The main reason that this one sat around is that MGM, who originally owned the film, went through a change of leadership, after very nearly going bankrupt, and the new bosses just didn’t want anything to do with movies that the old bosses had been responsible for.
Thus, this one sat around until MGM could offload it to a different studio, which took some time.
Chris Hemsworth was mostly unknown when he made it, but by the time the movie was released, he was Thor.
Cabin in the Woods is one of the more recent, and popular, examples of a movie that sat on a shelf ignored.