10 Terrible Ideas That Became Great Movies

Guardians of the Galaxy marked a concerted effort by Marvel Studios to expand the storytelling ambition of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, venturing beyond the more basic origin stories for its focal superheroes and delving into weirder, riskier territory.

And let's be honest, on paper it's easy to appreciate just how much of a gamble James Gunn's movie was, being adapted from a niche Marvel comic general audiences had no knowledge of, which counted among its team a talking raccoon and a sentient tree monster.

In the wrong hands this could've been an absolute bust - an unwieldy mess which felt at-odds with the rest of the MCU and consequently failed to connect with audiences. Had it bombed at the box office, would anyone have been surprised?

But Kevin Feige was smart to hire Gunn for the job, who was able to translate the comic book to the cinematic medium with wit, panache, and most of all heart.

Guardians ended up netting almost $800 million globally, making it the third-highest-grossing MCU film at the time, behind only The Avengers and Iron Man 3 - an impressive feat for a film so many were readily and understandably betting against.