- Bram Stoker's Dracula
- The Fifth Element
- Leon: The Professional
- Harry Potter franchise
Dracula was the 9th highest grossing movie of 1992, raking in nearly half a billion adjusted for inflation, and he was the marquee billing: front and center. It was one of the first movies I recall where a genre that isn't usually taken seriously generated tons of buzz about how Gary, the lead actor, should be garnering a Best Actor nomination. That was unheard of at the time. Off the top of my head I can't think of a single actor who ever received a Best Actor nom for a horror at that point besides Jack Nicholson for
The Shining, and Anthony Hopkins for
Silence of the Lambs just a few years earlier. But those were considered serious dramatically, too, not vamp tramp pulp. It also enjoyed a shitload of chatter in serious film circles that would otherwise like to pretend they ignored a film like this (even though they never do) because Coppola was the director.
The Fifth Element was the most expensive European production in history when it released, and it somehow became a cult classic despite being one of the most commercially successful films of its year. Those things aren't supposed to go together. Oldman upstaged Bruce Willis, although Milla Jovovich was the real star of the movie. Also the 9th highest grossing film of the year.
The Professional is truly a cult classic, eventually becoming a household title by climbing up lists like the IMDb Top 250, but I don't think it deserves to be leading this poll. It was a much more obscure film when it released. It only did $26m in 1994. And, like
The Fifth Element, Oldman wasn't the marquee billing. Covers and promotional material were reserved for Jean Reno and Natalie Porman.
Harry Potter is the biggest franchise in history outside the MCU (& maybe
Star Wars again), and the third film was devoted to Oldman's character, but by this point, he was already known to the world from the three films above.
