Maybe Legend with Tom Cruise would fit the bill as could have been big but wasn't? He was a hot commodity after Risky Business and this followed after. Whimsy/fantasy is usually a category that almost always has a problem at the box office and this fell into it.
UHF was ok but I don't remember it being one of those where I left hoping they would make more. Star Wars however blew my mind when I saw it at the theater. I hadn't seen anything with such good special effects. On the other hand, us kids had talked it up so much that we were able to get the folks to take us to the drive in to see it again. That second time was so boring it felt good to get to the second feature (Logan's Run) We all went to see the Empire Strikes back and it was ok but I thought Yoda was dumb. By the time the third one came out we ended up going to the wrong theater and instead saw Staying Alive with John Travolta & Olivia Newton John. Years later I did see the third one and it would have easily topped Staying Alive. This is something I have to be careful talking about as I have many friends where the Star Wars movies were are so much more than what I got out of them.
