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I think the industry defines a "sleeper" as a movie that was low budget with little promotion and had no "buzz" connected to it, yet did surprisingly well at the box office or later on VHS/DVD. For me a "sleeper" is a movie where I am the only one in my circle of friends and family that knows about it. I then turn others on to it and they thank me for doing so (well some don't). Here are 20 in no particular order

A list by HarrisonHanksHackman
20
Items on this list63%
Average Rating36h 9m
Total Runtime$114.9M
Total Revenue1
Cousins
Ted Danson, Isabela Rossellini, Sean Young, Lloyd Bridges
Movie
February 10, 1989
1h 49m
$22M
2
Finnegan Begin Again
Mary Tyler Moore, Robert Preston, Sam Waterston
Movie
February 24, 1985
1h 55m
$0
3
Ghost Story
Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, John Houseman, Craig Wasson, Patricia Neal
Movie
December 18, 1981
1h 50m
$0
4
Hannie Caulder
Raquel Welch, Robert Culp, Earnest Borgnine, Strother Martin, Jack Elam, Christopher Lee
Movie
May 24, 1972
1h 25m
$0
5
Just Between Friends
Mary Tyler Moore, Ted Danson, Christine Lahti, Sam Waterston
Movie
March 21, 1986
1h 50m
$2M
7
Mumford
Loren Dean, Hope Davis, Jason Lee, Alfre Woodard, Zooey Deschanel, Martin Short, Jason Ritter, Ted Danson, David Paymer
Movie
September 24, 1999
1h 52m
$0
8
Shattered
Tom Berenger, Gretta Scacchi, Bob Hoskins, Corbin Bernson, Joanne Whalley
Movie
October 11, 1991
1h 38m
$11.5M
9
Soapdish
Sally Field, Terri Hatcher, Cathy Moriarty, Robert Downey Jr, Kevin Kline, Elizabeth Shue, Whoopie Goldberg
Movie
May 31, 1991
1h 37m
$36.5M
10
Someone to Watch Over Me
Tom Berenger, Mimi Rogers, Lorraine Bracca, Jerry Orbach
Movie
October 9, 1987
1h 43m
$10.3M
11
State and Main
Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H Macy, Rebecca Pidgeon, Michael Higgins, Charles Durning, Julia Stiles
Movie
January 12, 2001
1h 46m
$9.2M
13
The Big Fix
Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Anspach, Bonnie Bedelia, John Lithgow
Movie
October 6, 1978
1h 48m
$13M
14
The Boys in Company C
Stan Shaw, Andrew Stevens, Craig Wasson, James Canning, R. Lee Ermey
Movie
February 2, 1978
2h 5m
$0
15
The Package
Gene Hackman, Joanna Cassidy, Tommy Lee Jones, John Heard, Dennis Franz, Pam Grier
Movie
August 25, 1989
1h 48m
$10.6M
16
The Silent Partner
Elliott Gould, Christopher Plummer, Susannah York, John Candy
Movie
March 16, 1979
1h 42m
$0
18
Vanishing Act
Mike Farrell, Margot Kidder, Elliot Gould, Fred Gwynne
Movie
May 4, 1986
1h 35m
$0
19
White Palace
Susan Sarandon, James Spader, Jason Alexander, Kathy Bates, Eileen Brennan, Steven Hill
Movie
October 19, 1990
1h 43m
$17.5M
20
White Squall
Jeff Bridges, Caroline Goodall, John Savage, Ryan Phillppe
Movie
February 2, 1996
2h 9m
$10.3M