10 Mega-Successful Blockbusters Everyone Expected To Fail

6. Iron Man

This year the latest Spider-Man movie lost out at the box office to a continuity-heavy X-Men and a Captain America sequel. Ten years ago, when Spider-Man 2 hit it was only bested by two family friendly sequels (Shrek 2 and Harry Potter 3). What happened? When did full-on geek-outs and second tier superheroes become such bankable stars? The place to look is the summer of 2008, where two of the genre's most influential films made their debut: The Dark Knight and Iron Man. But while the realistic The Dark Knight was a near-certain success pretty much from conception, Iron Man was a massive gamble. Nigh-on impossible to comprehend from our current standpoint, but before Jon Favreau's mega-franchise starter, Tony Stark was firmly on Marvel's B-List, while the company behind it was just taking their first steps into the movie making landscape. Having spent the first half of the naughties selling off their most profitable characters (Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Daredevil etc.), Marvel's move into making movies meant they had a lesser known roster to pick from. In the climate of bankable stars (let's not forget Downey Jr. was very out there casting), it's easy to see how big a gamble Iron Man was; making a high-budget, big-screen version of the character was such a risk it makes turning obscure Guardians Of The Galaxy into a massive summer blockbuster feel a safe bet.