Sleeper hit

Some sleeper hits in the film industry are strategically marketed for audiences subtly, such as with sneak previews a couple of weeks prior to release, without making them feel obliged to see a heavily promoted film. This alternative form of marketing strategy has been used in sleeper hits such as Sleepless in Seattle (1993), the Oscar winner Forrest Gump (1994), ''My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), There's Something About Mary (1998), The Blair Witch Project (1999), and The Sixth Sense'' (1999). Screenings for these films are held in an area conducive to the film's demographic. In the case of Sleepless in Seattle, a romantic comedy, screenings were held at suburban shopping malls where romantic couples in their mid-20s to early 30s spent Saturday afternoons before seeing a new film. In theory, a successful screening leads to word-of-mouth marketing, as it compels viewers to discuss an interesting, low-key film with co-workers when they return to work after their weekend. Easy Rider (1969), which was created on a budget of less than $400,000 (), became a sleeper hit by earning $50 million and garnering attention from younger audiences with its combination of drugs, violence, motorcycles, counter-culture stance, and rock music. It was also one of the successful films during the beginnings of the American New Wave of cinema. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) was considered a failure for the first 6 months of its release until it found popularity in midnight screenings afterwards. A Christmas Story (1983) was initially a modest success with little promotion, but after Ted Turner purchased the MGM pre-may 1986 back-catalog a few years later and began rerunning the film on his cable networks every December, it became an iconic Christmas classic. The 1979 Australian film Mad Max, which sprung from the Ozploitation movement and helped to popularize the post-apocalyptic dystopia genre, held the record for the biggest profit-to-cost ratio for several years until it was broken in 1999 by The Blair Witch Project, also a sleeper hit. The independent film Halloween, which played over the course of fall 1978 through fall 1979 and relied almost completely on word-of-mouth as marketing, was also a sleeper hit, having a box office take of $70 million on a budget of only $325,000. Its success caused other slasher films to try the same approach, although few fared as well since horror films heavily rely on opening weekend box office and quickly fall from theaters. Other notable examples of horror sleeper-hits to follow in Halloween wake include A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984, Scream in 1996, The Blair Witch Project in 1999, Saw in 2004, and Paranormal Activity in 2007. Hocus Pocus (1993) underperformed at the box office but eventually became a sleeper hit through television airings on the 13 Nights of Halloween block on what is now Freeform. The Iron Giant (1999) was a box-office failure due to lack of marketing from distributor Warner Bros., who did not have faith in the film. However, it received universal acclaim and earned a cult following once it arrived on home video and television, and is now considered a modern animation classic and one of the greatest animated films ever made. Napoleon Dynamite made back its $500,000 budget and became a phenomenon in 2004, grossing almost $45 million within a year of its release, and became the basis for a short-lived animated series featuring the film's entire cast. The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019) also went on to become a sleeper hit, expanding the following weekend to 1,249 theaters and earning $3 million, as well as $1.1 million on Labor Day. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) grossed $12.4 million in its opening weekend, and ultimately became a sleeper hit by March 2023. Elemental (2023) originally opened below projections, earning $29.5 million in its opening weekend. However, positive word-of-mouth led the movie to become a sleeper hit by managing to make a drastic turnaround, with many news outlets noting Pixar Animation Studios' box office comeback upon the film crossing $400 million worldwide by early August 2023, which ultimately became Disney's biggest animated success during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also performed well internationally, particularly in South Korea, which became the film's third-largest market. This was attributed to director Peter Sohn's Korean-American background and the incorporation of elements that resonated with Korean audiences. Upon hearing this news, Sohn stated "I think my heart burst with joy." By August 20, 2023, Elemental had surpassed Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verses international box office total and in January 2024, the film received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature. Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (2023) was a box-office bomb, grossing $46 million against a $70 million budget, losing projections of up to $80 million. However, it became a success on Netflix, beating out the competition, and caught on with the target audience, which was teens and young adults. Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken would reach the top of Netflix's Top 10 and was seen by 12,300,000 viewers over the course of three weeks. The romantic comedy Anyone but You (2023) also opened below projections. It was projected to gross around $7 million during its opening weekend, but opened to $6.3 million instead. However, the film experienced a gradual increase in weekend gross and stayed within the top five. The film led the box office from January 8, 2024, to January 11, which saw the debut of new films. Laalo – Krishna Sada Sahaayate (2025), an Indian Gujarati devotional drama film, struggled upon the release but a strong word-of-mouth resulted in the uptick in the audience from the third week. The film went on to become the highest-grossing Gujarati film of all-time. ==In music==