2. Snakes on a Plane
The Buzz: Virtually the definition of a "fanboy film" through its sheer conception, Snakes on a Plane was the first major movie to made by Hollywood in conjunction with the Internet; when they demanded more snakes, nudity and profanity, director David R. Ellis was granted permission to shoot pick-ups which added all of that in. At Comic-Con 2006, just a few short weeks before Snakes on a Plane opened, the movie had its own panel, with Samuel L. Jackson making a surprise appearance, uttering his signature "motherf***ing snakes" line to the adoring masses. By this point, I think, the film had pretty much sold itself.
Regular Audiences: Snakes on a Plane is a movie that delivered on every modest aspiration it had; Samuel L. Jackson, snakes, and planes...it's just that this didn't appeal very much to regular audiences, who perhaps couldn't appreciate the firmly tongue-in-cheek nature of a movie like this. As a result of this and the fact that, you know, nerds tend to
torrent films rather than pay for them, the film didn't even double its budget, making it a rather disappointing return for New Line Cinema. The amount of times I've heard casual cinemagoers refer to it as "terrible" is astounding.