10 Movies Nobody Saw In Cinemas (But Everyone Watches On TV)

6. It's A Wonderful Life

The Shawshank Redemption
RKO

When thinking of the absolute best Christmas movies, many would settle on 1946's It's a Wonderful Life as the greatest festive picture that there is.

Like the rest of the films featured on this list, though, It's a Wonderful Life only truly found appreciation when it landed on TV. And in the 70+ years since its cinema release, Frank Capra's Jimmy Stewart-headlined picture is one that we all get giddy over whenever it airs on TV each and every December - or, in these days, when it crops up as available to watch on whichever on-demand streaming service is your weapon of choice.

Upon its theatrical run, It's a Wonderful Life barely made back its budget, bringing home $3.3 million from its $3.2 million layout.

With other supposed 'Christmas movies', they've often suffered from being released far too early - or, in some cases, months before the festive period - but It's a Wonderful Life was released at the perfect time, landing on the silver screen on 20 December 1946.

For whatever reason, the film just didn't find an audience during its initial release. But still, that's not stopped it from going on to be a must-watch TV event for so many people every time the holiday season comes a-calling.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.