10 Mega-Successful Blockbusters Everyone Expected To Fail

8. 21 Jump Street

The trick to a successful remake is to take something highly regarded, nostalgic or otherwise, and do something new with it. And that's why so many cack-handed attempts fail. They normally end up being a bland retreading with modern tropes of something originally good (see Total Recall, Platinum Dunes slew of horror resurrections) or a fresh take on something nobody actually cares about (The Lone Ranger was last relevant in the sixties). So when it was announced Columbia were remaking a teen comedy TV series notable only for giving Johnny Depp a rise to fame you can bet all eyes were ready to roll. How could this end up anywhere other than the online equivalent of the bargain bin? You get Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, that's what you do. The men who managed to turn both Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs and The LEGO Movie into rampant successes that parents were almost dragging their kids to see took the reins of the reboot. Shaking in all their silly, out there humour, along with the inspired casting of Channing Tatum playing it funny, the duo made 21 Jump Street a genuine surprise for a remake; it was something original. And we all loved it.