Movies that were huge until everyone suddenly forgot them

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

SOmetimes you have movies that were massive sensations in their own time, might have even been genuinely good, and then for some reason they just never made the jump into (nerd-referenced, anyways) pop culture memory to the point you heart them mentioned and your soul leaves your body from the whiplash of memory.

Here's a few.

Mission: Impossible - The movie whose theme was constantly riffed on for years until nobody gave a fuck about it suddenly.
Men in Black
The Fast and Furious - Was driven into the ground extremely hard.

 

[Idiot Doom Spiral]

The Marvel blockbusters are already a distant fucking memory. Probably something to do with Disney pouring vast quantities of untreated sewage into the cinema and streaming services across the last 3 years in the name of ‘Marvel phase 4’.

 

[blackshirt]

The Avatar movies make so much money but I never see people discuss them. Fantastic technological prowess but little substance.

Funny enough, Avatar: Fire and Ash is in theaters now but I never would've known if I wasn't writing this post.

 

[Asian tech support]

True Grit. Never brought up anymore unless it's in relation to discussion about the Coen Brothers or Jeff Bridges.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

True Grit. Never brought up anymore unless it's in relation to discussion about the Coen Brothers or Jeff Bridges.

I actually love True Grit, myself. Was it that big a deal at the time?
Edit: Not to imply I didn't love Men in Black.

 

[Jace on ice]

I remembered every pretentious cocksucker going wild for Inception and that movie is now virtually forgotten.

 

[Asian tech support]

I actually love True Grit, myself. Was it that big a deal at the time?

At the time I remember it being pretty hype, not necessarily huge like they were printing Bridges on bags of chips obviously but certainly a thing.
Others that fit, maybe District 9. For like a year or two people pretended it was good, then came around to realizing it was shit, then forgetting about it entirely.

 

[Munchin' on Some Grindage]

Guardian of the Galaxy - It was a massive hit for Marvel/Disney. It wasn't high art or anything but fans took to it and you could even find people using memes from the movie for quite awhile. I don't know how successful the later ones were but it seems most people have moved on.

The Marvel blockbusters are already a distant fucking memory. Probably something to do with Disney pouring vast quantities of untreated sewage into the cinema

It's kind of crazy that Disney really thought Marvel and Star Wars were the cashcows that could never fail. They got lazy, pumped out a bunch of slop and are in a tight spot now. People have even stopped visiting their parks which was their crown jewel. The parks essentially made up for all of Disney's fuck ups in other areas of the business. I'm not saying they'll go out of business but they're definitely going to have to change some things if they're going to survive.

 

[$5.3 Million Dollars]

Men in Black

The scene with the Noisy Cricket is the only one I see get referenced, and its usually by shoot bang video gamers when memeing about any small gun that's OP. If the game is also scifi the chances of seeing the reference double.

 

[Testacles Maximus]

I never hear anybody talk about Pirates of the Caribbean anymore, but it was a huge crowd-pleaser at the time. I think they made another one but I never saw it.

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

I remembered every pretentious cocksucker going wild for Inception and that movie is now virtually forgotten.

I actually watched that about a month ago for the first time since it was in theaters. The core concept is still neat, but every character's motivations seem to be "I have to do this so the contrived plot can happen".

 

[Asian tech support]

I never hear anybody talk about Pirates of the Caribbean anymore, but it was a huge crowd-pleaser at the time. I think they made another one but I never saw it.

Excuse you, Captain Jack has one of the most active threads on the site rn!

 

[Jace on ice]

I think they made another one but I never saw it.

On Stranger Tides. It's actually ironically a better film than Dead Man's Chest and World's End because it's a standalone film and not beholden to the ridiculously convoluted plot of the main trilogy.

 

[Tasty Tatty]

I think it's meant to be normal to not being obsessed with movies for so long unless you're specifically a fan of such movie. I'm sure the Nolan Fandom or the MiB Fandom constantly talk about those movies, only in small circles.

Then it's also time. Like, 1989 Batman was huge. HUGE. People have no idea how big the marketing and madness for that movie was back in those days. Now most people really don't talk much about it because all the reboots.

Interstellar is another movie people went nuts for. People barely mentions it now and rather trash the bad science of it.

Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. PF was even parodied in Space Jam. The dance scene was everywhere. KB was not as referenced as PF though, it was PF the groundbreaking one. But both were definitely talked about during their time and people barely mention them and consider Tarantino's most recent work to be more worth of discussing.

If we talk TV shows, Mad About You was quite popular back in the day and I'm sure it won some important awards. It had a reboot that people didn't care for. Same for Melrose Place. That show was everywhere and also had a reboot that wasn't as lucky as the 90210 one.

Married with Children, a show that nobody missed during its peak and people now remember Ed O'Neal for Modern Family.

 

[Ainchiemi]

Did one for 2010:

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls055899579/

Robin Hood
Chronicles of Narnia/Prince of persia/Percy Jackson
The Tourist
Knight and Day
The sorcerer's Apprentice
Due Date
Date night
All of the attempted modern reboots like Yogi Bear and Gulliver's travels
Legend of the Guardians
and others

 

[Munchin' on Some Grindage]

Then it's also time. Like, 1989 Batman was huge. HUGE. People have no idea how big the marketing and madness for that movie was back in those days. Now most people really don't talk much about it because all the reboots.

I don't think it's as popular as it once was but I don't think it's been forgotten.

In Arkham Knight you can get the '89 suit.


They had that comic that continued the story


And just recently in the Batman comic, he has the Batmobile from the film.

 

[SirThomasMaloryII]

Surprised no one mentioned Tenet.

I remember everyone talking about it when it was released, and now I only heard about it once this entire year.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

The Marvel blockbusters are already a distant fucking memory. Probably something to do with Disney pouring vast quantities of untreated sewage into the cinema and streaming services across the last 3 years in the name of ‘Marvel phase 4’.

After Avengers: Endgame audiences sort of stopped caring about the overarching theme of the MCU. Seems like the most of the MCU films that still make money are the ones from franchises people still care about. Guardians of the Galaxy, Deadpool, and Spider-Man all still make bank. Ant-Man and Captain Marvel, not so much.

I'm struggling to think of a movie that had a bunch of hype, was released, made money, and wasn't memory-holed strictly on its much-hyped sequel being a massive disappointment...and hasn't been brought up in this thread already. I guess the only one that fits that criteria is I Am Legend, made hundreds of millions in the box office, people talked about it, and then got forgotten. It was pretty much the last time there were more good Will Smith movies than bad ones.

 

[Mystery Spy]

The avatar movies are definitively this phenomenon.

But most movies are simply victims of the passage of time. Everything has its time. There’s no big mystery. History has moved on. Thats it.

I still remember the MIB, terminator, back to the future etc movies. But for zoomers and younger generations? They are ancient history.

 

[The Last Stand]

Any movie with Joan Crawford in it from her prime. Damn shame she’s now known for being a child abuser.