Summary

• The Iron Giant deserved more love as a beautiful sci-fi story with deep themes.
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was ahead of its time, with Edgar Wright's idiosyncratic style blending action and humor.
• Office Space satire on corporate culture was released too early, gaining relevance after the 2009 recession.

It’s amazing to witness just how much the movie landscape has transformed itself over the past decade and to imagine what movies would have been far more successful had they been released 10 years later. With cultural changes and technological advances constantly ongoing, many movies were released just a few short years before their time and could have resonated far more deeply with audiences had their release been delayed. This was a sad reality of being on the cutting edge, but it also meant that viewers could look back fondly at films that were underappreciated in their own time.

There were certain movies that, although they have since gone on to become cult classics, were much harder to categorize at the time of their release, and their unique appeal made a lot more sense ten years later. Other films suffered from being made just before the technology caught up to their ambition and could have been far more successful after 10 years of advancements in CGI and special effects. There were many reasons why movies would have been more successful if they were released 10 years later.

8 The Iron Giant (1999)

Directed by Brad Bird

The Iron Giant was a beautiful science fiction story that did not get the love it deserved when it was released in 1999. As an endearing tale of friendship tackling complex themes about identity loss and grief, despite its star-studded voice cast featuring Jennifer Annister and Vin Deisel, The Iron Giant was a box office flop that even didn’t recoup its budget. The failure of The Iron Giant was truly devastating, and looking back on the movie today, it deserved to rank among the greatest kids movies of the 1990s.

A major factor in the failure of The Iron Giant was a lack of marketing and promotion.

As the directional debut of Brad Bird, The Iron Giant was the filmmaker's first movie before he moved from Disney to Pixar and made The Incredibles in 2003 and Ratatouille in 2007. Had Bird hung on to The Iron Giant and instead produced it as his follow-up to Ratatouille with the backing of Pixar, it certainly would have been a much larger success. Sadly, a major factor in the failure of The Iron Giant was a lack of marketing and promotion, and had Bird made the story 10 years later, he definitely would have received more support from his studio.

7 Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010)

Directed by Edgar Wright

Despite being a box office bomb at the time of its release, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World has carved a unique place in pop culture and became a beloved cult classic. As director Edgar Wright’s move away from British comedies like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz with Simon Pegg, Scott Pilgrim was the perfect movie for his quirky and unique sensibilities. However, Wright’s idiosyncratic style was both a blessing and a curse, as the highly unusual Scott Pilgrim movie was difficult to market as the studios seemed unusual about which aspect of this genre-bending film to focus on.

Fast forward 10 years from the release of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and it no longer looked alienating. The irreverent and self-aware style of Scott Pilgrim was later utilized in box-office smashes like Deadpool, which had similar fast-paced action, meta-humor, and unconventional storytelling techniques. The recent release of the anime series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off showed that interest in the story has not died down in the years since Wright's movie, and had he waited for the industry to catch up with him, it’s likely Scott Pilgrim vs. the World would have been a much bigger success.

6 Office Space (1999)

Directed by Mike Judge