Movies w/ Sudden Popularity

"Citizen Kane" is a movie that comes to mind. It didn't do that well financially at first (1941) because Hearst made sure his newspapers didn't advertise. Maybe he didn't even need to say a thing -- people know how to get in line.

About 20 years later, movie critics started calling this the greatest movie of all-time. I wonder how that came about? And what other movies either became popular, or a movie that was popular, waned, and then suddenly had a resurgence. I know sometimes it's a death, which happened with me, as I wasn't a fan of Kubrick or Altman until a few minutes after they died.

The Shining definitely comes to mind. It was up for a few Razzies that year, but is now typically regarded as one of the best horrors out there.

'Shawshank redemption' is in a lot of peoples top 10 and is universally acclaimed yet it took a big loss at the box office when released.

Think Blade Runner also made a loss.

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I remember reading somewhere (probably here) that it was a re-release of Blade Runner 10 years or so later that really gave it some momentum.

More than likely talking out of my arse there though

Sounds right. Didn't break even on initial release but it gained a cult following and then seems to have gotten more popular with age.

Fixed*

As for the actual topic, a lot of Hitchcock's filmography comes to mind; most notably Vertigo.

The 2012 Lorax movie became a meme out of nowhere at the end of December 2016.The hype recently died down but it was big for a while.

Speaking of memes, though not a movie, the anime Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, staring as a Knowyourmeme inside joke become very huge across youtube comment sections and elsewhere within the last few months. The KYM page for Jojo has over 800,000 views despite the IMDB page for it only having a little over 1,000 ratings. (The Myanimelist page list has a lot more votes of course. Most anime users don't use IMDB.)

EDIT: OH AND of course the Bee Movie. Can't forget about that.

Wow, I had no idea of the above..

It's a Wonderful Life (1946) originally bombed at the box office. It only became a hit after the copyright lapsed, and the TV stations were able to show it for free. It was shown free for about 20 years, making it a holiday staple, and eventually it became the beloved classic that it is today.

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I feel like it's the opposite today.

Films come out and get praised, then a few months later, people like to trash talk it.

Avatar & Deadpool come to mind. It seems the internet has taken a turn on these films, despite the anticipation for the Deadpool sequel. Maybe even La La Land suffers from this already.

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Idk how to call it but hype~hate trend.

A good rule of thumb:- what would happen if most movies became like "Deadpool" or "Hardcore Henry"? For example original "Matrix" created bad trend in cinema, but at least it was a good movie unlike the aforementioned ones.

Bringing Up Baby got okay reviews when it was released in 1938, but flopped at the Box Office. It was then forgotten about until the 1950s when it started making the rounds on television. By the time the 60s rolled around it was being hailed as the ultimate screwball comedy, a reputation it still has today. It deserves all of that praise and more.

That's what happens when a film is over-hyped or immediately labeled an "instant classic" upon release. Very few films can live up to that level of hyperbole, and modern internet "critics" are a menace in this regard. Some of them will call any half-decent movie a "10/10 tour de force" because their standards are so pathetically low.

I'm wondering who or what got those movies out of the gutter? An article written by a hot new critic? Current events?

I believe the former was the reason for Keaton's The General rise in popular. In most instances, I think its the latter in general and for specific cases different sub-reasons.

Availability. Television made it possible for many of them to reach a much larger audience. The internet had the same effect multiplied by 100

As access becomes easier the number of people able to rediscover a forgotten gem and then share it with others increases

I can agree with that. I noticed more people hating on The Dark Knight after damn near universal praise when it was released.

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As for movies that get popular after tanking that is pretty much the story of every cult film and midnight movie. A big part of what made a lot of this flick get their cult audience was word of mouth and home video before the internet.

Now a days it is the internet that helps fuel new and sometimes down right strange fandoms.

"Mikey and Nicky" never became popular, but thanks to the internet, a few more have seen it... This movie was held from release, problems with the studio and distributing..