10 Movies Nobody Saw In Cinemas (But Everyone Watches On TV)
5. This Is Spinal Tap
Few films conjure up quite as many laughs on repeat viewings as This Is Spinal Tap. No matter how many times you watch the 1984 mockumentary, the humour still hits time and time again.
Numerous other oft-daft comedies have the same quality to them, with Step Brothers, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and Dumb and Dumber just a few select films that remain entertainingly hilarious whenever you watch them. The difference between those three films and This Is Spinal Tap, though, is that that trio of pictures all did huge numbers during their theatrical runs - whereas This Is Spinal Tap, well, people just opted to avoid it at cinemas.
To be clear, This Is Spinal Tap managed to turn a modest profit during its initial theatrical run, but the masses seemed a tad confused by the fictional Spinal Tap band itself.
Given the way the movie is presented, people believed that Spinal Tap was a real band. But with nobody having heard of Spinal Tap, why would large numbers of people rush to see a 'documentary' about a rock group who they have zero idea are?
Thankfully, the VHS release of This Is Spinal Tap started to cause some mild buzz for the film, and that buzz was amplified ten-fold when the picture began to screen on TV. In the years since then, the movie has become one of those that you simply have to watch whenever the opportunity arises.