Big in Albania … countries that gave film flops a second life

The superheroes saved by Mexico, the video-game spinoff that became China's 12th biggest movie ever, and the British comedian worshipped by a secretive communist nation. We remember the films somebody else loved

The Rock's Baywatch reboot may be drowning, not waving, in multiplexes around the globe, but there is one territory where cinemagoers apparently can't get enough of it: Germany. Put it down to the enduring cultural impact of David Hasselhoff, but the country of Angela Merkel is almost single-handedly saving Baywatch from box-office infamy. It's not the first time a movie has struck an unexpected chord somewhere far from home, as these examples demonstrate.