12 Movies In 2016 That Should Have Flopped (But Didn't)

After the release of the original Jaws in 1975, the killer shark genre hasn’t fared so well. Bar a few notable exceptions like The Reef and Open Water, it’s been clogged with subpar offerings like the Jaws franchise’s own mega-flop Jaws: The Revenge and a handful of so bad they’re good (but still pretty bad) films like Sharknado. So yet another shark-themed horror, and one fronted pretty much solely by Blake Lively who courts something of a love-hate relationship with critics and the public, didn’t exactly inspire much hope.

Then The Shallows hit cinemas and actually turned out to be a pretty damn good movie, with critics praising Lively’s performance and audiences earning it a tidy $119 million on its relatively tiny $17 million budget. Admittedly, its premise is a tad bare: surfer girl is stalked by a shark with only a trusty seagull sidekick (amusingly nicknamed Steven Seagull) for company. But thanks to Lively’s performance, some absolutely stunning cinematography and genuine moments of knuckle-biting tension, The Shallows was a sneak success.