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{{trope}}
A work of literature, film or television
Subtrope of [[Sleeper Hit]]; in this case, the work must be actively derided before release, not just ignored. See also [[It Will Never Catch On]].
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Masayuki Ozaki, the executive producer of ''[[
* ''[[
* Before the English release of ''[[
* ''[[Code Geass]]'' was the very definition of [[Troubled Production]] thanks to this trope. Director/co-creator Goro Taniguchi asked for a 50-episode series, but Bandai only gave him 25, for reasons that remain unclear.<ref>Some say they felt Taniguchi was "untested", others say it's because he's a perfectionist and somewhat hard to work with</ref>
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* ''[[Spider-Man]]''. At the time Stan Lee went to publish Spider-Man, teens were usually portrayed as sidekicks (i.e., Robin, Bucky) and weren't seen as solo heroes. An exec even commented on the concept because most people don't like spiders, and would be turned off by the character. [[Marvel Comics]] even put Spidey's debut story in ''Amazing Fantasy #15'' because that title had already been cancelled, and this was its last issue. However, Spider-Man beat the odds and became Marvel's flagship hero as well as one of the most well-known superheroes of all time next to the likes of Batman and Superman, going so far as to team up with both of them more than once.
* [[Harley Quinn]] is one of the most successful cases of an [[Ascended Extra]]s, having started out as an intended one-shot character in ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'', quickly becoming a [[Breakout Character]] and fan favorite, appearing as a supporting character and protagonist in other cartoons and other media, becoming an established part of mainstream [[DC Comics|DCU]] with several of her own limited and ongoing titles. But all that almost didn't happen. Former DC comics editor Denny O'Neil claims that, even after the character proved a success in ''BTAS'', he objected to the idea of Harley becoming a canon part of DCU, that he was "not consulted" and "would not have approved". His reasoning was, the idea of the Joker having a girlfriend ran contrary to his view of how the Joker should be depicted, that "having a girlfriend, having a sex life, seemed far too normal for him." He does admit however that in hindsight, his opinion was probably wrong.
== [[Film]] ==
* [[Walt Disney]] is the all-time master of this trope.
** Nobody but Walt expected ''[[Steamboat Willie]]'', a cartoon with synchronized sound, to get any attention.
** Nobody but Walt expected ''Flowers and Trees'', a cartoon in full color, to get people flocking to it. The short film was originally black & white; Walt had it completely redone despite the financial risk involved.
** Animation was considered a medium inferior to live action and destined to remain seven-minute-long curtain raisers to feature films... until ''[[Snow White and
** After Walt's immense box-office
** ''[[The Shaggy Dog]]'', Disney's first attempt at making live-action comedies, was not considered a good idea, but this film, ''[[The Absent Minded Professor]]'' and others of its kind cleared the Disney Studio of financial debt by 1961.
** It wasn't until the unconditional faith in ''[[Mary Poppins]]'' that it was acknowledged how Walt could do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. Hiccups and all, his empire still stands.
** Though "fail" is probably too strong a term, many inside Disney thought that ''[[Pocahontas]]'' was to be the studio's mid-nineties mega-hit, with ''[[The Lion King]]'' being a relatively minor project. The latter ended up performing much better critically and commercially, and, to some, is considered the peak of the Disney Renaissance.
** In 2002, Disney, specifically CEO Michael Eisner, found itself doubting [[Pixar]] could keep the big hits coming in 2002 with ''[[Finding Nemo]]''. When that became Pixar's biggest hit yet, Eisner found himself in an impossible position trying to renew Disney's contract with the studio with [[Steve Jobs]], who personally loathed Eisner, in a position to demand all but a blank check lest Pixar go with any of Disney's competitors eager to
* Critics were very hostile to ''[[King Kong]]''. "A 50-foot gorilla attacking New York City? And on top of that, falling in love with a human woman instead of eating her? Nobody's ever gonna pay to see
* ''[[The Philadelphia Story]]'' was released at a time when Katherine Hepburn was considered "box office poison". The film became a resounding success and subsequently restored Hepburn's reputation.
* The Bengali coming-of-age film ''[[Pather Panchali]]'' had little hope of being recognized as more than a renegade/experimental Indian product. Upon release it quickly made heaps of money everywhere it was shown and through this Satyajit Ray introduced the world to the possibilities of low-budget filmmaking.
* [[United Artists]] did not have much faith in ''[[
* [[Warner Brothers]] wasn't expecting ''[[
* A fictional example occurs in ''[[The Producers]]'': a sneaky Broadway showman and his accountant/henchman put on a play called "[[Springtime for Hitler]]" specifically BECAUSE it will flop, allowing to keep the excess money they raised but didn't need. [[Hilarity Ensues|Then they got a little
* [[Paramount]] had no expectations in ''[[
* ''[[Blazing Saddles]]'' was a quirky [[Blaxploitation]] comedy set in the Wild West. [[Executive Meddling|Warner Brothers almost didn't release it at all]] because they figured [[Audience
* ''[[Jaws (
* It's hard to believe now, but [[Twentieth Century Fox]] had very little faith in ''[[Star Wars]]'' making much money. They put it out as sort of a "last hurrah" to hold off bankruptcy, and tasked Alan Dean Foster with writing ''Splinter of the Mind's Eye'', a sequel novel written for the sole purpose of facilitating a quick low-budget movie adaptation. Then the box-office returns started coming in...
** Both [[United Artists]] and [[Universal]] had passed on the film before it even got to Fox.
* ''[[Animal House]]'' was the ambitious foray of the ''[[National Lampoon]]'' magazine into silver-screen entertainment. Universal execs politely allowed the filmmakers to go wild in their own special way, quietly hoping ''Animal House'' wouldn't damage the company's checkbooks. Donald Sutherland famously chose several thousand dollars in payment over a percentage of the box-office gross, expecting the film wouldn't sell. However, ''Animal House''
* ''[[Airplane!]]'' was the first shot at a mainstream movie by the people who made ''[[Kentucky Fried Movie]]''. With its [[Hurricane of Puns|obsession with]] [[Incredibly Lame Pun|incredibly lame puns]] and its throwing of conventional plotline out the window, many believed it had box-office disaster written all over it. It became one of the highest-grossing films of 1980.
* As detailed on ''[[The Movies that Made Us]]'', the screenplay for ''[[Dirty Dancing]]'' got ''forty-two'' rejection letters before a studio agreed to invest in it. It was a "girly" movie in an era where tough male action heroes were the norm, and most saw it as a waste of time. Having practically run out of studios, writer Eleanor Bergstein and her partner Linda Gottlie brought it to Vestron Videos (a company who formerly specialized in direct-to-video releases) who agreed to give it a shot with rookie director Emile Ardolino... who'd end up winning an Oscar for it.
* ''[[
* ''[[Romancing the Stone]]''. [[Twentieth Century Fox]] was so certain that it would fail, they fired [[Robert Zemeckis]] from directing ''[[Cocoon]]''. This turned out to be a benefit: Zemeckis and his friend Bob Gale then had the freedom to pursue their pet project ''[[Back to The Future (Film)|Back to The Future]]'', and in the meantime ''Romancing the Stone'' was the surprise box-office smash of the summer of '84.▼
* ''[[The Shawshank Redemption]]'' is an adaptation of a 1982 short story by [[Stephen King]], who sold the film rights for only $5K, because even he felt it wouldn't work well adapted to film.
* Additionally, ''[[Back to The Future (Film)|Back to The Future]]'' was rejected by every major studio when first pitched in 1980. This caused some embarrasment for a number of Hollywood execs when five years later, Zemeckis got ''Future'' made under Amblin (with distribution by Universal) and it became the highest-grossing picture of 1985.▼
▲* ''[[Romancing the Stone]]''. [[Twentieth Century Fox]] was so certain that it would fail, they fired [[Robert Zemeckis]] from directing ''[[Cocoon]]''. This turned out to be a benefit: Zemeckis and his friend Bob Gale then had the freedom to pursue their pet project ''[[Back to
▲* Additionally, ''[[Back to
* Orion Pictures had little faith in ''[[Hoosiers]]'', a film that ended up almost as successful as ''[[Platoon]]'', the other big Orion release of 1986.
* According to [[Spike Lee]], if he can make hit movies,
* ''[[Home Alone]]'' is the ultimate example: anticipated as another John Hughes concept gone awry, its cartoony slapstick combined with an unexpectedly heartwarming story won audiences over and it became the top-moneymaking comedy of all time (keeping the title until ''[[Night
* ''[[Clerks]]'', [[
* [[James Cameron]]'s ''[[Titanic]]'' ran
** [[James Cameron]]'s ''[[Avatar (
* ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' started off as [[Rule of Three|the first of three Disney park ride adaptations]], the other two being ''[[The Haunted Mansion]]'' and ''[[The Country Bears]]''. A franchise for ''Pirates'' was in no way anticipated by Michael Eisner and his fellow execs. The original film, ''Curse of the Black Pearl'', quickly took off and paved the way for a different trilogy, one whose cinematic epicness has ultimately rivaled ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. [[Trilogy Creep|A fourth film]] was released in 2011, and
* The ''[[Napoleon Dynamite]]'' premise of sounded a bit stupid before its premiere. It became a indie sensation and "Vote for Pedro" became a catchphrase at the time of the film's release.
* ''[[Rocky Balboa]]'' was not only expected to fail at the box office but was also the butt of many jokes by comedians and film fans due to star/writer/director [[Sylvester Stallone]]'s age (he was 59 at the time of the film's release) and lack of box office success in the early part of the 2000's. Then the film was released, had positive reception from critics and audiences, managed to be a profit-making hit for the studio and gave Stallone a [[Career Resurrection]].
* A first-time director decides to shoot his own horror movie in his own house, and goes so far as to remodel his own home to use as the setting, and hire two unknown actors to play the lead characters. The film was shot in
* Before ''[[Thor (
* ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'' is often considered [[Francis Ford Coppola]]'s greatest masterpiece, but even Coppola himself did not think so while filming it. Production had so many issues - natural disasters plagued the filming, [[Marlon Brando]] showed up overweight and unprepared for filming, and [[Martin Sheen]] actually had a heart attack on the set - that Coppola contemplated suicide, fearing the film would ruin his reputation and career. Thankfully, he was ''very'' wrong.
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* Nathaniel Hawthorne did not expect ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]'' to be popular. It was.
* Anthony Burgess wrote his first novel, ''[[A Clockwork Orange]]'', as a form of therapy in an emotionally turbulent period in his life. He figured that once published it would be quickly forgotten, and he would turn his attentions to his next book. ''Clockwork Orange'' propelled Burgess to international fame instead.
* First editions of ''[[
* ''[[Harry Potter (
* The original novel of ''[[MASH (novel)|MASH]]'' was rejected by over a dozen publishers, which was a record for the agency selling it. It eventually spawned [[M*A*S*H (film)|a movie]], numerous sequel novels and [[M*A*S*H (television)|a
* ''[[Dune]]'' was rejected by twenty publishers before being published in 1965 by Chilton, a publishing house previously best known for its DIY auto repair guides. It has since won the [[Hugo Award]], [[Nebula Award]], and [[Seiun Award]].
* ''[[Animal Farm]]'' was turned down by a publisher who told George Orwell in the rejection slip, "It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA." The slip in question was from The Dial Press of New York. To quote Christopher Hitchens in response: "And this, in the land of Disney..."
* In case you need proof that most publishers thought [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[Carrie]]'' would fail, King has saved all the rejection letters he got while trying to sell it. One of them said, "We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell." King himself didn't have much hope for it either, claiming in one interview that he threw the unfinished manuscript in the trash and only started work on it again after his wife fished it out and ''demanded'' he finish it.
* [[Beatrix Potter]] at first had absolutely no luck finding an editor who liked ''[[The Tale of Peter Rabbit]]''. Eventually, she used her family's wealth to publish it privately, and after some moderate success on this limited distribution, an editor was convinced that it would sell and, well, it certainly did.
* As hard as it is to believe, one publisher rejected ''[[Anne Frank: The Whole Story|Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl]]'' claiming in the rejection slip, "The girl doesn't, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above 'curiosity' level." The name of this publisher has been lost, and more than likely, he kept quiet about it.
* The first book written by Ted Geisel (aka [[Dr. Seuss]]) was rejected ''27 times''. Publishers felt that ''To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street'' had unremarkable art, no real moral (something often required in a children's book) and even claimed it might encourage children to lie to their parents. In fact, the way it was eventually published comes close to [[Divine Intervention]], as the 27th rejection was enough for Geisel himself to believe it was a failure; he was leaving his house with the intent to go burn the manuscript when he ran into an old friend from college... Who had just become a publisher himself.
* [[Lewis Carroll]] never really considered himself an author in the first place, and never thought ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'' was anything but something he wrote to read to children he was friends with. In fact, he also thought ''[[Sylvie and Bruno]]'' was a better book.
* ''[[
▲== Live Action Television ==
* Adaptations of the Japanese franchise ''[[Super Sentai]]'' had been in [[Development Hell]] for years, and was only [[Saved From Development Hell]] by an exec who had previously made a pitch for the show herself. Even then, it was preemptively canned as soon as the season finished. Nearly twenty years later and ''[[Power Rangers]]'' is still on the air, having survived multiple [[
▲* ''[[Saturday Night Live (TV)|Saturday Night Live]]'' was considered a filler for dead airspace that would quickly wear itself out and would never make a blip on the public consciousness. 35 years later it continues to make millions laugh and has etched a significant portion of pop culture into the minds of several generations.
▲* Adaptations of the Japanese franchise ''[[Super Sentai]]'' had been in [[Development Hell]] for years, and was only [[Saved From Development Hell]] by an exec who had previously made a pitch for the show herself. Even then, it was preemptively canned as soon as the season finished. Nearly twenty years later and ''[[Power Rangers]]'' is still on the air, having survived multiple [[Un Cancelled|uncancellations]] and two [[Channel Hop|Channel Hops]].
** While the executive that approved the show believed in it, everyone else in the industry expected it to fail.
* ''[[Star Trek:
* Few people thought ''[[
* There were doubts about the original ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[The Wire]]'' was initially rejected by [[HBO]], who weren't even sure that they wanted a police procedural in their programming lineup - they had to be convinced by creator David Simon (who had previously collaborated with them on 2000's ''The Corner'') to produce a pilot episode. The resulting season didn't fare so great in the ratings, and the series was on the verge of cancellation - until critics started promoting the show as one of the best new series in years. The show subsequently survived multiple attempts at cancellation, lasted five seasons, and has been regarded as one of the best dramatic series produced from the 21st century.
* When the Sci-Fi Channel first aired
* In late 2003
* The [[The Office (2005 TV series)|U.S. adaptation]] of ''[[
* The Disney TV movie ''[[High School Musical]]''. Nobody, absolutely nobody, saw its mega-popularity coming.
* In fall 2006, [[NBC]] premiered two shows set behind the scenes of a fictionalized ''[[
* AMC was never considered in the same league as HBO, with original shows not being up their alley ... until the double-whammy of ''[[Mad Men]]'' and ''[[Breaking Bad]]''.
* ''[[Glee]]'', a somewhat weird show (even for FOX) about Midwestern high-school misfits partaking in song-and-dance competitions, was never expected to climb high enough in viewership to make an impact, let alone end up a top TV franchise. But it did, due in large part to razor-sharp plotlines (at least in the first season), impeccable musical direction, and the one-of-a-kind acting chops of Matthew Morrison, [[Lea Michele]], [[Chris Colfer]] and Jane Lynch.
* Before it launched, the [[ITV 2]] series ''[[The Only Way Is Essex]]'' was pretty much universally derided as a pointless knock-off of a more serious but otherwise similar series on [[Channel
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
▲== Video Games ==
* ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' was [[Gallows Humor|so named]] because Squaresoft thought it would close its doors after shipping the game. Today, [[Square Enix]] enjoys strong sales and a fan base best described as both rabid and numerous. The series is a massive commercial success, though it does not always receive critical praise. Most of the early games are considered classics, even by those who do not like the JRPG genre.
** The name wasn't a judgement on the game but the state of the company. Square needed ''[[
*** All of the above is a long-standing [[Urban Legend of Zelda|Urban legend]]. [https://www.famitsu.com/news/201505/24079276.html The truth] is that Hironobu Sakaguchi, the game's director, wanted a name with [[Added Alliterative Appeal]], and "[[Fighting Fantasy]]" was already taken.
* Before its release, Nintendo and [[Retro Studios|Retro]] made so many controversial choices with ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' that no one, not even levelheaded fans and critics, were kind to it. First off, Nintendo letting [[Retro Studios|Retro
* Combining Square and Disney's ability to pull this off, when people first heard about ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', a game where a Square character travels with Donald and Goofy, most people thought it was going to be a quirky kids game and that's it. Instead it was a huge success and became Square's second biggest series (right under ''[[Final Fantasy]]'').
* The [[Nintendo Wii]] and [[Nintendo DS]] were both thought to be failures with terrible gimmicks by most critics and fans before release. The [[Nintendo Wii]] went on to outsell its competitors by far. The [[Nintendo DS]] went on to become the top-selling handheld dedicated game system of all time.
** [http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=109863 This comic illustrates the point quite nicely.] It also says something that [http://www.gamespot.com/news/april-fools-analyst-revolution-will-take-lead-in-2010-6146958 this april fools' joke was more accurate than every serious prediction around that time.]
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* A Christmas movie for television using stop-motion puppets was a strange concept on the part of [[NBC]] and [[Rankin Bass]], the studio they hired to make ''[[Rudolph the Red
* ''[[A Charlie Brown Christmas]]'' was considered almost radioactive by [[CBS]]. To them, an animated special with actual children doing the voices, a jazz soundtrack, and a Bible recitation seemed a ludicrous recipe for TV disaster. Instead, it became the ''greatest'' [[Christmas Special]] of them all.
* Very few people expected ''[[The Simpsons (
* ''[[
* ''[[
* When the pilot for ''[[
* ''[[Disney]]'' has an impressive record for giving shows a second chance after other companies rejected them:
** ''[[The Proud Family]]'' was originally developed for [[Nickelodeon]], but they were displeased with the final product. Disney, however, took interest, and it became the Disney Channel’s first original series, eventually resulting in a movie and a follow-up series on Disney +.
** ''[[Pepper Ann]]'' (a creation by [[Sue Rose]], the first woman to create an animated Disney show), another show rejected by Nickelodeon that Disney gave a chance, plus giving Rose the chance to work with her old friends to script it. The result was a groundbreaking series with an all-female cast of relatable characters.
** [[Daron Nefcy]] was the ''second'' woman to create an animated show for Disney, and the third overall, but the first version of her show was rejected by [[Cartoon Network]]. After a few tweeks and edits, and a few suggestions from Disney execs, they gave it a chance, and the hit series ''[[Star vs. the Forces of Evil]]'' was born.
** ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' was repeatedly rejected by [[Fox]] and [[Cartoon Network]] over the course of 16 years before Disney picked it up.
** Veteran writers Bill Motts and Bob Roth first got the idea for ''[[The Ghost and Molly McGee]]'' (with the working title ''The Curse of Piper McGee'') in 2007. Despite being longtime contributors for Disney, they pitched it to [[Nickelodeon]], and it was rejected. They shelved the idea, worked on some other projects, and then pitched it again, this time to their bosses, and 14 years after the initial pitch, it debuted, gaining praise from critics and viewers alike for its premise and overly-optimistic protagonist.
* Creator [[Maxwell Adams]] first used the characters in ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy]]'' for his college thesis. He later pitched a show using them (the plot involving Billy and Mandy making a [[Deal with the Devil]]) to [[Hanna-Barbera]]; they rejected it, but [[Cartoon Network]] saw potential and convinced Adams to replace the Devil with the Grim Reaper, possibly seeing him as a [[But Not Too Evil|less evil alternative]] . In 2000, the show was the winner of their Big Picks Viewer Poll and debuted (along with ''[[Evil Con Carne]]'') in ''Grim and Evil'', before becoming its own series.
* ''[[The Amazing World of Gumball]]'' was the result of a mishmash of previously proposed and rejected characters and plots by creator Ben Buckley, who eventually suggested them as one cartoon during a brainstorming session with other [[Cartoon Network]] employees. The series has gained critical acclaim and push for an animated movie, which sadly is, as of 2023, still in [[Development Hell]].
* ''[[Adventure Time]]'' was originally a short broadcast on [[Nicktoons Network]] that went viral online with the network itself disowning it quickly. [[Cartoon Network]] saw potential in the dark comedy, but still rejected the first storyboard they were presented, but accepted the second.
* ''[[Rick and Morty]]'' started out as a pornographic parody of ''[[Back to the Future]]'' that creator Justin Royland submitted to the Channel 101 Film Festival; it was panned and rejected by festival goers. (To be blunt, anyone who thinks the end result is controversial should see these shorts… [[So Bad It's Horrible|on second thought, maybe they shouldn’t.]]) He did, however, gain the attention of one of the festival's co-founders, Dan Harmond; when Harmond was asked to design a series for Cartoon Network’s [[Adult Swim]], he called Royland to ask for ideas. The two characters were recycled into the familiar Rick and Morty, and the show kind of grew around them.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Audience Reactions]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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