Old Movies That Will Be Popular In The Future?

Are there any old movies you have seen that weren't popular, but movies you believe will be much more popular (for whatever reason - which is another interesting sub-question) in the future.

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huh? example..

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If I had to pick one, it would be "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"... Where people are the ultimate spectacle. Maybe some will hear of this when Fonda passes away, or someone with enough popularity to mention it and compare it to the modern world. It's a movie that predates "Network", which is popular, so the possible association might help.

Hard to say depends on future events and influential figures. Virus and biological warfare films like The Andromeda Strain 1971 and Contagion had a visible increase in popularity during the pandemic.

They Shoot Horses Don't They
Buffalo '66
The Doors

Lolita Vibrator Torture

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

If a movie that is sixty or eighty years olds isn't already either part of the critical canon or have a presence in pop culture, I don't forsee them suddenly jumping onto the collective radar.

A decent remake can boost an old flick's popularity a bit. The original Ocean's 11 (1960) still had some Rat Pack cred at the end of the 20th Century, but the success and continued running of Soderbergh's remake and its sequels on television gave the original a little extra buoyancy, though I wouldn't exactly call it "popular". The remakes are part of pop culture. The original is a relic of a bygone culture and a footnote, be it slightly more resonant thanks to George Clooney and Brad Pitt.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Maybe this will be the "Network" (it's much more popular than "Ace in the Hole" or "A Face In The Crowd") of loneliness? Vinyl is hot now, and if radio ever becomes hot, someone might check out and like Andy Griffith's character in that movie.
The Doll (1962)

Interesting. I think that the other half of the question is why? What happened that they become popular again. I kind of recall something like this in my college days when us 19 year olds thought that everything worth seeing HAD to be new and "relevant". Then an art professor somehow arranged a showing of an "ancient" movie, with a dead star...one of those old school flicks that even had a trademark song, a movie that provoked groans when we heard what it was. This was between the movie's initial fame and its current status as one of the all time icons of Hollywood.

It was Casablanca and my girlfriend loved it.

Nice one

But Casablanca is a classic, an award winner, and its iconography is still in pop culture. That might have been you and your girlfriend's first exposure to it, but it's not like you were shown some random "old movie". You were shown an enduring classic, and while the groans may have been about having to sit through an "ancient" flick that you at least knew the title of, that movie works brilliantly because it is an acknowledged masterpiece. Had you instead been shown say The Shanghai Gesture (1941) with Victor Mature and Gene Tierney, which has no pop culture footprint today and doesn't have an iconic star and lines that have been quoted for decades, it likely would have bored everybody to tears. Not because it is a "bad" movie, but because it ain't Casablanca.

Casablanca and Singin' in the Rain and Lawrence of Arabia will continue to endure because they are already famous. They have established places in film history and in pop culture. The original post was looking for movies that are forgotten but suddenly becoming popular decades later. I don't forsee that happening.

Right. Why certain things have influence, and what's behind it.



If I was a professor, I would show a great movie that isn't as popular as "Casablanca". And for some of us who actively try to give recommendations to others, I tell them, "I've watched thousands of movies, and had to see many bad ones in order to see a dozen of great ones. I did the heavy lifting for you, and acting as a strainer".

My note about Casablanca was because, in that group, it was not just nearly forgotten, but "irrelevant", being about WW II and romance, both of which seemed like dated "Hollywood" stuff. As sarcastic, overstuffed undergraduates, it was old stuff....off of our radar. I don't think it really HAD obtained the iconic status it has now and home video had yet to emerge. Retro had not caught on yet either. It was just old.

I guess, what it seems to me is that it's not always clear what will be enduring and it may come in waves. Casablanca seems like a good way to tweak interest because it's easy and has appealing characters. Once the interest is tweaked, lesser icons might be appealing too.

I thought of a movie that might have a chance at a second life, becoming popular again someday. Now this is a long shot but seeing how the way we view race & history has changed drastically over the last half century, I believe future viewpoints on race depictions in movies will also continue to change. With all that in mind I speculate that one day people will rediscover and appreciate Song of the South (1943).

I don't know the movie, but that is a good example. Maybe even "Home of the Brave", a very good movie about race from the 40s.

Tis the future for old movies

@Holden Pike I like the original Ocean's 11 more than Ocean's Twelve at least. It was fine, had some funny parts, but they seemed to lose the energy from the first new entry.

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It was a film course and we did have viewings of a lot of what was considered classic or Art (note the capital A). As college-art-pretentious kids, Fellini or Bergman were Art (they were foreign), but nothing from classic Hollywood was. Citizen Kane might have qualified by the skin of its teeth, but Casablanca, being a war time, small budget, star-crossed romance, was just too obvious as a plot line and Bogart had been reduced to a Little Feat song and subject matter for voice impersonators. What I didn't realize until I saw it was that, for what it is, just about every moment in the movie is perfect.

After that, some less-than-Casablanca movies were at least worth a view, starting with some of Bogart's other roles. The African Queen comes to mind immediately.

"Long Distance Love"? It's so unbelievable, but I still like those movies, but not "The African Queen". It didn't seem to fit Bogey for me, and I never liked either Hepburn.

That was what was unique about it. Bogey being messy, getting downright panicky when he's infested with leeches, being messy but respectful to Katherine Hepburn's righteous character...it was about the most non-Bogie character I can recall him doing.

I also associate him with suits, hats and black and white....African Queen was none of those.