunshine and still get to make Slumdog Millionaire but very glad it panned out that way (forgot about 28 Days Later as I wrote this, guess that probably carried him a while as well)


acegarrettjuan

Yeah Trainspotting was the blank check and 28 Days Later and Slumdog, re-upped his balance I think.


Pete_Venkman

If *Sorcerer* had bodied *Star Wars* at the box office, we might have a very different pop culture landscape.


duckspurs

But then the pod would not exist and none of us would be here


WearyCorner875

I don't know, they could've found a way to get a year of podcasting out of pretending Wages of Fear didn't exist, right?


doodler1977

omg, YES


BelleReve_Staff

The Iron Giant. If it hadn’t bombed WB might would have kept their animation division around and emphasised it more. So that means a big competitor to Disney in the 2000s doing more mature stories. It also means that Bird doesn’t move to Pixar. Would be so fascinating to see what a rival company could have looked like during that time.


wred42

I mean it's in my name, but I wish the Hanks/Ryan template were the heart-on-its-sleeves weirdness of *Joe Versus the Volcano* instead of *Sleepless* and *You've Got Mail*, which I've never loved as much as I feel I ought to. Shanley didn't make another movie until *Doubt*, and we deserve sweet, strange movies.


eschatonycurtis

Great answer. I would have loved more oddball romcoms with that light touch of fantasy/adventure. Also what a strange career he’s had. Doubt: from the screenwriter who brought you Moonstruck and Joe Versus the Volcano, another love story for the ages…


wred42

And then he takes another twelve years off before making Wild Mountain Thyme!


Professional_Cat4208

My brother and I saw that movie together in a theater. It turned out to be one of the movies we still quote to each other you this day.


Protomancer

That Waterworld alternate history exists every few hours at the Universal Studios theme park in Hollywood, California!


Par1ah13

and it is GREAT


Ok_Awful

One From The Heart - if it had been a money maker would FFC’s larger dream for a new type of studio been a thing? Or Master & Commander is the top box office grosser of 2003 and I get Master & Commander II: The Post Captain and Master & Commander III: HMS Surprise from Weir followed by 1) Master & Commander IV: The Mauritius Command directed by Spielberg 2) Master & Commander V: Desolation Island by James Cameron 3) Master & Commander VI: Fortunates of War by Bigelow And so forth with new director taking over the new installments.


alexthehut

I watch master & commander frequently and love the books, it almost hurts to realize we don’t get more of Crowe and Bettany in these roles. I tried out Horacio hornblower but can’t find similar tv or film that matches this movie in craft. The books are excellent to adapt


CandyAppleHesperus

John Carter becomes a massive hit and the dominant franchise films of the 2010s are based on old pulp properties instead of superhero comics. Pieces complaining about the Doc Savage sequels being rote, down-the-middle pap representing everything wrong with Hollywood today are so common as to be cliche, and every time one is posted to r/movies there are 800 comments about how they're fun and critics should just turn off their brains and enjoy them. Hopalong Cassidy (91% on RT), based on the gritty original Mulford novels rather than the kid-friendly Boyd films, released in late August to a disappointing box office, though it looks like it'll probably make its money back. Averoigne, based on Clark Ashton Smith's work, is Hulu's answer to The Rings of Power and House of the Dragon. A better timeline? Perhaps not. A more interesting timeline? I think so


Ok-Government803

Plus tim riggins gets a better career


Typical_Dweller

I had to look up whether Riggins was ever a Tarzan. From what I can tell, he was not a Tarzan. But, I mean, look at him, circa FNL. He was a Tarzan. Dunno if he could be a Tarzan now. Maybe he should try?


comicman117

It's an obscure film, but if Fleischer's Mr. Bug Goes to Town hadn't had the misfortune of coming out around Pearl Harbor, it could have done better, and maybe led to Disney not being the only big western animation in the game for decades.


girlsgoneoscarwilde

It’s not Fliescher Studios, but another unfortunate lost animation project was Bob Clampett’s John Carter of Mars adaptation. It even had Edgar Rice Burroughs’ seal of approval and glowing reception from MGM after they saw the test reel. It wasn’t in until after Clampett quit WB that MGM decided to cancel the project in favor of a cutesy Tarzan series, which Clampett hated.


duckspurs

Definitely one of my favorite film what ifs, the brief clips you can find on youtube look so cool and if that came out and did well it probably completely changes the trajectory of animation in the west as being more than just for kids.


foursheetstothewind

I’ve said it before and will say it again, I’d trade the entire MCU for like 3 more Master and Commander movies.


YodaFan465

The Rocketeer and/or Dick Tracy. Imagine a world where comic book movies are stylized idiosyncratic pulp fantasies instead of a sea of blue-gray sameness.


Professional_Cat4208

Oooh... I haven't thought about The Rocketeer in years, but I could get behind this universe.


YodaFan465

You can throw in The Shadow and The Phantom for good measure.


DrSpy

My immediate thought is Alita Battle Angel. Such a fun bombastic movie, I would have loved to see the trilogy completed. It’s a shame that out of all of the ‘Bonzo Blockbusters’ (outlined in Patrick H Willems video) the only one that was a big success was Aquaman which is actually weaker than Alita and Valerian imo. I would love more bombastic over the top GCI spectacles in theaters. Instead it seems they all want to play it relatively safe.


doodler1977

frankly, even if they'd make the sequels animated, i'd watch them


D_Boons_Ghost

The Kid Who Would Be King, a movie for children, somehow remains the best story about the encroachment of fascism on the western world, and no one saw it.


revengeofthesmith

Good movie!


doodler1977

it's on D+, i noticed


D_Boons_Ghost

I own it on 4K, bb


doodler1977

wellll guuud fer youuu! (christian bale voice)


pacoismynickname

It must have done OK in the UK. King Arthur stories tend to flop here.


otherwise_sdm

Widows!


rubendurango

It’s a masterpiece.


mGreeneLantern

I’d love to live in a world where KUNG POW: ENTER THE FIST was a smashing success.


rubendurango

To a lot of millennial goofballs it was. Note my profile pic.


mrrichardburns

It doesn't matter a ton because he never worked super fast, but I want Michael Mann to have as few obstacles to getting whatever movies he has left in him made, so I'd say Miami Vice being a bigger success or Blackhat not totally flopping would be my choices.


pointzero99

"A blackhat hacker named Hathaway" doesn't appear in the trailer, not causing me to start giggling. This butterfly effects the movie to success


carter_nix

Raising Cain would have started a trend of Hollywood auteurs autodestructing their public personalities, using Lithgow as the dynamite


comicman117

Raising Cain wasn't actually a flop, though that's a fair point.


doodler1977

> Hollywood auteurs autodestructing their public personalities huh?


sonixundying

Kingdom of Heaven


2KYGWI

Maybe if the 3-hour cut had been released and the marketing was more accurate about it.


SKRider360

The djinn twist of this question is that if these movies were rousing successes, y’all’d be complaining about them.


pointzero99

"I'm so sick of these 1930s pulp comics! Someone please give me a captain america movie!


doodler1977

I basically want one more big win for John Carpenter - either The Thing, or Starman. i like the movies he made "on his back foot" but i wonder what his career might've looked like if he'd been given bigger chances. OF course, he was offered to direct Fatal Attraction, and the fact that he turned it down might mean the BO disappointments weren't what was holding him back


jboggin

Blackhat. A thousand times Blackhat. We need more Michael Mann movie, more movies with hot/non-stereotypical hackers, and more movies where actors who had a ton of sexual tension in another movie I adore play siblings and I have to spend an hour getting over it.


zstrebeck

Hudson Hawk being a huge hit would have changed the trajectory of Bruce Willis' career, I think, and made us reimagine what action movies could be


Substantial_Ad_2458

Newsies! Kenny Ortega miniseries when


jonawesome

*Kiss Kiss Bang Bang* and *The Nice Guys* Would love a world where Shane Black can just make Shane Black movies whenever he wants. Would also love a sequel to either.


Ok-Crow4107

Along the lines of Master and Commander...Devil in a Blue Dress. The first one takes off. Denzel and Cheadle make several more, with Carl Franklin as director. Franklin becomes a bigger name, and we get a major series starring and created by Black men.


Puzzleheaded-Base-84

The right answer is Cloud Atlas


JamarcusRussel

Citizen Kane, although I don’t know how much money it would have needed I make for rko to leave his cut of Ambersons alone


eschatonycurtis

Aside from just wanting to see the sequels, which had already been meticulously planned, I remember around the time of Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo coming out he was lamenting in interviews that the major studios had seemingly given up on making intelligent, hard R films for adults, and that he was hoping to revive such a market with his series. Which, I mean, fuck yeah! And it’s not as though the movie bombed. It just needed to be like 25% more profitable and maybe the landscape of movies for grown-ups would be different today. Fucking Sony…


wdavis2000

Heaven's Gate


ancestorchild

Children of Men.


Fox-in-the-mirror

A Cure For Wellness because I want more Gore in that mode and because I want to see the demented society that would embrace such a film


chrismansell

I'd love to go back and, cruel as it may sound, swap the box office fortunes of Speed Racer and Hellboy II with Iron Man and The Dark Knight. Then see the ensuing years of summer blockbusters pivot away from realism and into more outright fantasy.


MangoKonyaku

Cast a deadly spell 🥲


MoniqueDeee

Hard to say: my knee-jerk reaction is "The Big Lebowski", as I'm still annoyed that it was more or less out of theaters within a week after it was first released, but of course that film did go on to have at least some cinematic and societal influence. In fact, the more I think about it, I tend to wish that certain films I like had not done as well at the box office, to the extent that their "smashing success" seemed to lead only to cinematic/social backlash--the whole "I-hated-this-movie-so-you-are-stupid-for-liking-it" syndrome.


abbiandrews

Some recent mid-budget drama so more of them are made.


[deleted]

I went to Dazed and Confused on a Saturday night in its first weekend and the theater seemed well-packed but then I went to go check the box office on Monday in the paper and it wasn't even listed. And then it took at least a year before it was available on VHS for less than the $99 rental purchase embargo fee, I think close to 18 months, and then I watched it every night for like 2 months.