Michael Giltz: DVDs: 21 -- The Latest Stealth Hit Movie http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/dvds-em21em----the-latest_b_115021.html [4/5/2009 1:56:46 PM] APRIL 5, 2009 HOME POLITICS MEDIA BUSINESS ENTERTAINMENT LIVING STYLE GREEN WORLD CHICAGO COMEDY 23/6 VIDEO BLOGGER INDEX ARCHIVE Make HuffPost Your HomePage Get Email Alerts Twitter: Follow Us BIG NEWS : Angelina Jolie | Madonna | Chris Brown & Rihanna | Paul McCartney | More...</p><p> LOG IN | SIGN UP Michael Giltz BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts Bloggers' Index DVDs: 21 -- The Latest Stealth Hit Movie Posted July 25, 2008 | 03:07 PM (EST) Read More: Batman , Blackjack , Criterion , Dark Knight , Kevin Spacey , Poker , Entertainment News With The Dark Knight shredding one box office record after another and even casual fans talking about second weekend box office drops ("Hey,60% for a front-loaded spectacle like Iron Man is not bad!"), it's easy to forget that some moviescan still slip under the radar, pile up money andturn into box office hits when no one is looking.Usually, word of mouth follows a good movie andgets them touted as success stories.</p><p> What I'mtalking about here are the movies that weren't championed by critics and yet somehow pulled in a bigger chunk of change than anyoneremembers.</p><p> You see what they grossed and say, "Really? How did that happen?" Take 21, the card counting casino caper based on the true story of MIT students who figured out a way to win at blackjack. (It's not cheating as such, but casinos hate it when you can game the system to your advantage and fight it aggressively.) 21 ($28.96 for standard or $34.95 for a special edition and $38.96 for BluRay; Columbia) features a young good-looking cast of kids and KevinSpacey and Laurence Fishburne in key supporting roles.</p><p> The movie got mixed reviews, the pokercraze has faded a bit since gambling online became illegal and the movie opened togeneral...disinterest.</p><p> But somehow it opened to $24 million and had enough legs to triple that takeand gross $81 million in the US.</p><p> How did that happen? But look back over the charts of the past few years and you can find a number of movies that seemed to do a lot better than you would guess.</p><p> Did that dumb comedy Wild Hogs starring John Travolta and the perenially underestimated Tim Allen REALLY gross $168 million? Apparently. (All figures are US grosses alone.) Did The Rock and a little girl really hit $89 million with The Game Plan? Yep, and that's not nearly as shocking as Vin Diesel playing ananny in The Pacifier and raking in $113 million.</p><p> I can never remember who starred in the anonymously named Failure To Launch (It was Matthew Be the First to Submit This Story to Digg Like this story? Get Alerts of big news events.</p><p> Enter your email address Popular Stories on HuffPost Fashion Face-Off! Michelle Obama And Carla Bruni-Sarkozy Finally Meet In France (VIDEO, PHOTOS, POLL) *Video, poll and slideshow Levi Johnston TalksSafe Sex With Tyra Banks (VIDEO) ***UPDATE*** 8:30pm: People.com is reporting that Sarah Palin has issued...</p><p> Oscar de la Renta Slams Michelle Obama's Buckingham Outfit As Major Designers FeelIgnored While Michelle Obamahas made lesser...</p><p> Verena von Pfetten 7 Lessons To BeLearned From Carla Bruni So here's the thing.There's no shortage of articles dedicated to thatcertain je ne...</p><p> Huff TV Arianna Discusses MichelleObama's "Fantastic" Style On CBS' Michael Giltz: DVDs: 21 -- The Latest Stealth Hit Movie http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/dvds-em21em----the-latest_b_115021.html [4/5/2009 1:56:46 PM] Michelle Obama's Clothing Has Sean Hannity All Out OfSorts RICHARD POPLAWSKI,Pittsburgh Gunman, Kills 3Police Officers Dr.</p><p> Rachel Ehrenfeld: DoesIran Harbor Osama binLaden? John Demjanjuk, Ohio ManAccused Of Being NaziGuard, Avoids Deportation Reality Star Jade Goody Buried In Lavish...</p><p> Robert De Niro Nanny Sues For $40,000 Demi Moore's Twitter-Based Suicide Intervention SNL: Madonna And Angelina In Weekend Update...McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker) but I can't forget it grossed an impressive $88 million.</p><p> Her husband Matthew Broderick pulled in $97 million as Inspector Gadget though it sure seemed like a flop at the time.</p><p> That talking animal trailer somehow raised Kangaroo Jack to $66 million and I doubt even the people who made it are anything but shocked.</p><p> And sometimes a movie can bereviled for destroying a beloved classic, SEEM like a terrible flop and yet be the top-grossing movie of the year at $260 million: that would be How The Grinch Stole Christmas (and it wasn't Jim Carrey's fault).</p><p> So if you think you know how successful or not a movie was, think again.</p><p> They might just surprise you.</p><p> Is there any movie that leaves you gobsmacked at how much money it actually made? Also out this week: two more exceptional Criterion releases, the Kurosawa drama High and Low and the wonderfully packaged and creepy Vampyr ($39.95 each; Criterion); if you're suddenly a fan of Maggie Gyllenhaal after The Dark Knight, check out her naughty turn in the nicely perverseSecretary ($14.98; Lionsgate); Robert Smigel's aggressively bawdy sketch show Comedy Central's TV Funhouse ($26.98; Paramount); Without The King ($24.95; First Run), an entertaining documentary about the last king of Swaziland that proves just about anyone will let camera crewsinto their lives - even clueless monarchs; Tom Selleck's in full control of Las Vegas Season Five ($59.98; Universal), though Josh Duhamel is still taller; NFLer Chad Johnson hosts In Just One Play: The Big-Play Men of the NFL ($19.98; Warner Bros.) though instead of 90 minutes of clips I'd rather watch them all be drug-tested; Andre Techine 4-Film Collector's Edition ($34.98; LionsGate) a bargain especially if you don't already own his acclaimed Wild Reeds from 1994; Twin Daggers ($26.98; LionsGate), a so-so chop-socky movie; Heavy Metal In Baghdad ($19.95; Arts Alliance), an engrossing documentary about Iraqis who just wanna rock; director Jean-Pierre Melville's last noir, Dirty Money ($19.98; LionsGate) starring the impossibly beautiful duo of Alain Delon and Catherine Deneuve; the festival hit labor of love comedy Big Dreams Little Tokyo($14.99; Echo Bridge), which was written and directed and stars Dave Boyle; the umpteenth spinon Spinal Tap, this one -- Brutal Massacre ($26.97; Anchor Bay) -- about a horror director tackling his magnum opus; mixed martial arts conquers the UK in Cage Rage Superstar Collection($14.98; Mill Creek) which gets huge props for including almost 60 fights amidst 13 hours offootage for a super-low price; and finally if you are tired of waiting for an IMAX screening of The Dark Knight that isn't sold out, check out the Blu-Ray edition of the campy 60s version Batman The Movie ($39.98; Fox).</p><p> POW! 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Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to View Comments: Newest First Expand All You must be logged in to reply to this comment.</p><p> Log in or Ads by Google Deep Discount DVDs Find Any Movie Title: Anime, Action Comedy, Foreign & More.</p><p> Shop Today! www.DeepDiscount.com/dvds Cars Women's Rights Michelle Obama Europe Newspapers Bank Of America War Wire Video Financial Crisis MORE BIG NEWS PAGES » Books by this author A cabin of one's own: New England's MacDowellColony celebrates 100years of artistic utopia.And the gay and lesbianartists who prosperedthere celebrate ... (Thenational gay & lesbiannewsmagazine) by Michael Giltz Affairs to remember:Farley Granger beddedAva Gardner, ShelleyWinters, and LeonardBernstein.</p><p> In hisautobiography, IncludeMe Out, Hitchcock's muse... (The national gay &lesbian newsmagazine) by Michael Giltzlove it for a reason like being green! 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