10 Oddly Specific Genres That Were Briefly Hugely Popular

1. Historical Epics With A Star-Studded Cast

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Universal

Ridley Scott's Gladiator was directly responsible for the swathe of star-laden historical epics that followed soon after, which is a little ironic considering that Russell Crowe didn't become a household name until after the movie was released, and it focused more on talented actors like Joaquin Phoenix, Oliver Reed, Djimon Honsou and Richard Harris rather than A-list names.

Nonetheless, billions of dollars were splurged on both budgets and salaries to bring Wolfgang Petersen's Troy, Antoine Fuqua's King Arthur, infamous box office bomb The Alamo, Darren Aronofsky's Noah, Oliver Stone's Alexander, Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai, Paul W.S. Anderson's Pompeii and yet another version of Ben-Hur to life, with most of them failing to gain much traction with either critics or audiences.

Scott even tried to repeat the trick himself three further times with Kingdom of Heaven, Robin Hood and Exodus: Gods and Kings, but lightning wouldn't strike just once more as the historical epic eventually found itself on the scrapheap of genres that spent a fleeting moment in the spotlight.

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