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Overall, 2023 has been a great year for movies so far. A wide variety of critically and culturally acclaimed films have been released, such as Spider-Man: Through the Spider-VerseAnd JoylandAnd the little Mermaid. Several films have already crossed the $500 million mark at the box office, with Super Mario Bros movie Taking the cake with over $1.3 billion in total ticket sales worldwide. It’s always great when the movie you’ve been looking forward to seeing meets or even exceeds your expectations.
Occasionally movies subvert viewer expectations, either for the better or for the worse. Sometimes a movie is marketed as something it isn’t, which can be disappointing. Other times, small budget films get rave reviews and go on to big box office numbers. From low-budget comedies to big summer blockbusters, here are the latest movies that upended our expectations.
10 Are you with God? I’m Margaret.
Are you with God? I’m Margaret. It’s a smaller movie with a big heart. Based on the book by Judy Blume that was first published in 1970, the film is about a young girl named Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson) who is stuck in a pickle. Her parents were raised in different religions, and she is not sure if she is related to either of them. Instead, she speaks to God directly and shares the inner workings of her life—her emotions, thoughts, and feelings as they come to Him.
Humor and charm Are you with God? I’m Margaret Exceeding moviegoers’ expectations. Surprisingly, she did it without the help of a lot of famous stars. Fortson carries the movie with her wit, and while Rachel McAdams and Kathy Bates are in the movie, it’s not like there’s a bunch of comedians out there seeking laughs. It is one of the best comedy films starring lesser known actors.
9 Black Berry
Who knew watching the rise and fall of a tech company could be so much fun? Black Berry It chronicles the rise and fall of Research in Motion, the Canadian software company that helped develop the iconic (but now defunct) BlackBerry phone. Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, and Matt Johnson star as wealthy executives trying to get the phone off the ground. The film debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival and currently has an impressive 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Black Berry Seeming like a corporate plug that could have been weak on plot and characters, instead, the movie subverts expectations by pulling some good twists and dramatic moments. The film was made on a paltry budget of $2.5 million and has already racked up twice that number in just over a month of release.
8 spirits of the past
in spirits of the pastTwo childhood friends reconnect at a bar. Greta Lee plays Nora, a woman who immigrated from South Korea to Canada as a child. Teo Yoo is Hae-Sung, a man who has finished his military service in South Korea and has decided to settle down in China. There he starts dating a different woman but still thinks about Nora. When Hae-sung travels to New York, he meets Nora, and the pair make their way to finding out their fate.
Simply put, critics and audiences are excited spirits of the past. No one expected this little film from A24 to be as big as it was. It was released with almost no expectations, but has already been shown at Sundance and several other film festivals. spirits of the past It has an impressive 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and is already in the Oscars conversation for 2024.
7 You hurt my feelings
Another A24 movie that has people wondering is the comedy-drama You hurt my feelings. Jula Louis-Dreyfus plays Beth, a woman who thought she was comfortable in her marriage to Dan (Tobias Menzies) but was shaken when he betrayed her. Dan admits he doesn’t like Beth’s latest book, which is what causes her to start speculating about everything.
The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2023. Louis-Dreyfus continues to subvert viewers’ expectations with clever and funny comedy performances. I was a little moved SeinfeldAnd The New Adventures of Old ChristineAnd vice president, so it’s refreshing to see that she still has a sense of humor and perfect comedic timing. Some critics claim You hurt my feelings One of the best movies of 2023.
6 airplane
Gerard Butler plays plane pilot Brody Torrance in this action-thriller airplane. When Brody tries to take a shortcut across the South China Sea from Singapore to Tokyo, he is caught in a severe storm. An emergency landing in hostile territory in the Philippines forces the pilot to take command of the situation. Brodie goes into the woods but is attacked by rebels who want to harm his passengers. It is up to the pilot to save the crew and everyone on board.
airplane It’s been stuck in development hell for more than five years before production begins in 2021. Few people thought much of the movie could be salvaged, but it’s actually a tense thriller that delivers low-budget stakes. Despite a familiar premise, Butler gives a solid performance and shows why he’s such a strong Hollywood leading man. airplane It only cost a modest $25 million, and it had already doubled its budget in six months of release.
5 Ring in the cabin
Ring in the cabin It is about a family on vacation who is visited by four strangers who claim to have been sent to warn them of the impending apocalypse. The hackers are led by Leonard (Dave Bautista), a visionary who sees the Earth taken over by darkness and delivered by a terrible plague. Leonard claims he was sent by an unknown force to find the family, but he doesn’t understand why.
You never know what you’ll get out of an M. Night Shyamalan movie these days. Sometimes his films are fantastic, full of fantastic allegories and quirky thematic elements, and other times they’re just jumbled absurdities trying too hard to be important. to this effect, Ring in the cabin He had a huge potential to be the last. Instead, it’s a very good movie with deep symbolism, solid acting, and a decent development at the end.
4 Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
to say so Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves It was through the wringer an understatement. The film has been in development since at least 2013 when Warner Bros. was in development. Pictures is fighting it in court with Universal Pictures for the rights to adapt Hasbro’s popular game. The film eventually went to Paramount Pictures and went through several writers and directors before finally seeing the light of day in March 2023.
Honor among thieves It could easily have been a messy movie, but it’s a great adventure movie. Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, and current sweetheart Reggie Jean Page helped propel the film to $200 million in box office receipts. While that’s a far cry from some of the highest-grossing films ever made – and probably not enough to justify a sequel – it did exceed people’s expectations for a movie based on a board game that could easily have gone bad, for example, battle field.
3 John Wick: Chapter 4
Keanu Reeves returns as the title character John Wick: Chapter 4. While some audiences are tired of watching action sequels, the John Wick The films have generally been well received over the years. The premise is familiar, as Wick sets out to exact revenge on those of the High Table who left him for dead. He wins against the Marquis (Bill Skarsgård), a high-ranking leader of the High Table, in the final scene, and the finale upends our expectations more than we ever thought possible.
Spoiler alert: John Wick dies at the end of the movie after being fatally wounded. Considering that there are rumors of more John Wick Upcoming movies, this was very surprising. John Wick: Chapter 4 is the highest-grossing movie in the series, so it seems counterintuitive that it would be killed off with so much money-making potential.
2 Bo afraid
Bo afraid is an A24 film directed by Ari Aster, the man behind the lens for horror classics Hereditary And Midsmar. Joaquin Phoenix is Beau, a man who is paranoid because he lives in a violent part of town. When Beau is forced out to attend his mother’s funeral, he realizes that his delusions are getting worse with time.
Bo afraid Subvert audiences’ expectations for several reasons. Unlike his other films, it was Ari Aster’s first film to blend several genres, such as comedy, drama, and horror into one. This was met with mixed reviews. Some critics liked Aster to show off his creativity, while others expected a more straightforward psychological horror movie, such as Midsmar. Another reason Bo afraid Subversive expectations were that it did not make back the production budget. The film cost $35 million, but as of June 2023, has only made back $11 million at the box office.
1 air
Has anyone asked about a biographical sports movie about shoes? Most likely not, however air He is, surprisingly, a knockout. Matt Damon plays Sonny Vaccaro, a talent scout for Nike who challenges CEO Phil Knight (Ben Affleck) to find a star to revitalize the company. With the basketball shoe department about to close, Vaccaro decided to court Michael Jordan, the exciting young star who had recently been selected third overall in the 1984 NBA draft.
Likes Black BerryAnd air It looked like a movie made to boost sales of Nike shoes. But with great acting by Damon, Affleck, Jason Bateman, and Viola Davis, the movie subverted expectations by offering an interesting story about America’s obsession with sports in the 1980s and 1990s. air He also did a great job getting the real story right.
