10 "Doomed" Upcoming Movies That Might Actually Succeed

In Hollywood as in life, first impressions count for a lot, and once audiences have given an upcoming movie the stink-eye, it's incredibly tough to shake that perception - especially in the social media age.

Films are often written off as "doomed" long before they're actually released, and in fairness, that can certainly be for good reason. Perhaps the attached cast and crew seem ill-suited to the project, the first trailer lands with a thud, or the scuttlebutt about post-production woes are just too damn loud to ignore.

While audiences have become incredibly adept at sniffing out a dud in the making, there are certainly times where a beleaguered production inexplicably materialises a great film - perhaps the best recent example of this being Mad Max: Fury Road, which spun Oscar-winning gold from a nightmarish shoot.

Now, this isn't to say that any of these 10 movies are going to be courting Academy Awards anytime soon, but each just might be primed to surprise audiences and overperform, either landing critical acclaim or unexpected box office success - or perhaps even both.

If you thought these movies were all out for the count, that might not quite be the case...

There's an understandably instinctive reaction to roll your eyes at the prospect of a prequel to Richard Donner's fantastic 1976 horror classic The Omen. 

When producers can find nothing worthwhile to do with a franchise, the prequel route typically signifies the creatively bankrupt next step.

Add to this a director and team of writers with few major credits to their names, and it's easy to write this off as a cynical cash-in desperately trying to coast to box office glory on the strength of its brand name alone.

But then the first trailer for The First Omen dropped and there was a collective air of surprise among horror fans, that it honestly looked... not bad. Pretty good, even.

The visuals look suitably ominous and the cast is unexpectedly stacked - including Bill Nighy, Ralph Ineson, Sônia Braga, and Servant alum Nell Tiger Free - enough that this could very well be a rare horror prequel to carve out a worthy place for itself.

It's still worth tempering your expectations, but in the very least this may not be the artless obligation its original announcement suggested.