10 Movies That Embarrassed Other Movies Released At The Same Time

Now, the success or failure of a movie is never just down to its quality

Timing is also hugely important. Knowing when to release a film free of obvious competition can make all the difference at

the box office, and in terms of overall reception, it's probably smart to create some distance

from other similarly themed movies. After all, films with something in common that release close together will inevitably

be compared, and generally speaking, one of these movies will be considerably better than

the other. And in extreme cases, the better movie doesn't just outdo the lesser one, it decisively shows

it how things are done and basically embarrasses it in the process. So let's take a look at them as

I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com and these are 10 movies that embarrassed other movies released

at the same time. 10. Avatar The Way of Water Embarrassed Black Panther Wakanda Forever

This past holiday season was the battle of the aquatic-themed mega-budget blockbusters as Black

Panther Wakanda Forever faced off against Avatar The Way of Water. Wakanda Forever was released

first in mid-November, just five weeks before the Avatar sequel, to solidly positive reviews

even if most critics agreed that it didn't match the brilliance of its predecessor, quite understandably given Chadwick Boseman's untimely death. With its primary antagonist being

Namor, the king of an Atlantis-like civilization, the bulk of the film is centered around water

and director Ryan Coogler did a mostly solid job with it. But then Avatar The Way of Water came out

and the mind-boggling visual majesty of James Cameron's long gestating sequel made Wakanda

Forever's seafaring action look, well, kind of like a crayon drawing crudely scrawled on a napkin

by comparison. This is particularly apparent in their especially water-based third acts

widely considered both to be the strongest part of Avatar 2 and the weakest section of Wakanda

Forever. Cameron obviously had the major advantage of time and money, whereas basically all Marvel

movies are on a strict production conveyor belt due to their interconnected nature. Even so

the Way of Water showed what can be achieved by a filmmaker at the top of their game with all of

the resources that they need to achieve their vision. No matter how good a director Kugler is

there was no way for him to compete with that. 9. Inglourious s Embarrassed Valkyrie

Now don't feel too bad if you don't remember Valkyrie, Bryan Singer's World War II thriller

that was released at the tail end of 2008 and starred Tom Cruise as Colonel Klaus von Stauffenberg

a German army colonel who plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler. It came and went upon a firm wave

of indifference, and its fate as being forgettable was categorically sealed the next summer when

Quentin Tarantino released his similarly themed Hitler assassination movie Inglourious Basterds. It of course goes without saying that Tarantino's film was very different. While Valkyrie was based

on true events, Basterds was fashioned more as a subversive revisionist history of what Tarantino

wishes had happened. Despite the inherent ridiculousness of his film, it's in many ways

easier to take seriously than Valkyrie, given that large swathes of the ensemble cast are Europeans

and therefore can speak German and or French, as makes them inherently more believable in their

roles. In the case of Valkyrie, Singer opted for a cast consisting primarily of British character

actors and Tom Cruise, and rather than have him affect a German lilt, he simply had the cast speak

in neutral accents. Despite being the more serious and highbrow of the two films, Valkyrie was a box

office disappointment and failed to even receive a single Oscar nomination, whilst s was a

box office smash, received eight Oscar nominations, and even won one. Best Supporting Actor for

Christopher Waltz. And 15 years on, have you heard anybody talk about Valkyrie? Yeah, case closed

8. Upgrade Embarrassed Venom The first Venom film may have been a colossal box office success but critics weren convinced that Tom Hardy admittedly amusing performance could compensate for the low script and rather generic dated superhero movie treatment But four months earlier a considerably more creative and well

riff on the Venom concept was released to cinemas, and that film was Upgrade

Just as Venom focused on Eddie Brock becoming a host to an alien parasite which grants him

supernatural powers, Upgrade centers around Grey Trace, a man who is rendered quadriplegic by

botched mugging and implanted with a chip which gives him control of his body back

The rub, though, is that the chip also turns Grey into a brutally efficient killing machine

The narrative comparisons speak for themselves, as does the uncanny resemblance between Hardy

and Logan Marshall Green. And on a mere $3 million budget compared to Venom's $116 million budget

Upgrade proved a far more satisfying version of that basic setup. Furthermore, the director of

Upgrade got a mind-boggling amount of production value out of his tiny budget, whereas Venom's

visuals were frequently garish and pretty ugly at times. Upgrade is therefore proof perfect of what

a smart, talented filmmaker can do with minimal resources, compared to the crass excess of Venom's

generally lousy superhero shenanigans. 7. Rocketman Embarrassed Bohemian Rhapsody Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody was released in October 2018 to rather mixed reviews

but enormous box office success, netting over $900 million globally. It was also nominated for

five Oscars, including Best Picture, of which it won four, most notably a Best Actor award for

Rami Malek. And while in pure box office dollars and Academy Awards, Bohemian Rhapsody wins out

in terms of actual filmmaking quality, you know, the thing that really matters, it's effortlessly smoked by Elton John's biopic Rocketman. Released the very next May

Rocketman had a lot of superficial similarities to Bohemian Rhapsody, a splashy biopic of an

iconic gay British musician starring a respected on-the-rise actor that was clearly gunning for

awards. And though Rocketman garnered just a fraction of Bohemian Rhapsody's box office while

receiving just a single Oscar nomination for Best Original Song, which had at least won

history will definitely be much kinder to it. While Bohemian Rhapsody was a relatively vapid

Wikipedia page biopic which seemed vaguely embarrassed on fully engaging with Mercury

as a gay man and a flawed human being, Rocketman went in entirely the opposite direction. A warts

and all, R-rated biopic that managed to be stylish and entertaining, Rocketman was topped by a stellar

Taron Egerton that proved infinitely more Oscar-worthy than Malick's more surface-level impression. Above all else, it showed Bohemian Rhapsody what was possible if the producers

weren't centrally preoccupied with making a sanitized biopic to appease the broadest

of general audiences. 6. Captain America Civil War Embarrassed Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice

Batman v Superman was one of the most anticipated superhero movies ever, and with the momentum of

some truly fantastic marketing behind it, it seemed to be destined to be both a fun wish-for-filment

exercise and a commercial hit. But reviews were not kind to say the least, with many critics

tearing into the film's needlessly convoluted script, which with its excessive subplots and

muddled motivations, turned a seemingly basic slam-dunk concept into a rather frustrating slog

Plus, there was only a few minutes of Batman fighting Superman, you know, the thing that

people actually paid money to see. Consequently, Batman v Superman turned a more modest profit than

expected, grossing just $873.6 million while initial projections had it going as high as $1.5

billion. But less than six weeks later, Marvel showed DC how it was done, with the release of

the immeasurably more entertaining Captain America Civil War which similarly focused on beloved superheroes fighting one another albeit with greater narrative clarity and more actual fighting The audience reaction to the two movies was night and day and to top it all off Civil

War ended up grossing almost $300 million more than Batman v Superman

On a broader level, it was indicative of how Marvel Studios had a successful interconnected

cinematic universe which patiently built up to this event, whereas Warner Bros., well

they tried to rush their way to it and consequently fell flat on their face. 5. Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio embarrassed Robert Zemeckis' Pinocchio

Last September, Disney released their live-action remake of their animated classic Pinocchio direct to Disney+

with Robert Zemeckis directing and Tom Hanks starring as Geppetto. Now, critics and audiences alike didn't have many kind things to say about it

lambasting the unnecessary changes made to the source material and expressing a general feeling that it just failed to justify its existence

Almost exactly three months later, though, Guillermo del Toro's stop-motion take on Pinocchio was released on Netflix

a deeply affecting, beautifully shot and startlingly original take on the timeless story

The gulf of quality between the two Pinocchio films is staggering. Zemeckis' film feels like a soulless, perfunctory exercise for the most part

while Del Toro's feels the result of an artist at the peak of their powers telling something with every earnest fibre in their being

Unsurprisingly, most of the many rave reviews for Del Toro's version couldn't help but take potshots at Zemeckis' vastly inferior predecessor

While Del Toro's Pinocchio is likely to win the Best Animated Film Oscar and endure as a surefire classic, Zemeckis' effort seems to be destined to disappear into the streaming ether

4. Never Say Never Again Embarrassed Octo Believe it or not, in 1983, two James Bond films were released within a mere four months of each other

The Roger Moore Starring Octo and Never Say Never Again, which brought Sean Connery back into the fold for one last go-around

Never Say Never Again was produced following a legal battle between Thunderball writer Kevin

McClory and Bond author Ian Fleming, with McClory winning the rights to the novel's plot and

characters. This allowed McClory to produce his own adaptation of Thunderball that, while existing

outside of the official 007 continuity, was for all intents and purposes a James Bond film

Octo was released first to easy box office success, though critical and fan reception has

been firmly mixed ever since. It is, after all, the one where Bond dresses up as a clown

Never Say Never Again, though, followed up and despite not being part of the legit Bond canon

proved a far more worthy experience. Despite his age, it was a hoot seeing Connery reprise the 007 role once more

And compared to the toe-curling acting in Moore's film, it took itself a little more seriously whilst still being a ton of fun

While Octo was the more commercially successful of the two, though both were major hits

Never Say Never Again endures as the critical fave and just damn right better movie

for a film produced as a result of a bitter lawsuit, and that's pretty impressive. 3. Mortal Kombat Embarrassed Double Dragon and Street Fighter

The mid-90s saw Hollywood turning to video games for some rather easy profits

resulting in the development of several films based on popular fighting games, namely Double Dragon, Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat

The low-budget Double Dragon came first in November 1994, releasing to near-universal critical disdain and flopping at the box office

failing to recoup even its tiny $7.8 million budget. it. The very next month, the considerably more anticipated Jean-Claude Van Damme starring

Street Fighter was released, which while grossing almost $100 million worldwide was trashed

by critics. Outside of Raoul Julia's superbly campy performance, that is. The next summer

Paul W S Anderson decided to show these movies up with Mortal Kombat which was both a considerably greater financial success while receiving far more favorable reviews Now that isn to say that Anderson film is perfect by any means Reviews are still firmly mixed here But Mortal

Kombat successfully translated the style, tone, and atmosphere of the games to the big screen

as Double Dragon and Street Fighter both categorically failed to do. But Mortal Kombat ended up falling flat on its face soon enough, though, when 1997's sequel

Mortal Kombat Annihilation received worse reviews than either of its competitor films

whilst also flopping at the box office. Oof, talk about a fatality. 2. Everything Everywhere All at Once Embarrassed the MCU

The multiverse is the big cinematic trend right now, with the Marvel Cinematic Universe obviously

covering the market on big budget renditions of the concept, by way of Spider-Man No Way Home

and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It's impossible to deny the success of either of

these movies, both of which turned immense profits and were well-received by critics and fans alike

But Sandwiched Between Them was an indie film that came totally out of nowhere and demonstrated

how an imaginative multiverse movie was actually done, and on a fraction of the budget no less

Everything Everywhere All at Once was released in March to rave reviews and on a mere $25 million

budget grossed over $100 million globally. The directors of the film, both called Daniel

one called Quan and one called Shinat, used their kitchen sink filmmaking ingenuity to

produce visually dazzling results despite their minimal VFX budget, and on a pure conceptual

level, it's surely the most unique take on the multiverse that we've yet seen. And as

entertaining as the aforementioned MCU movies were, their multiverse-faring shenanigans seemed a bit boring by comparison. I mean, sure, it was fun seeing three iterations of

Spider-Man hanging out, and Sam Raimi got compellingly freaky with the Doctor Strange

sequel, but given the limitless potential of the worlds presented therein, both films barely felt

that they scratch the surface of their multiversal potential. 1. The Bourne Identity Embarrassed Die Another Day

It's often said that Austin Powers and the film 9-11 collectively killed the Pierce Brosnan

era of tongue-in-cheek James Bond films, though in reality the primary culprit is actually Doug

Lyman's The Bourne Identity. Released five months before Brosnan's final outing as 007

The Bourne Identity was in many ways a Bond film without the branding, a kinetic, globetrotting spy thriller focused on a protagonist with the initials JB

It proved a major critical and commercial success, and to this very day is credited with reinvigorating the stagnant spy genre

by way of its more cerebral storytelling and gritty, intense action. The Bourne identity was such a riveting breath of fresh air that it became tough to get excited about another silly Bond movie

and so it's little surprise that Die Another Day's joyless ride left critics and fans alike rather indifferent

Though Die Another Day was a massive box office hit regardless, more than doubling Bourne's financial haul

it ultimately brought Brosnan's tenure as 007 to an unceremonious end, before Bond producers rebooted the franchise with Daniel Craig in the grittier vein of the Bourne movies

And there we go, my friends. Those were ten movies that embarrassed other movies released at the same time

I hope that you enjoyed that, and let me know what you thought about it down in the comments section below

As always, I've been Jules. You can go follow me over on Instagram, where it's at RetroJ

but the O is a zero, and I hope to see you over there, my friends. But before I go, I just want to say one thing

Hope you're treating yourself well with love and respect because you deserve all of the best things in life, alright

And do not let anything or anyone else tell you otherwise. You are a massive ledge and you deserve all the best things in life, like love, happiness and success

So I want you to go out there and utterly smash it today. I believe in you. As always, I've been Jules. You have been awesome. Never forget that

And I'll speak to you soon. Bye