10 Sci-Fi & Fantasy Movies That Were Surprisingly Successful AFTER They Bombed In Theaters

10. Dark City

Like many teenagers who abused their flannel shirt privileges in the 90's, I loved The Crow. My brother and I drove to a scuzzy, rundown dollar theater to see Alex Proyas' directorial debut. The second-run print was gritty and washed-out. You might not believe it, but all of that only added to The Crow's charms. The Crow absolutely devastated me at the time, and it became a personal landmark: it was the last movie I saw before moving away from my hometown. I was in a period of teenage mourning over the next year in a new city, hundreds of miles from home. My VHS copy of The Crow was a constant companion during that time. That's all rather silly now - but you're allowed to be silly at fifteen, right? Four years later, I had dropped the teenage angst but not the flannel shirts. The second I saw "From The Director Of 'The Crow' " on Dark City's poster, I knew I'd be there on opening night. And indeed I was... in a very, very empty theater. I liked Dark City when I first saw it, but didn't love it. I wanted The Crow again, with all its pain and anger and sadness. Dark City has much of the same look as The Crow, but little of its spirit. In its own weird, amazing way, it has the noir romanticism of Raymond Chandler, the guarded optimism of Rod Serling, and the artistic vision of, well, Alex Proyas. Unlike a lot of other visual spectacles, Proyas' script - written along with David S. Goyer and Lem Dobbs - is surprisingly sharp. The characters are memorable and the dialog moves with a grace and energy that would make Howard Hawks proud. I haven't seen The Crow in years, but I keep coming back to Dark City. I don't want to spoil it here for those who haven't seen it. And if you haven't, get your hands on a copy straight away. Sci-Fi doesn't get much richer - or better - than Dark City. With The Director's Cut taken into account, I'd dare say it's the best film on this list.
Contributor
Contributor

Jeremy Wickett was raised from an early age in one of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma's classier opium dens. A graduate of The University of Oklahoma, he now resides in Phoenix, Arizona - where the desert heat is oppressive enough to make him hallucinate that he's a character in Star Wars. And of course he can speak Bocce - it's like a second language to him. His so-called musings can be found here: http://geekemporium.blogspot.com/