10 Movies Everyone Thought Were DOOMED (But Became Massive Hits)

Comedies, particularly the romantic kind, simply don't find themselves in theatres as much as they used to.

That's mostly down to the fact studios don't really see these titles as the kind capable of luring folks into cinemas anymore. Sure, there's the odd exception, like The Lost City, but that was likely helped by the fact it fell more into the action/adventure category.

Straight-up romcoms now often just end up being dropped right onto streaming and forgotten about not long after their debut. It wouldn't have been that surprising to see the rather ordinary looking Anyone But You join that ever-growing list of forgettable streaming romcoms, too, but director Will Gluck had other ideas and pushed the studio to release the movie in theatres.

With this being an R-rated project, and one that didn't exactly scream must-see romance, it's not hard to see why Columbia needed some convincing. Even with a modest $25 million budget, it seemed like it would be a tough task for the film to turn a profit when competing against the likes of Wonka, Migration, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and a number of other big releases. 

In other words, this one had "doomed" written all over it.

Rather than becoming a painful example studios could point to whenever directors begged to have their upcoming romcom thrown onto the big screen, though, Anyone But You was a surprise hit.

A combination of smart marketing - having stars Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell show off their undeniable chemistry whenever possible - and strong word of mouth helped catapult the picture to a $220 million worldwide haul.