10 Movies You Didn't Realize Were Big Hits In 2013

Though late-breaking hits like The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Frozen will continue making cash well into the new year, the book is essentially closed on the 2013 box office, a year when the attention went to high-profile hits (Iron Man 3, Gravity, The Hunger Games: Catching FIre) and misses (The Lone Ranger, 47 Ronin) and not much in-between. But for all the winners that emerged as part of existing franchises or massive marketing campaigns, there were plenty that seemed to happen by accident—almost like glitches in a system that usually knows if a movie will succeed weeks before it even opens. Here are 10 movies from 2013 that became gigantic while you weren't paying attention, some of which will likely add Oscars to their respective piles of riches

WE'RE THE MILLERS

$150.4 million

The Jason Sudeikis—Jennifer Aniston road trip comedy was the highlight of an August that was mostly about disappointments (Elysium,Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, etc.) It's also the second-highest-grossing comedy of the year, just behind the Sandra Bullock—Melissa McCarthy vehicle The Heat, and Aniston's biggest hit since Bruce Almighty. Maybe it was all the ads of her in her underwear? Maybe it's Jason Sudeikis's residual Horrible Bosses glow? Or maybe, after a summer full of disappointing blockbusters, a comedy that was just good enough enjoyed some major grade inflation.

NOW YOU SEE ME

$117.7 million

Described in reviews as"incredibly, awesomely stupid", it was the bank-robbing-magician adventure you never knew you needed. Jesse Eisenberg starring in a summer blockbuster? Outfoxing a detective played by Mark Ruffalo? Why the hell not? Released a week after The Hangover Part III, it managed to outgross the hugely hyped threequel, and is now on its way to a sequel of its own. GOB Bluth must be thrilled.

LEE DANIELS'S THE BUTLER

$116.2 million

A rambling historical epic about the civil rights movement and John Cusack's prosthetic Nixon nose, which required 41 producers to get made, has got to be the summer's unlikeliest hit. It opened in August, just ahead of the glut of prestige movie season, and coasted on good reviews and Oprah ferocity to a box office haul that also beatThe Hangover Part III. All the free publicity it earned from the trumped-up fight over the title couldn't have hurt, either. 

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS

$104.7 million

Opening a week after mega-hitGravity and a week before endlessly discussed 12 Years A Slave, the Tom Hanks-led drama became the sneaky hit of awards season, especially with an additional $104 million coming from overseas. Given that it's from the director of the final twoBourne films and stars Tom "America's Best Dad" Hanks, it shouldn't be too huge a surprise, but any time a movie earns both Oscar buzz as well as slow-and-steady box-office rewards, it deserves some applause.

42

$95 million

The other movie about African-American history, featuring an icon (Harrison Ford, not Oprah) in a supporting role, that made way more money than most historical dramas ever get near. Starring newcomer Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson, this $40 million-budgeted biopic nearly cracked the $100 million mark at the domestic box office—and given that it was never even released overseas, that matters a lot.

INSIDIOUS CHAPTER 2

$83.6 million

The original Insidious made $97 million worldwide off a microscopic $1.5 million budget, and the sequel, with nearly triple the budget, did even better. With another $76 million worldwide on top of what it made here, the horror sequel cemented James Wan as the most successful director currently working in the genre. Wan has since moved on to take over theFast & Furious franchise and direct one of the summer's other huge hits, The Conjuring, but he also carved out time for a third Insidious, due April 3, 2015.

AMERICAN HUSTLE

$73 million

Just three weeks after its release, American Hustle is threatening to pass White House Down's box-office total and well on its way toward the $132 million made by the last David O.Russell/Jennifer Lawrence/Bradley Cooper collaboration, Silver Linings Playbook. Russell has figured out an irresistible formula, between those two films andThe Fighter—modestly budgeted, star-studded films for grown-ups, which grown-ups actually go see.

THE BEST MAN HOLIDAY

$70.4 million

Released in 1999, The Best Man made $34 million, which might explain why it took 14 years to get a sequel. That second film had made $50 million by the end of its second weekend, and now, inevitably, talk of a third installment has already begun. With a poster crammed full of attractive people in Christmas-y sweaters, it was one of the few actual holiday-themed releases of the year; that seasonal appeal, plus an audience that had grown to love the original over the years, made it one of the few sequels in 2013 that actually exceeded expectations.

JURASSIC PARK 3D

$45.4 million

That tally is nothing compared to the $1 billion the original made worldwide, but that $45 million comes basically for free—spend a few million on a 3D conversion and a few more on a marketing campaign, and you've milked an extra fortune out of a franchise that's two decades old. With a fourth movie,Jurassic World, coming soon, and a new Blu-ray set on shelves, it's really only a fraction of all the extraJurassic cash that was out there in 2013.

INSTRUCTIONS NOT INCLUDED

$44.5 million

It never played in more than 1,000 theaters, but this Spanish-English hybrid comedy ranked in the top 10 for the first five weeks of its release, and wound up with a total far higher than many more heavily marketed projects, from the Carrieremake to Kick-Ass 2. The Spanish-speaking moviegoer market has been increasingly targeted in recent years—this weekend's Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones is just the latest example—but the success of Instructions Not Included suggested just how huge that audience may be.