10 Huge Movie Box Office Hits NOBODY Saw Coming

It cannot be understated how much negativity there was surrounding the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl back in 2003. 

With Disney spending $140 million adapting one of their theme park rides into a huge blockbuster fronted by Johnny Depp - who, while respected, was hardly a reliable draw at the time - all while the pirate genre was dead in the water, the intense skepticism was at least understandable.

But Pirates ended up defying most all expectations, scoring $654.3 million globally and becoming the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2003, beating out the highly anticipated likes of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, The Matrix Revolutions, and X-Men 2.

Pirates' success was a perfect storm of factors, really; a gorgeous, entertaining trio of leads combined with outstanding production values, an amazing Hans Zimmer score, and a script that was both fun and overflowing with personality.

Word-of-mouth kept it chugging along throughout the summer, where it dominated screens for almost an entire two months, ensuring that Disney now had a new cinematic IP in their war chest - one which has made them over $4.5 billion at the box office to date.