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A Haunted House - Tween vampire dramas and Michael Bay's special effects extravaganzas may be sure bets at the box office, but once in a while a film comes along that confounds analysts and studio heads. Our list of box office surprises starts with A Haunted House, Marlon Wayans' parody homage to "found footage" horror films. The independently financed comedy scored an $18.8 million opening weekend earlier this month, knocking prestige piece Gangster Squad to third place. (Photo: Wayans Brothers Entertainment)

Photo By Wayans Brothers Entertainment

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Think Like a Man - Many films tried, and failed, to dethrone Hunger Games from the top of the box office last spring, until Think Like a Man came along. The ensemble comedy, based on Steve Harvey's best seller, stayed at #1 for three consecutive weeks and pulled in nearly $100 million in ticket sales, way beyond what insiders expected. (Photo: Screen Gems)

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The Help - 2011's little film that could turned out to be the year's biggest breakout hit, crossing $100 million at the box office and sweeping awards season. Octavia Spencer even earned her first-ever nomination — and win! — for her part as sassy maid Minnie in the Civil Rights-era film. (Photo: DreamWorks)

Photo By Photo: Courtesy Dreamworks

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Texas Chainsaw 3D - As Oscar contenders attempted to claw their way to the top of the box office in early January, this slasher thriller stole their thunder with a $23 million opening, thanks in huge part to Trey Songz. Exit polling at theaters showed that audiences came out in droves to the see the sexy singer in his first big screen role. (Photo: Lionsgate)

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March of the Penguins - A feature-length documentary about the breeding cycles of penguins, the box office smash hit of the year? That's what happened in 2005, when Warner Bros. took a chance on the French documentary March of the Penguins. Producers credit adding Morgan Freeman to narrate the epic nature film with pushing them past $100 million at the box office. (Photo: National Geographic Society)

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Laugh at My Pain - One man's pain is another man's surprise comedy hit. Kevin Hart's 2011 independently financed concert film-slash-documentary made Hollywood insiders and fans stand up and take notice when it grossed $8 million at the box office, with no major marketing or distribution deal to boost it. Good old-fashioned word-of-mouth made Hart an A-list star more in demand than nearly any other comedian working today. (Photo:  Codeblack Entertainment)

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Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail - By 2009, there was no doubt that Tyler Perry was a rising star in Hollywood, but when Madea Goes to Jail came out at the top of the box office, he officially became a force to be reckoned with. Pulling in nearly $42 million on a typically slow Academy Awards weekend, it easily became his highest-grossing film ever and made Perry one of the most bankable directors in the business. (Photo: Lionsgate)

Photo By Photo: Courtesy Lionsgate

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Fahrenheit 9/11 - Michael Moore's diatribe against the Bush administration's post-9/11 policies captured the Left's collective rage, and dollars, to become the #1 political documentary of all time ... a distinction the film holds to this day: $220 million at the box office and counting means a record even Moore himself hasn't been able to beat. (Photo: IFC Films)

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Rush Hour - The 1990s wasn't the most diverse era for mainstream Hollywood cinema, but Rush Hour shattered the illusion that a live action comedy needed Mel Gibson to cross $100 million at the box office. The Brett Ratner-directed film, starring then-newcomer Chris Tucker and Hong Kong legend Jackie Chan, defied conventional casting wisdom and grossed over $220 million worldwide, spawning two sequels. (Photo: New Line Cinema)

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8 Mile - What seemed like a vanity project about the hard-knocks life of the world's most famous rapper turned into a tour-de-force that nearly became the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time. Eminem's semi-autobiographipical 8 Mile earned critical raves, an Oscar for Best Song and $242 million in ticket sales. (Photo: Universal Pictures)

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Jumping the Broom - Bishop T.D. Jakes brought in a new era for Black films, post-Tyler Perry, when his 2011 romantic comedy Jumping the Broom opened with $15.2 million in ticket sales based solely on strong word-of-mouth and viral marketing. Bishop Jakes, who produced the faith-based film, utilized his pulpit and his A-list connections to spread the gospel about the film and helped propel it past the weekend's other wedding movie, Kate Hudson's Something Borrowed. (Photo: TriStar Pictures)

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Beverly Hills Cop - Producers took a chance by passing up Sylvester Stallone and Mickey Rourke to cast Eddie Murphy, a hot young comic with scanty film credentials, in their action-comedy franchise, but the gamble paid off ... exponentially. This 1984 classic grossed $316 million worldwide (over a half-billion by today's dollars) and catapulted Murphy into the A-list. (Photo: Paramount Pictures)

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Waiting to Exhale - Industry watchers never expected a romantic melodrama about Black women lamenting their relationships to steal first place from Oliver Stone's Nixon, but they were in for a surprise. The 1995 film, starring Whitney Houston and Angela Bassett, proved that Black female audiences could carry a film to the top of the box office. (Photo: Twentieth Century Fox Films)