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Just Here For Godzilla / Live-Action Films

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Examples of live-action films that people watch for only one reason.

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    In General 
  • Some fans of specific actors or directors will want to watch their entire filmography, down to nigh-impossible to find short films and episodes of TV series. Finding the actor attractive being one reason. In general, if you have a favorite B-movie actor and plenty of time and/or disposable income on your hands, you'll watch droves of otherwise unwatchable films just to catch a glimpse of your hero - and that goes double if you're a horny dude and the "star" is a sexy babe. Take Anna Nicole Smith, for instance. How many boys aged 14 to 25 watched the DTV movie To the Limit just to see her naked body - when she wasn't even the main character in that film, and in fact it was a sequel to an earlier film, Da Vincis War, which she wasn't in and which was made before most people had even heard of her? There's a reason some second hand DVDs can be quite pricey.
  • Short films are often liable to get this:
    • It is safe to say that many of the people who saw movies such as Cats & Dogs 2 and Yogi Bear did it for the Looney Tunes shorts playing before them.
    • Similarly, some moviegoers saw a few Fox films for Scrat's Continental Crack-up. And arguably the Maggie Simpson short had a hand in the success of Ice Age: Continental Drift.
    • A ton of people are assumed to have attended Cinderella (2015) just to see the Frozen Fever short film that comes before it.
    • In a weird inversion of the Trope Namer, the early Hayao Miyazaki-Isao Takahata anime short films Panda! Go Panda! were made as lead-ins for the Showa Godzilla films. But Japanese audiences were more interested in seeing the cute pandas instead of the supposed main attraction that is Godzilla.
  • Pornography. As John Carmack of id Software said, "[The story is] expected to be there, but it's not that important." Ironically, many 'Skinemax' films go the opposite direction, with as few as two or three sex scenes in a two hour movie about the most boring and trite corporate/scientific espionage imaginable.
  • While a lot of people won't admit it, social stigmas related to nudity and sex means many people's only exposure to such is through generic action movies. The watchers are not especially interested in the story at all, they're just there for the nudity, sex and violence. This means movies are released with this in mind, leading to Viewers Are Morons, which pisses off the other group.
  • Slasher movies (Friday the 13th, Halloween, and whatnot) typically attract people for two things: the murderers, and the violent manner in which they kill people. Many horror fans can attest to turning out for these films just to see the inventive gore effects and brutal kills, openly rooting for the invincible, homicidal maniacs over their dimwitted, nubile victims. The trope Developing Doomed Characters was invented purely to describe the miserable time before the murderer starts knifing co-eds. Because seriously, who sat down to watch the engaging social life at Camp Crystal Lake?
    • Oddly enough, this was averted in the first Halloween (1978), which features no gore and spends over half of its runtime focusing on the characters before Michael Myers finally starts killing them. It helps that there are a lot of great Meaningful Background Events where you can casually see Myers watching or stalking his soon-to-be prey.
    • The "plot", such as it is, of most Friday the 13th movies serves only as a vehicle to deliver (usually teen) victims to Jason. The home DVD versions even contain a "Jump to a Death" option purely for this purpose.
  • A LOT of Japanese people only watch Hollywood films because they find the American actor/actresses in them attractive.
  • Most action films score very low on plot originality, character development or any kind of message. Audiences simply want to see explosions (or "'splosions", in the common vernacular), people fighting each other or fast paced special effects.
  • Most romantic drama films and comedies are extremely predictable, yet women and couples just want to see a romantic story on a fairy tale level to leave the cinema with a happy feeling.
  • Before the days of MTV and other music video channels rock 'n' roll movies were sure ticket sellers, because most TV stations in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s didn't pay much attention at rock musicians. And even if they did appear on TV it would only be for a musical intermezzo in a variety show or talk show. If you wanted to see your favorite artist or band on screen for longer than five minutes you would go and watch movies in the theater like The Girl Can't Help It, Jailhouse Rock, A Hard Day's Night, Woodstock, Tommy, The Wall,... Needless to say that the plot was irrelevant: seeing your favorite stars appear and perform music would be enough.
  • Much like the Godzilla films, the low budget Sword and Sandal Hercules peplum films that Italy used to churn out in the late 1950s and early 1960s made most of their money from people who just wanted to see the fights, the Fanservice (male and female alike) and the beautiful Italian scenery as opposed to any actual story.
  • Take any Exploitation Film: all of them center on one particular gimmick that will draw in curious viewers. Be it a fight, battle, a monster, stunts, gory violence, action, special effects, a nude scene, a sex scene, a surrealistic scene to trip out to or the appearance of a famous pop star or media star. And since Exploitation Films are traditionally made on a tight budget, this gimmick is often sandwiched in between a lot of scenes filled with people talking to fill out the runtime.

Specific creators:

    Specific Creators 
  • There is only one thing that many people find any Michael Bay film worth watching for.
  • If the internet is to be believed, most of the people who watched Hawking after 2010 were just there for Benedict Cumberbatch's performance. Granted, it is a great performance and landed him a BAFTA nomination. Some fans have also watched War Horse as well as The Other Boleyn Girl just because he was in it for a few minutes.
  • The films starring Sonja Henie were to watch her skate.
  • Milla Jovovich is a compelling reason to watch Ultraviolet (2006) (to her fans), despite being considered to be a very bad movie by critics in general. It holds true for Zoolander (as Katinka), The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, and The Fifth Element (as Leeloo). Inverted with her role in the Resident Evil Film Series, as many fans were displeased that established characters such as Jill Valentine and Leon Kennedy were pushed back in favor of Jovovich. It hasn't stopped the movies from being successful, though.
  • You may like the Melodrama of Tyler Perry's movies and plays, but you are more likely there to watch Madea's shenanigans.
  • People tend to watch Sharon Tate's movies specifically to see the actress whose life was tragically cut short. The general opinion is that most of the movies are nothing special in and of themselves, but also that Tate is so charismatic that she manages to single-handedly make them worth watching.
  • People watch Ed Wood movies purely meta to observe the terrible sets, bad dialogue and acting, and obvious mistakes.

Specific films:

    #-L 
  • Even fans of the Disaster Movie genre didn't really seem to care why the Apocalypse was going to strike in 2012, but it didn't half put the money up on the screen when it was time for the geological shit to hit the fan.
  • A Wedding (1978): Breaking Away fans who aren't sure what to think about A Wedding as a whole still enjoy seeing Dennis Christopher and Paul Dooley play a father and son a year before doing the same in the former movie.
  • Some people went to see The Accountant (2016) due to the main protagonist played by Ben Affleck being autistic with Asperger's Syndrome.
  • Alexander. A large amount of people watched it for that one scene with Rosario Dawson. Another amount came looking only for the battle sequences, which given who it is about is understandable.
  • Probably the main reason sci-fi folks will never get their wish of a film that explains the backgrounds of either/or the Alien and Predator franchises. Folks just want to see the eponymous creatures kick ass, not have their origins explained. One of the main draws for Prometheus was this, since it was ambiguously billed as a prequel (and later confirmed to be in the same universe).
  • In the Japanese film Always Zoku San Choume No Yuuhi (Always Sunset on Third Street 2), Godzilla himself makes a brief cameo appearance in the first 2 minutes of the film in a dream sequence and in CGI form, Many Godzilla fans don't know what this film is about or even care, all they want to see is Godzilla.
  • As of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the base has been broken into those in it for Peter and Gwen's surprisingly well-written relationship, and those who grant that it is an improvement over the Raimi trilogy's romance angle, but it also takes far too much time away from the, you know, Spider-Man parts that they bought a ticket for.
  • German Neo-Nazis often bought tickets for American History X just to see the violence scenes during the first ten minutes, including the curb-stomp scene. After that, they left the cinema again.
  • The Apocalypse series is a thinly veiled ripoff of Left Behind. The fact that the third movie has Mr. T is all we need.
  • Aquaman (2018)
  • Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom: Most fans are only interested in seeing the film because of Orm taking an Anti-Hero role (and having some more lighthearted Sibling Rivalry moments with Aquaman), the new undersea visual effects, how the movie is the finale of the DCEU, or some combination of the three.
  • Avatar is the highest-grossing film ever.note  However, just about everyone went to watch it only for the stunning effects, with the story being widely agreed as a Cliché Storm. On a slightly sadder note, it’s been said that many went to see the movie solely for sheer escapism following the 2007-2009 recession. This film also demonstrated the limits of this trope in that after it left theaters and the amazing visuals were relegated to the small screen, the film good as disappeared from public memory and left no pop culture impact.
  • Possibly the only reason why anyone went to see the Beach Party reunion film Back to the Beach was to see the Pee Wee Herman cameo.
  • During the run-up to the release of Batman (1989), people were buying tickets to other movies, sitting through the Batman trailer, and then walking out.
  • Battle: Los Angeles many people come to watch Marines gun down aliens.
  • Blackboard Jungle, released in 1955, is remembered (among other things) as the film that launched the Rock and Roll Era thanks to the use of Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" as the theme song. Stories are that legions of teenagers would flock to see the movie specifically to hear the song, with little interest in the rest of the picture.
  • A small minority of the audience for Black Swan is Just There For The Wingfic. And quite a few more are Just There for the Mila/Natalie sex scene.
  • Blood Harvest is a not terribly memorable slasher flick best known for starring Tiny Tim as a deranged clown.
  • Bound (1996) is a compelling modern film-noir classic. But people only watch it for the lesbian sex scenes.
  • Many Filipinos, especially Manileños, turned out to watch The Bourne Legacy mostly because the last half takes place in Metro Manila.
  • The biggest reason anyone watched Cagefighter Worlds Collide was because they were wrestling fans interested in seeing Jonathan Good (the-then AEW World Heavyweight Champion Jon Moxley aka. Dean Ambrose from WWE) basically playing himself as the antagonist Randy Stone, a pro-wrestling champion put up against an MMA champion fighter. They even used actual footage from Moxley's championship run in AEW in the film's trailers.
  • Many people went to see Captain America: Civil War for Spider-Man's debut appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He wound up stealing the show during the melee between Captain America, Iron Man, and their allies.
  • In the British made-for-TV special film, Children's Party at the Palace, the one scene that is remembered the most and what a lot of people look forward to watching is the Harry Potter segment where Harry and his friends help find the Queen's handbag by looking through the bags conjured from the "Accio lost handbag" spell and come up with a new spell to summon specifically Her Majesty's: "Accio Her Majesty's handbag".
  • Leading up to the release of Christopher Robin, Disney's Live-Action Adaptation take on Winnie the Pooh, the marketing did not particularly prominently feature the animated Pooh characters in a way that made them seem to be the main characters - which they really aren't in this Human-Focused Adaptation. Yet many moviegoers went to see the movie just to see those characters, completely ignoring Ewan McGregor in the title role and the other human actors.
  • A major complaint about Cloverfield was "I came to see a giant monster trash New York, not watch these annoying jerks through shakycam for 2 hours."
  • A number of people only see Con Air for the toy bunny, a major plot point in Homestuck, and/or because it is the favorite movie of Homestuck's protagonist, John Egbert.
  • While The Conjuring Universe has the expected contingent of slasher/horror fans on board, there is also a chunk of otherwise non-horror-fans who are in it for the adorable relationship between Ed and Lorraine Warren.
  • Cruel Intentions is primarily remembered for the on-screen kiss between Sarah Michelle Gellar and Selma Blair during a time when this was pretty edgy.
  • Destiny Turns On The Radio was only notable because the plot centers on a supporting performance by Quentin Tarantino as he was exploding onto the cinematic scene with the recently released Pulp Fiction.
  • A large amount of Divergent's press came from the fact that Kate Winslet of all people was the villain. Half the interviews asked her about it.
  • Doom (2005) – Only one reason they showed up: the memorable Oner that imitated the FPS gameplay.
  • Dragonslayer: While the film did not wow most audiences with its plot or characters, it had by most accounts the most impressive dragon put to the screen for many years.
  • According to British radio station Capital FM, many people are going to see Dunkirk just because Harry Styles is in it.
  • Some people watched Edge of Tomorrow just to see Tom Cruise get killed several times.
  • The 1995 movie Empire Records only made about $300,000 at the box office and had reviews that were in the toilet. The only thing that saved the movie from complete obscurity was likely its soundtrack, which is a Gen-X musical treasure trove.
  • A lot of people only saw The Expendables to see the scene that features Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis together (which was also highlighted in all of the trailers). One can only assume the sequel made these people very, very happy.
  • Family Switch: A lot of fans on Tumblr and Twitter only watched the film to see Emma Myers as CC Walker, which is her first major role following her breakthrough role as Enid in Wednesday. Even a lot of fans who dislike the movie find Myers to be the best part of it.
  • Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them:
    • A fair number of Harry Potter fans who weren't particularly interested in the premise of a Potter-free movie set in the universe or were on the fence about the film got on-board at the last minute once it was confirmed that the film would include a cameo from Grindelwald and would lead up to the legendary confrontation between Dumbledore and Grindelwald.
    • Some fans truly were there just to see the titular beasts. There's a fabulous Thunderbird, after all. And the Niffler is an adorable Ensemble Dark Horse.
    • Quite a few viewers who otherwise didn't care much for the plot and characters gave high praise to Jacob as the most endearing and enjoyable part of the film.
  • Fantastic Four (2015) was considered to be one of the worst superhero movies and was a commercial flop. Yet some fans still showed up just to see an exclusive trailer for the upcoming Deadpool (2016) movie.
  • As far as many DC fans were concerned, The Flash (2023) might as well have been titled "Michael Keaton Returns as Batman for the First Time in Over 30 years ...and, Oh Yeah, the Flash Too".
  • Flying Down to Rio: a 1930s Romantic Comedy staring Gene Raymond and Dolores del Río. It's watched and (mainly) remembered for having the first dance Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers ever did together.
  • Most audiences went to see The Forbidden Kingdom simply to see Jackie Chan fight Jet Li for the first time in their careers.
  • The Forever Purge: A lot of fans are drawn to the movie because it has a New Old West story rather than another urban setting like the previous films.
  • Many Doctor Who fans went to see the reboot of Fright Night (2011) with the sole intention of seeing David Tennant shirtless.
  • A lot of people only watch the first half of Full Metal Jacket because of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman.
  • Gemini Man: Many people saw this movie for one or a few reasons. These include the high frame rate of 120fps (which is quite rare in movies), the Visual Effects of Awesome that is Junior, the nostalgia of having a young Will Smith in a new movie, seeing two Will Smiths, or some combination thereof. What wasn't a major drive to see it? The plot.
  • The Godzilla franchise, which became famous only for the monster fights (hence the trope title) despite the majority of them written to be socio-political commentary with the issues they're addressing expressed in the form of 'larger-than-life' monsters. Godzilla by himself, of course, can be a gigantic draw for people who want to see him demolishing cities, kicking giant-monster butt, or otherwise just being the character that he is.
    • This, plus Early-Installment Weirdness, leads to a very interesting effect when people see Godzilla (1954) for the first time, as it is a bleak, melancholic reflection of the then recent atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Any catharsis from watching Godzilla smash a city is lost when you then see the dead and dying filling hospitals and children both orphaned and irradiated by the unflinching fury of God Incarnate. The fact that this is his pop culture debut no less makes the movie a very interesting draw for a very wide net.
    • Godzilla vs. Megalon more-or-less owes its existence to this trope. The story goes that Toho held a contest to design an Ultraman-like superhero which they would then make the star of a new movie. However, as pre-production went on it became clear to executives that their new star, robot Red Alone, wasn't going to be able to carry a whole film by himself. So, they changed his name to Jet Jaguar, rewrote the script, threw in characters from their last kaiju flick, and it became the 13th Godzilla film instead.
    • Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack!: Plenty of people are primarily attracted to the movie because it has King Ghidorah as the good guy for once- not to mention it features the long-awaited return of Baragon, not seen since his cameo in Destroy All Monsters way back in 1968.
    • Shin Godzilla can be this for fans of Hideaki Anno, who want to see his take on the King of the Monsters. Needless to say, it’s not pretty (in a good way). Following its retroactive inclusion into the Shin Japan Heroes Universe, followers of Neon Genesis Evangelion, the Ultra Series, and Kamen Rider suddenly found themselves in the same (ambiguous) continuity family, also leading to large amounts of cross-pollination between fandoms.
    • Godzilla (2014):
      • It does star the Trope Namer himself, after all. The first official teaser trailer leans on this heavily: all it really reveals about the film's plot is that Godzilla's in it, he causes loads of destruction and this upsets and frightens many people (i.e. the simplest, most basic elements of a Godzilla story). This was tantalizing enough to shoot the trailer to more than 10 million Youtube views in a week.
      • Among non-fans who are not interested in Godzilla, Bryan Cranston, hot off the final season of Breaking Bad, has become enough of a draw for them.
      • Ironically, one of the biggest criticisms leveled against the movie was exactly Godzilla's and Cranston's limited screen-time (the former mostly has cameos until the final fight, the latter is killed off about half an hour in), and while most critics applauded this "held-back" approach, audiences were less forgiving (there was a significant drop in attendance following a strong opening), proving this trope to be a double-edged sword.note 
    • Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019):
      • With the success of Stranger Things, it's a pretty safe bet that a number of people only went to this one to see the blockbuster debut of Eleven, a.k.a. Millie Bobby Brown.
      • It also marks the first appearance of any official Toho monsters in an American Godzilla film, something many have wanted to see for a very long time. Namely, fan-favorites Rodan, Mothra, and the character many consider to be Godzilla's Arch-Enemy, King Ghidorah. In fact, for bonus fan appeal, these three characters also appeared in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, making this movie as close to a Showa Remake as we're likely to get!
    • Godzilla vs. Kong:
      • GvK goes the classic route and relies on the reputations of its titular stars, arguably the most famous monsters in film history- and crossing over for the first time since 1963- to draw in audiences. Like King of the Monsters before it, this film wastes no time in getting to the monster action and frequently returns to it to keep audiences in their seats the whole time. Adam Wingard stoked the flames by openly saying before release that this time, unlike 58 years ago, there would be a definitive winner. Cue the online firestorm about just who that would be.
      • Millie Bobby Brown makes a return appearance, this time as a more active participant in the monster drama and thus with much more screen time. Her storyline and its aesthetics in this film also bear a Broad Strokes resemblance to Stranger Things, something heavily played up in her trailers.
      • More Genre Savvy fans were quick to pick up that Godzilla and Kong probably wouldn't be the only monsters in the movie, and would eventually be forced into an uneasy alliance. If the prospect of the Monster King fighting the 8th Wonder wasn't enough, than the idea of seeing them team up certainly was. Once word got out that MechaGodzilla was the final, climactic threat, the hype train only picked up speed.
  • The sole reason to watch Gone in 60 Seconds (1974) is the Chase Scene that makes up the second half of the movie.
  • The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug:
    • While general critical consensus on is that it is much improved over An Unexpected Journey and generally worth seeing on its own merits, the one reason for anyone to see the film is for Smaug himself, and that the first full reveal of the dragon alone is worth the price of admission.
    • To a lesser degree, the return of Legolas. the Ensemble Dark Horse of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, lured additional fans into the screenings, if only too see how Peter Jackson would solve this.
  • The Home Alone movies usually have a story about a child learning to act on his own and getting into trouble, but really the only reason people went to see those movies was for the Death Trap houses.
  • House of Wax (2005): Many people saw it solely to see Paris Hilton get killed off.
  • How I Won The War is a very strange case. The only reason people see it? John Lennon.
  • A criticism of the first Hulk movie was Ang Lee's attempt to add the daddy issues backstory, while most people just wanted to see HULK SMASH. The issues presented weren't the problem, since they also occur in the comics, it was that Lee tried to make them the whole movie and not just a small part of Hulk. Rotten Tomatoes even summarizes the consensus of the movie as "Too much talking and not enough smashing."
  • Jade Dynasty: Many people (especially fans of The Untamed) watched the film only because Xiao Zhan plays the main character.
  • Most people only go to the James Bond films for the action and to see beautiful women in various states of undress.
    • For a very select group of female moviegoers who usually don't watch action flicks, they paid money to go see GoldenEye so that they can swoon over Remington Steele—err, Pierce Brosnan on the big screen. For some girls who were in their late childhood or adolescence in 1995 (and therefore were too young to have watched the show that first made Brosnan a sex symbol), they noticed the ultra-handsome actor in trailers and TV spots, so they were more than happy to accompany their father, brother or boyfriend to the cinema to catch their very first James Bond film.
  • Jurassic Park. Almost no one watches the movies for anything other than the dinosaurs, to the point the Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptors are probably more popular than any of the human characters.
    • The viewers who are interested in anything besides dinosaurs are most likely female and specifically watching the first two films for Dr. Ian Malcolm, the roguishly handsome Deadpan Snarker who has the bulk of the franchise's most iconic quotes and an infamous Shirtless Scene. Even though his screen-time in the fifth film (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) amounts to short Book Ends that were largely spoiled by the trailers, it was a huge deal to the fanbase that Jeff Goldblum reprised his role for it.
    • In the case of Jurassic World Dominion, fans rejoiced seeing Doctors Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), together again for the first time since the original film almost 30 years prior.
  • The only reason the film Just My Luck got any success in the UK was because McFly's fangirls were flooding in to see their cameo. And Pixie Lott is the only reason Fred: The Movie got released in cinemas in said country. (Evidence: The Lott-less sequel premiered on Nickelodeon, as both films did in the US.)
  • Khalnayak featured a song that was controversial, and since it featured Madhuri Dixit (and her famous dancing), more people were driven to theaters to see it.
  • King Kong: Similar to Japanese Kaiju movies, the main reason most people watch King Kong, whether it's the original 1933 FIlm or newer films like the Monsterverse film Kong: Skull Island, is to see a giant gorilla rampaging about and fighting other giant animals.
  • Most people sit patiently through Koyaanisqatsi to get to the penultimate 15 minute "The Grid" sequence.
  • The Legend of Frenchie King: The movie still holds interest because the leads are played by Brigitte Bardot and Claudia Cardinale and they have a climactic Cat Fight. Even at the time, the movie was heavily advertised on the appeal of "BB vs CC".
  • The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires: The kung fu fights are a lot more entertaining than the rest of the film and draw in viewers.
  • Lifeforce (1985) is remembered as the "Naked Space Vampire movie" exactly for this trope. In particular the Space Girl character, played by a gorgeous Mathilda May, who remains naked 90% of her screentime is pretty much the main reason of why the movie is still talked today. And to a lesser degree, there's a pre-Star Trek Patrick Stewart Chewing the Scenery with reckless abandon.
  • The Lone Ranger: Most people only went to see Johnny Depp. (The same arguably applies to Mortdecai, which was primarily advertised with his iconically riddiculous voicelines.) Or the chase scene at the end. Or Butch Cavendish for his memorably dark scenes.
  • Love Me Tender: No one cared that it was just a modest Civil War-era western. They just went to see Elvis Presley on screen. Arguably, this trope applies to every one of Elvis' movies, to the point where the plots and other aspects of the production were pretty much irrelevant.

    M-Z 
  • Many people watched The Machinist for the shock of seeing Christian Bale's Nightmare Fuel Thinness.
  • Many people, especially feminists, have seen Mad Max: Fury Road either because they wanted to see Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa kick some ass, watch Nux for his memetic and memorable lines ("Oh, what a day! WHAT A LOVELY DAY!"), or the epic final chase scene.
  • Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day took seventy years of Development Hell before being released. That's a good enough reason for many people to watch it.
  • Quite possibly the only reason any Mortal Kombat fan watches the universally-panned Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is to see the Sub-Zero vs. Scorpion fight, which didn't happen in the first movie.note 
  • Nine Lives (2016) was highly trashed by critics and audiences alike, but if people actually went to see the movie, they'd see it for the cameos by several internet cats, including Lil Bub and Nala Cat.
  • A goodly proportion of the male audience for The Other Woman (2014) went for Kate Upton, Cameron Diaz and/or Nicki Minaj (or Game of Thrones fans supporting Nikolaj Coster-Waldau).
  • Pacific Rim: Almost literally; people will watch it just for Giant Mechas fighting Kaiju. The movie clearly embraces this trope, as it doesn't try to pretend to be anything else but an epic time watching giants fight each other.
  • Most people only came to watch Paddington (2014) mainly because Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi was in it.
  • 1979's The Passage gives us Malcolm McDowell as evil SS officer Captain von Berkow. Von Berkow (among other things) has a sex scene wherein he strips down to nothing but an anachronistic jockstrap with a Swastika on the bulge. In addition, McDowell is in full Large Ham mode for most of the movie and leaves no scenery un-chewed, being such a larger than life bombastic personality to the point where he may as well grow fifty feet tall and roar like Godzilla. Consequently, modern viewers tend to come into The Passage not for the story of a family fleeing Nazi tyranny, or for the heroic tale of a lonely old shepherd risking his life to save them, but for "the crazy Nazi in a jockstrap."
  • This is an interesting dilemma with the original The Pink Panther movies. The bulk of viewers only watch them for Peter Sellers and, to a lesser extent, the animated title sequences. The series has been outright criticized by critics such as James Berardinelli as having little merit beyond them. The post-Sellers entries invoke this reaction with two other characters: Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus and Cato Fong, who both became popular in their own right after their introduction in film two, A Shot in the Dark. Some fans actually prefer Herbert Lom's scenes as Dreyfus to Sellers' scenes. Son of the Pink Panther is firmly Just Here For Dreyfus: What audience it has is there to see the series' Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain finally get a Happy Ending. Later, the success of the 2006 Steve Martin reboot was a case of Just Here For Steve Martin, considering the sequel's disappointing performance. Many who disliked the reboot have said that the only good part is the animated title sequence directed by Bob Kurtz.
  • No matter how bad you think the sequels are, the one thing every fan looks forward to in Pirates of the Caribbean is Captain Jack Sparrow.
  • Many viewers of Pitch Perfect only watched it either for the musical numbers or for Anna Kendrick being adorable.
  • The cameos and references to many 80s arcade games were the main reason people wanted to see Pixels, and not because of Adam Sandler or the overall plot. They expected it be widely trashed by critics and audiences.
  • Pokémon Detective Pikachu
    • Many older millennials went just to see realistic versions of their favorite pokémon, especially the eponymous electric mouse and Mewtwo.
    • And of course, tons flocked for the novelty of Ryan Reynolds voicing Pikachu.
  • Some people will watch the Police Academy movies just for the guy that makes noises.
  • In the case of the first Predator film, some people just wanted to see Arnold Schwarzenegger or the Predator himself, though the latter didn't become famous until after the film.
  • The Princess (2022): The fight scenes are the movie's best (some might say, only) strong point, and most critics suggest just watching those and fast forwarding through everything else.
  • Any fans of Alvin and the Chipmunks may watch Rear Window and/or Switchblade Sisters for Ross Bagdasarian (Sr.) and Janice Karman respectively.
  • Fans of Anthony Stewart Head, Sarah Brightman, Paul Sorvino, Alexa Vega, Paris Hilton, Bill Mosely, and/or Nivek Ogre went to see Repo! The Genetic Opera based solely on their appearances therein. Almost all of them are now devoted fans of the movie. Fans of Yoshiki Hayashi did the same. Their mileage varies widely: some are devoted fans of the film, others not so much. Paris Hilton drove away more of the film's potential audience than she attracted.
  • Ready Player One (2018)'s plot outline concerns a group of oppressed teens who fall in love and form a resistance against a dystopian regime running their Crapsack World in the not-too-distant future. In short, nothing that hasn't been wrung out, stretched to the breaking point, and completely run into the ground in practically every other young-adult story written in the last 20 years. Nothing, that is, except for the hundreds upon hundreds of Shout Outs to classic film, TV, music and videogame references that the movie is jam-packed with (even moreso than in the source novel), to the point that it's impossible to spot them all on a single viewing. It's basically Member Berries: The Movie, and fans are far more likely to gush about their favorite pop-culture icons appearing in the film than anything the story's actual characters get up to.
  • Many people went to see The Rite for one thing: Anthony Hopkins possessed. And in Mexico, many went to Watch It for the Meme that spawned thanks to certain national news anchor that interviewed Hopkins.
  • Theatrical showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show are attended (and screened) for the Audience Participation. Period. Paragraph.
  • Even since his cult following formed in the late 1990's, does anyone watch the TV Movie Sarah Plain And Tall for anything other than the fact that it has Christopher Walken in a romantic role?
  • The main reason most people watched the later Saw films was for the Death Traps and their gory aftermath, such that the series became the Trope Codifier for Torture Porn (a genre that's likewise awash in this trope). Fans of the series know that the first film was actually fairly light on blood, and that the series as a whole has a fairly intricate Myth Arc about the various Jigsaw killers and the cops hunting them... but a casual viewer would be hard-pressed to tell you which killer is taking up the Jigsaw mantle in any film past Saw III, because that's not what they're paying attention to.
  • The School for Good and Evil (2022): A lot of fans (both male and female) who are otherwise uninterested in the standard magical school plot have admitted to only watching the film for one reason because they find Charlize Theron to be attractive and couldn't pass up the opportunity to see her wearing a pantsuit.
  • Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is an interesting example. A lot of people will tell you that they weren't there for the Scott/Ramona romance, but for his battles with her Evil Exes.
  • The first album by Procol Harum includes a song titled "Salad Days (Are Here Again)", and the track listing on the back cover says that this song is "From The Film 'Separation'". Separation is an obscure art film which remained unavailable for a long time after its initial (limited) theatrical run in 1968, leaving Procol Harum fans wondering what it was like. In 2009, the film was released on video for the first time, and thus many of those watching it are Just Here For Procol Harum (though maybe Come for the X, Stay for the Y is in effect too).
  • The Seven Year Itch would probably be all but forgotten today if male viewers didn't keep tuning in just to see the movie's much-hyped Marilyn Maneuver sequence...which isn't even in the film itself.
  • Most hip-hop fans only know of Shaolin and Wu Tang for being the film from which the Wu-Tang Clan got its name.
  • Most people went to see The Shape of Water just to see a woman have sex with a fishman. This film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2018.
  • The Silence of the Lambs: Many people only watch for the interactions between Clarice and Hannibal Lecter. The rest of the story is usually relatively ignored.
  • Many people went to see Snakes on a Plane solely to hear Samuel L. Jackson deliver his signature line, or even just the film's title.
  • Snow and Fire: This film started making rounds in World War II tank enthusiast circles solely because of the presence of the only running Königstiger in the world in it (the Saumur museum to which it belongs hasn't lent it to any other production since).
  • Something Wicked is a unremarkable indie horror film, but it got some attention due to being Brittany Murphy's last role before her death.
  • Some people watched Space Jam mostly just for Lola Bunny, who made her debut in that film.
  • A lot of people went to see Spider-Man 3 mostly for Venom. They became upset because he didn't get enough screen time (or that he was played by a badly miscast Topher Grace).
    • A lot of people also went to see Spider-Man: No Way Home because the film features the return of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield as their respective Spidermen, as well as the return of some of their respective villains.
  • The Star Chamber: Some fans and critics feel like the three duos of cops who feel like they could have their own Buddy Cop Shows provide more of a reason to watch the movie than Hardin and the eponymous vigilante organization.
  • Star Trek
  • Star Wars:
    • It was heavily reported that when The Phantom Menace was airing trailers, there were crowds of people who would buy tickets for a movie to see the trailers and then leave.
    • Attack of the Clones owes most of its popularity to Jango Fett. Some people went for the massive hellstorm of special effects that is the last quarter of the movie, including Yoda wielding a lightsaber (as the film wore on in theatres commercials started airing saying "who da man? Yoda man" to capitalize on what was certainly the film's largest draw). Others come to watch the space battles, or the Jedi fight scenes.
    • The Rise of Skywalker:
      • Some fans weren't enthusiastic about Episode IX after the franchise's previous two movies divided the fanbase… until the first teaser changed their minds by teasing the apparent return of Emperor Palpatine.
      • To a lesser extent, there's people who want to know what will happen to Leia after her actress Carrie Fisher's death, which led to her role being re-created with unused footage from The Force Awakens.
  • There was only one reason to see the Street Fighter movie: Raúl Juliá. OF COURSE!
  • Swordfish had a lot of people showing up for it not caring about the criminal/hacker plot, but because Halle Berry is topless in one scene.
  • A large percentage of Tekken (2010)'s sparse audience likely went just to see Lateef Crowder playing Eddy Gordo. The smart ones just settled for watching his scenes on YouTube.
  • Many people watch Thor: The Dark World just for Loki.
  • Many caught Terminator: Dark Fate just to see Linda Hamilton back as Sarah Connor after 23 years since Terminator 2 3-D: Battle Across Time.
  • Titanic (1997):
    • Some people watched the film only because of ship's sinking scenes.
    • Back when it was released most teenage girls went to see the film solely because they were so in love with Leonardo DiCaprio. In fact many people only remember the romantic scenes and are completely unaware that the entire story was based on a real life incident.
    • Similarly, most guys were fine with being dragged to see it because it featured a naked Kate Winslet.
    • Many people have seen it multiple times, and still have not seen the beginning. The "Making of" documentary created a lot of interest in the special effects in people who had originally chosen not to sit through the four-hour film. It's pretty common knowledge that the crow's nest scene (when the look-outs spot the iceberg) occurs just about five minutes into the third hour, when it plays on TV, so when it's on, you can tune in exactly halfway through for the special effects, and skip the romance entirely.
  • The biggest complaint about the live-action Transformers Film Series is the focus on the humans. Optimus Prime doesn't even get introduced in the first movie until an hour in. There are subplots that lead to nothing and very scatological humans. Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen is a little better, offering flashy fights in the beginning, middle and end, but all the time between that is just waffle. This is something the Transformers producers have long failed to grasp. Fans are just here for the robots, and it's an extremely rare human who catches on with viewers of any age. The adults who were annoyed by Spike and Daniel may be the Periphery Demographic now, but they were kids when they first watched. With the newer series, for every Sari, there's three Sams or Kickers whose not-remotely-interesting home lives are only unwanted interruptions to the giant-robot-armies-at-war thing everyone really came for, and any scene with them will be considered Filler. The humans who do get popular are never the Tagalong Kids who get all the screentime, and it's hard to know if the kids liked Simmons or Fowler as much as we do.
    • Transformers: Age of Extinction, the fourth live-action film, had a much better balance and gave its robots bigger screen and story-presence, to the point where some fans regard this as the first "true" Transformers movie in the series. That said, the movie still suffered because while it offered many things for fans to be excited about (most importantly, the Dinobots), many claimed that it was far too long to be worth the effort, and the much-promoted Dinobots were only put in as an afterthought. As a whole, though, general moviegoers loved it just like the first three, and critics kept mourning the death of cinema.
    • Many Transformers fans rushed out to see Bumblebee just for the opening battle sequence set on Cybertron, which depicts multiple popular Autobots and Decepticons—including Optimus Prime, Arcee, Starscream and Soundwave—looking exactly like the original toys. While the film's main story got plenty of praise from critics, it's considerably more modest in scope, and mostly centers on Bumblebee battling two relatively obscure Decepticon villains.
  • A rare one-minute cameo by Daft Punk and their soundtrack were good enough reasons for people to watch TRON: Legacy.
  • On a similar note to the above: Kate Beckinsale wearing skintight black leather catsuits while dual-wielding awesome handguns quickly became the sole reason most people continued to watch the Underworld (2003) movie series after the second one, Awakening.
  • Most fans of Venom (2018) and it's sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, have expressed disinterest in the rest of Sony's Spider-Man Universe and it's plans, and a few of them didn't even want the character to be part of the MCU instead. This is mainly because they enjoyed those movies as throwbacks to Pre-MCU Marvel Movies from the 2000s, such as Ghost Rider (2007) or Daredevil (2003) and the edgy camp that came with them. Which felt refreshing after a growing fatigue for cinematic universes and how long the MCU has been running.
  • Some people probably watched Way of the Dragon just to watch the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris. Which is won by Lee.
  • Many people watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit just to see some their favorite childhood cartoon characters in the same scene (most notably the scenes with Donald Duck and Daffy Duck in the piano duel and Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny skydiving in Toontown).
    • Before (and especially after) the hype started to build, many flocked just to see the groundbreaking visual effects that almost made adults believe cartoon characters were real.
    • It's been said that Jessica Rabbit was the source of multiple viewings for some...
  • The Wicked Dreams Of Paula Shultz: Few people seek the movie out for any reason other than to see the main three Hogan's Heroes actors (and semi-regular Leon Askin) playing similar, albeit sleazier, characters in a movie. Whether it's worth it depends on which ''Hogan's Heroes'' fan you ask.
  • Wild Things: Denise Richards gets them out, makes out with Neve Campbell in a swimming pool and they have a threesome with Matt Dillon. There's also that strip of Kevin's Bacon. The sequels have a similar reputation, except with a less acclaimed plot.
  • The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm receives more praise for Wilhelm Grimm's charming and technically-impressive Fantasy Sequences, including some adaptations of seldom-retold fairy tales, than for the scenes following the brothers' tribulations in the real world.
  • One review (sorry folks, it's in Hebrew) claimed that basically, the only reason to watch X-Men Origins: Wolverine is because it has Wolverine kicking ass - and not even particularly well.
  • Yves Saint Laurent is a decent, if formulaic, biopic of the iconic French fashion designer but since it was authorized by his estate, many of the clothes in the fashion show scenes are genuine. Curators were on set to make sure none of the museum quality pieces were damaged, and the result is some hard core Costume Porn.
  • A lot of people have watched Zabriskie Point solely because of its Pink Floyd connection. note 

In-universe examples:

    In-Universe Examples 
  • Used in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist when the crowd at the first club departs after learning that Where's Fluffy? wasn't performing that night.
  • In Quiz Show, Rittenhome quietly accuses 21's audience of being this, with hints that he finds the federal investigation into the show's rigging to be unnecessary at best, and hypocritical at worst:
    "The audience didn't tune in to watch some amazing display of intellectual ability. They just wanted to watch the money."
  • Rocky Balboa: fans turn out to see Rocky's last fight. He faced off against Mason "The Line" Dixon, the heavyweight champion, in a charity exhibition match which Dixon's managers set up to clean up Dixon's reputation of being a boring Invincible Hero. Dixon's fights had a shrinking audience because Mason was, as the movie puts it, "a victim of his own dominance." Fans turn up in droves in support of Rocky. Professional commentators consider the fight something of a joke and a dancing bear until Rocky turns it into a bitterly-contested slog.

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