Of course, there are exceptions -- films that make blockbuster dollars that are not necessarily hits on paper. Films that may both big stars but are still riskier than conventional popcorn fare.
The success of films like these, more often that not are a huge surprise for me. Even if I am not one hundred percent on board with a movie like say -- Clint Eastwood's American Sniper -- I am still impressed that it managed to be the highest grossing movie of its year, if for no other reason than it is a brooding character study of man battling PTSD, albeit a deeply problematic one.
This week I revisited the Oscar winning revenge film The Revenant in all its gruesome glory and I couldn't get over the fact that this largely dreary affair was an enormous, colossal commercial hit. To be sure it's packed with some riveting action scenes -- most infamously one involving a CGI bear that holds up remarkably well.
But it is also a movie where its leading man spends much of its running time unable to talk and in some cases walk and when he does it's usually in a Native American tongue (this does not detract from the power of DiCaprio's work, he won his first Oscar for this film over an admittedly weak field). It's a relentlessly bleak movie, that's gory and sad. But people flocked to see it.
I suppose its a testament to DiCaprio's enduring star power and director Alejandro Inarritu's innovative use of natural light cinematography throughout (the movie looks great) -- but maybe audiences back in 2015 were willing to try something different.
Here are a few others movies from the decade whose success stunned me.
The Social Network (2010) - I remember when this movie was announced, a lot of folks scoffed and derisively called it 'The Facebook Movie.' Few understood what it would even be, and the casting of a pop star without a ton of acting experience in one of the leads (Justin Timberlake) didn't inspire much confidence. And it turned out to possibly be the best film of the decade with Timberlake delivering surely what will go down as the performance of his career. Insanely robbed on Oscar night.
True Grit (2010) - Although the Coen Brothers film was a remake of a beloved John Wayne western, its star -- Jeff Bridges -- didn't have a consistent history as a box office draw and the film actually hewed much closer to the quirky novel by making the female hero the lead (a wonderful Hailee Steinfeld). At the end of the day it's a lovely, old fashioned western, the kind I didn't expect could make money anymore, but boy was I wrong.
Black Swan (2010) - Certainly one of the strangest hit films in recent memory -- a fever dream of sorts about a mentally unstable ballerina who either has split personalities or may be physically transforming into something ... not human. I honestly don't know that I can fully explain what Black Swan is about, but it's great to look at, Natalie Portman gives an emotionally charged, physically demanding performance and it's certainly a memorable affair, but I must say I am surprised it was so much more than arthouse fare.
Shutter Island (2010) - Another DiCaprio flick, this one another collaboration with director Martin Scorsese (they've made five total, and another is on the way). This one was arguably the toughest sell, even if it was based on a best seller. Something akin to a psychological horror film with a twist ending that you either buy or you don't (I do). It was seen as a potentially doomed production when it was pushed to a February release but it ended up being auspicious.
Lincoln (2012) - Sure, Abraham Lincoln is one of the most revered figures in U.S. history -- but that doesn't mean people are going to come out in droves to watch a film about his fight to get the 13th amendment to the Constitution passed. It had an ace up its sleeve in Daniel Day-Lewis' damn near perfect performance in the lead, but it's hard to imagine a historic epic doing the kind of business this movie die eight years ago.
Flight (2012) - Denzel Washington is as close to a sure thing as there is at the box office, but a drama about an alcoholic pilot is not the kind of material that you'd think would lead to a hit. It does feature a bravura plane crash sequence that is fantastically scary, but it's largely an incisive character study -- and one of Washington's all-time best performances.
Gravity (2013) - As popular as Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are -- it would seem counter-intuitive to put them in giant spacesuits, that partially obscure their faces, kill off one of them about halfway through and setting the entirely thing in the blackness of space. But the movie is so emotionally sincere and viscerally sensational that none of what I said previously matters. An elegantly simple movie that is nevertheless pulse-pounding from start to finish.
Dunkirk (2017) - It seems silly now, but I really thought Dunkirk might be director Christopher Nolan's first major flop as director -- after all, it was a WWII film about a relatively obscure (to Americans) battle with its only big name star (Tom Hardy) hidden under a mask for much of its duration. But audiences locked into Nolan's sophisticated meditation on time and it led to his first, long overdue Oscar nomination.
Knives Out (2019) - This one was the most pleasant surprise of them all for me. I loved the cast but Daniel Craig had struggled to connect with many of his non-Bond films and I didn't know if audiences would appreciate an old-fashioned, star-studded mystery. But Ryan Johnson got the last laugh with a cleverly constructed and witty screenplay that almost requires repeat viewings.
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