"[2] A sleeper hit often lacks star performers or high production values, but prevails, at times against its own makers' expectations, on the strength of such qualities as narrative, approach, or novelty, as well as market accidents.
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).
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.
[1] Easy Rider (1969), which was created on a budget of less than $400,000 (equivalent to $3,323,000 in 2023)[5], 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.
[11] 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.
Other notable examples of horror sleeper-hits to follow in Halloween's 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.
[13] 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.
[15][16][17] 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.
However, positive word-of-mouth led the movie to become a sleeper hit by managing to make a drastic turnaround, with many news outlets praising Pixar Animation Studios' unprecedented 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.
"[23] By August 20, 2023, Elemental had surpassed Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse's international box office total and in January 2024, the film received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.
Featuring only Howard's baritone vocals and his acoustic guitar played at an amateur level, it was initially released regionally and was never expected to become a hit.
A massive groundswell of support from teenagers in Howard's home base of Cleveland, Ohio, led to the song rapidly rising in popularity,[46] despite music industry scorn;[47] cover versions (including one by Larry Hooper and the Lawrence Welk orchestra) were quickly rushed into production, and by 1953, there were no fewer than four hit recordings of the same song circulating, including Howard's original.
The album was selling 300,000 copies a week by December, before in January 1992, it even replaced Michael Jackson's Dangerous at number 1 on the Billboard charts.
[64] "Just Dance" and "Poker Face" by pop singer Lady Gaga were both released in 2008 but did not become popular hits until the end of that year and the start of the next in some countries, including the USA and the UK, eventually becoming No.
[67] As its singles achieved radio airplay and Miguel toured in the record's promotion,[66] All I Want Is You became a sleeper hit[68] and reached 404,000 copies sold by 2012.
[69] "Truth Hurts" by Lizzo was released in September 2017, and did not chart until its appearance in the 2019 romantic comedy film Someone Great led to the single debuting at the number 50 position on the Billboard Hot 100.
The single also benefited from its use in TikTok videos by users who lip-synced or referenced the lyric "I just took a DNA test, turns out, I'm 100 percent that bitch".
"[70] Chappell Roan's debut studio album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess was not an immediate commercial success upon its release in September 2023, however, it began to garner a cult following due to Roan's supporting act on Olivia Rodrigo's Guts World Tour, her performances at music festivals like Coachella and Governors Ball, and the success of her follow-up single, "Good Luck, Babe!".
Songs which were released up to several years prior but failed to make an immediate impression commercially have gained renewed popularity and chart success.
Most media ignored the games, but largely by word-of-mouth stemming from the hidden character Mew's introduction,[105] their popularity gradually spread throughout Japan, selling a million units by the end of 1996.
[109] After becoming a national sensation in Japan, the franchise was introduced to the United States in September 1998,[110] going on to start a worldwide craze dubbed "Pokémania".