20 Films That Surprisingly Made A Fortune

'The Devil Inside’ - £70 million (worldwide): This religion-inspired horror movie made back its budget 100 times over, thanks to some canny marketing and some iconic imagery – a woman peeling back her bottom lip to reveal an inverted cross. Spookiness sells.

‘Norbit’ - £109 million: They may be lowest-common-denominator stuff, but fat-suit comedies play great to certain audiences. Eddie Murphy was nominated for an Oscar for 'Dreamgirls’ and was hot favourite to win, then 'Norbit’ was released, and… no Oscar. Still: he got PAID.

'The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps’ - £114 million: What’s this? Another Eddie Murphy fat-suit comedy that made crazy coin at the box office? It seems bizarre to think that a movie based on a concept so archaic could even generate a sequel, let alone over £100 million in earnings.

'Three Men And A Baby’ - £115 million: Proof that people would go and see anything at the cinema in the 80s, especially if it had Steve Guttenberg in it. Ted Danson and Tom Selleck fans probably contributed a few pennies to the coffers too. Where art thou, threequel?

'Big Momma’s House’ - £120 million: Martin Lawrence out-Eddie-Murphied Eddie Murphy with this witless fat-suit comedy, a brainless endeavour so thuddingly stupid and dim that of course it generated a trilogy. He need never work again, thanks to Momma.

'Anger Management’ - £135 million: Harking back to an age where new Adam Sandler movies were met by people throwing their wallets at the screen, 'Anger Management’ made a quite frankly infuriating amount at the worldwide box office, despite being completely forgettable. Therapy was needed.

'Wild Hogs’ - £175 million: Disney Marketing Department: “So four middle-aged white guys try to recapture their lost youth and go on a motorcycle road trip, where…” Middle-Aged White Guys: “SHUT UP AND TAKE OUR MONEY”

'Rush Hour 3’ - £178 million: The figure made by this painfully turgid threequel is astonishing, though almost matched for sheer jaw-drop-i-tude by the fact that Chris Tucker was paid £35 million for the role. That’s, like, half a hospital!

'Grown Ups’ - £187 million: Never let it be said that Adam Sandler is an idiot: he managed to make a movie where he got to goof around with his real-life friends, got paid for the privilege, and still people forked over their hard-earned cash to see it. The idiots are winning!

'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’ - £189 million: Widely panned upon release, this videogame adaptation is actually one of the better (read: less terrible) game-to-movie attempts, and it has the box office receipts to back it up. Also, that cast! Angelina Jolie! Daniel Craig! Chris Barrie!

'xXx’ - £191 million: Kinda like how cool guys don’t look back at explosions, in the early 2000s Vin Diesel didn’t look back at his successes – he just walked away. Diesel didn’t return for 'xXx 2’ (calling Ice Cube), just like he bailed on '2 Fast 2 Furious’. Eventually though, he came crawling back.

'The Last Airbender’ - £220 million: Parp! M Night Shyamalan’s lacklustre anime adap was roundly trounced, mostly because of its constant and hilarious use of the word 'bender’ (fnar fnar), but it KILLED at the box office, making more than Martin Scorsese’s 'Shutter Island’ and Ridley Scott’s 'Robin Hood’.

'Planet Of The Apes’ (2001) - £250 million: The line “I’m going to get my chimp” not withstanding, Tim Burton’s 'Apes’ “re-imagining” was unimaginative and unexpressive, unsurprising with blank canvas Mark Wahlberg in the lead role. Still: it’s behind only Alice, Batman and Willy Wonka in Burton’s biggest hits.

'Superman Returns’ - £271 million: Wait, wasn’t this supposed to have been a flop? No one can quite figure out why 'Superman Returns’ was labelled a failure – it scored great reviews, had a perfect cast and made its money back and then some. Not explodey enough, then?

'The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor’ - £277 million: Cripes, remember the 'Mummy’ franchise? That didn’t end well. We have vague memories of Yeti punting soldiers around like American football players? Eurgh. Unfortunately, we also have vague memories of paying to see it, so I guess this is all our fault.

'Signs’ - £281 million: The Shyamalan critical gravy train was derailed shortly afterwards, but 'Signs’ hit all the right buttons: spooky alien stuff, a pre-meltdown Mel Gibson and more than enough mystery to keep us guessing. You couldn’t pay us to see an M Night movie these days.

'Pearl Harbour’ - £310 million: Ben Affleck must look back at this time in his life the same way Britney Spears looks back at her 'bald meltdown’ period – how they bounced back we have no idea. 'Pearl Harbour’ was offensive, noisy and historically inaccurate – so naturally US audiences spent money hand over fist.

'Meet The Fockers’ - £356 million: Wait, what? 'Meet The Fockers’? Surely that’s just a series of incredibly coincidental typos? Unbelievably, the sequel to 'Meet The Parents’ did indeed make over half a billion dollars worldwide. We guess there was nothing else to do in December 2004.

'Hancock’ - £431 million: Will Smith can’t break the bank like he used to any more – even 'Hancock’, one of his more forgettable, non-franchise-based movies, made eye-watering amounts at the box office. Unless Jason Bateman has a silent army of rich supporters who turned out just this one time then dispersed, never to tell the world their story.

'Alvin And The Chipmunks’ franchise - £950 million: Parents know. They get it. It’s this or another two hours of chasing junior around the living room. But for anyone yet to be blessed with sprog, the success – make that successes, plural – of this animated abomination of a franchise must be nothing less than baffling. Over four movies, the 'Alvin And The Chipmunks’ franchise has made almost ONE BILLION POUNDS at the box office. How did we as a species let this happen? Call Pest Control immediately.