10 Movies Probably Made Out Of Spite
Shrek might be the most hate-filled feel-good movie ever made.
Why are most movies made? To make money, of course, and if we're so lucky, there might also be a genuine desire there to make a great piece of art.
But sometimes films come to fruition with an altogether more ulterior motive, out of spite for another person or entity who has wronged the filmmakers in some way.
While it's safe to say that no movie is produced for sheer, unbridled rage, these 10 films were all born out of some level of prior animosity between the creators and those in their orbit.
From movies made to stop the rights reverting to the original owner, to directors who made their own hit franchise when another turned them down, to films intent on bucking cinematic conventions, these projects all came to cinemas with a major chip on their shoulder.
And before you ask, no, Adam Sandler's most recent release Hubie Halloween didn't make the cut, because though he threatened to make a terrible movie if he didn't win the Best Actor Oscar for Uncut Gems, that film was actually in production long before Sandler was snubbed for an Academy Award...
10. Fantastic Four (2015)
Perhaps the most common reason for a major movie being hurriedly thrown together - beyond the craven pursuit of money, of course - is that a studio doesn't want their rights to a given IP to lapse.
Most contracts between movie studios and rights holders will allow the rights to revert back to the original owners if a new film isn't made within a certain number of years, and so studios obviously have a vested interest to keep the movies coming.
This was absolutely true of Fox's Fantastic Four movies. After 2007's Rise of the Silver Surfer cratered at the box office, the studio had seven years to get a new project in front of cameras before the rights returned to Marvel Studios.
And so, 2015's hastily-assembled, Josh Trank-helmed reboot began filming just barely seven years prior to the previous film's release.
Between critical scorn, an atrocious box office performance, and an infamously troubled production, all it really did was keep the IP out of Marvel's hands for a few more years.
But given that Disney acquired Fox in 2019, Marvel Studios ironically ended up owning the three prior Fantastic Four movies anyway, and are presently in the early stages of putting together a reboot with MCU Spider-Man filmmaker Jon Watts directing.
The definition of spite is delivering a self-own just so your rivals can't have nice things for a little while longer.