Movies that climbed box office charts based on word of mouth

I'll preface this by saying that the title may seem a little ambiguous and the box offices I'm referring to would be America & the UK, because those are the ones I'm more familiar with.

The movie industry seems to have entered a place where a release is only considered a success if it rakes in a lot of money and enters the top of the box office on its opening release; not even critic reviews, otherwise Grown Ups 2 would never have been released.

Often times an "opening weekend" isn't a weekend any more - I believe Spectre had "preview" screenings from the Tuesday before the "release" in the UK (can't comment for the US, but I'm sure it was the same?), which was added to the sum total and placed it firmly at the top of the UK chart. Spectre was likely to go to the top regardless, but other movies that followed the same formula often reach the top spot, but drop steadily from there in the following weeks.

With all this said, what I'd be interested to know is movies that might have came in relatively low in the box office and yet climbed the charts over the following weeks, often times this would be due to word of mouth spreading.

Are there any examples of this?

One that I can find is the King's Speech. Boxofficemojo, which I'm assuming takes into account US box offices as opposed to internationally, has it charting initially at #20, before eventually climbing up to #4.

IvaBigWun

I haven't Googled this to check but wasn't Priscilla Queen Of The Dessert another example of this?

Caovyn Lineah

Wasn't Shawshank Redemption considered a commercial flop on cinema release? It was the vhs release which finally turned people on to it.

e_e

The Grand Budapest Hotel only hit number 1 three weeks after release in the UK.

Also How to Train Your Dragon was a real word of mouth success looking at the Box Office Mojo charts:

Second Weekends 153
Third Weekends 50
Fourth Weekends 25
Fifth Weekends 12
Sixth Weekends 22
Seventh Weekends 56
Eighth Weekends 55

ps3lover

Scream

Skerries

2001: A Space Odyssey was like this when it first came out but then all the stoners kept coming back to trip out to the visuals

but maybe you might be able to find something here

Stone Deaf 4evr

This years candidate would surely go to mad max: fury road. while the opening weekend wasnt't small (45M), it certainly seemed to have very long legs with word of mouth getting people who had initially dismissed it (myself included) to give it a shot.

Harry Palmr

I think the best example of this is My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=mybigfatgreekwedding.htm

look how many weeks it took to peak and then how long it kept bringing in punters

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=crouchingtigerhiddendragon.htm

Slumdog Millionaire

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=slumdogmillionaire.htm

Sad Professor

I feel like we'd have to go back decades to find a really great example of this. When films were deliberately released in such a way (opening small, long runs, staggered releases, etc) as to find an audience, even being re-released if necessary. These days the film is already gone from theatres by the time word of mouth has spread. The closest you are going to get is a film that opened stronger than expected, expanded to more locations and moved up a few places. Or had enough backing not to get dumped after a disappointing first week. If people don't know know about the film or don't have a chance to see it, it's not going to have a chance to move up. In other words, the quality of the marketing and the release still matters more than the quality of the film.

Average-Ro

The Artist.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=artist.htm

Reached its peak at weekend 13. The Oscar buzz really helped it along. I remember it was re-released in cinemas in Galway after winning.

Ipso

Didn't The Sixth Sense do very well over a long time?

Exclamation Marc

Paranormal Activity?

Think that had a limited release at first and then a general based on how successful it was and from there it started climbing the charts based on word of mouth.

One of the most profitable films ever based on the return on initial budget.

Manufactured Miracle

Manufactured Miracle wrote: »

Paranormal Activity?

Think that had a limited release at first and then a general based on how successful it was and from there it started climbing the charts based on word of mouth.

One of the most profitable films ever based on the return on initial budget.

Started this discussion somewhere else and Paranormal Activity was mentioned. What was incredible about it is that it went from #48 to #1 in the space of a few weeks.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding was the other suggestion, because it became absolutely monumental.

Chain Smoker

Deleted User wrote: »

One that I can find is the King's Speech. Boxofficemojo, which I'm assuming takes into account US box offices as opposed to internationally, has it charting initially at #20, before eventually climbing up to #4.

The figures are more or less directly as you'd expect for a new release once you factor in the number of screens (finishing 20th on that few screens is actually an amazing box office performance).

The initial limited release approach is fairly typical for award season films (especially TWC backed releases such as the Kings Speech and the Artist) and it does partially depend on positive word of mouth (basically someone telling you to see a thing you've already been repeatedly exposed to being on end of year lists and five star reviews in whatever you read), but it's designed in that manner.


From what I recall, It Follows was a surprisingly successful film earlier this year which was more down to positive word of mouth than anything else. The Conjuring was a much bigger hit than was expected too, so was Scream iirc?
Definitely seems to be a thing that's a lot more likely to happen horror movies, probably because they're usually lower budget and guaranteed a certain audience share but will only exceed that if the film impresses the general horror audience a lot (which is perhaps hard to gauge).