'80s movie remakes: dead on arrival...?

[cherokeesam]

With Conan the Barbarian and Fright Night remakes being declared unabashed box office flops this weekend, and with Arthur garnering dismal ticket sales earlier this year, I was wondering if you guys think this is an omen for other 80s movie remakes due in coming months.

Footloose. Red Dawn. Total Recall (okay, 1990 is stretching it, but technically it was *made* in the 80s). Dirty Dancing. Do you think the failure of Conan, Fright Night and Arthur will have an impact on these other 80s remakes? Is it a case of "too soon," or "don't try to remake a classic," or do you think these others have an actual chance to succeed?

 

[Secret Fawful]

Well, if the movies are good, they have nothing to worry about from me.

 

[MadVillainy]

Well Conan and Arthur didnt get good reviews and didnt have big name draws. Fright Night I think just fell victim of a bad release date.

But idk I dont think the GA minds that theyre 80s remakes

 

[Ultra Lantern]

Well, if the movies are good, they have nothing to worry about from me.

Me,either.

 

[Teelie]

A good remake can succeed. It just has to be good. I have read Fright Night is actually good but like Blackman said, bad release date.

 

[Ponyboy]

With Conan the Barbarian and Fright Night remakes being declared unabashed box office flops this weekend, and with Arthur garnering dismal ticket sales earlier this year, I was wondering if you guys think this is an omen for other 80s movie remakes due in coming months.

Footloose. Red Dawn. Total Recall (okay, 1990 is stretching it, but technically it was *made* in the 80s). Dirty Dancing. Do you think the failure of Conan, Fright Night and Arthur will have an impact on these other 80s remakes? Is it a case of "too soon," or "don't try to remake a classic," or do you think these others have an actual chance to succeed?

Frankly, I think all of those remakes... aside from Conan (as he has heaps of stories you could tell) are somewhat pointless. I don't know what the thought process is... especially a movie like Red Dawn or Footloose, which I think were only mildly successful. It's as if there's a bunch of new guys crowned King within the biz have said... "Hey I loved this movie when I was 15... let's remake it!"

 

[Mace Dolex]

As the saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" and maybe the GA can only think of Arnold as the one and only Conan.

As for the Footloose remake, I think the original is fondly remembered more for it's popular soundtrack in which every song was a big hit, the new version no matter how hard they try to update it will need to have that one breakout song for it to be successful.

Whoever the hell kid they picked as the lead can't ever dethrone Kevin Bacon.

 

[Octoberist]

not many of these remakes are mega hits and are forgetten by the year's end.

Also they can get watered down. Like Fame: the original was so dark while the new one was all fluff.

 

[MadVillainy]

Wow I completely forgot about that Fame remake.


See the things about this remakes is that at the end of it all, if it's bad it's just forgotten

 

[Ultimatehero]

Having seen 'Red Dawn,' I can say once it hits theaters it will an unexpected sleeper hit having seen the film in a preview audience with a filled auditorium. Everyone was applauding, screaming, and hollering the whole the way through. Greatest response I've seen a movie get in a long time.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Karate Kid did really well.

It's not really fair to make a judgement based on two August releases.

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

Conan existed long before the 80's.
I didn't have much interest in it because it looks almost like a made-for-tv movie when I saw the trailer. I didn't bother with Fright Night because I think Colin Farrel is a massive, c-rummy actor who's deeply dislikable. I think it has nothing to do with specifically the "80's".

 

[Rac]

Let Me In tanked too. 00s remake, but anyway.

 

[danoyse]

I think they'll still do the Dirty Dancing remake...but I hope it fails miserably.

 

[bullets]

This is from an article I just read http://www.pajiba.com/seriously_ran...-remakes-are-the-safest-bets-in-hollywood.php

(the first number is box office total, and the second is the production budget).

1. Karate Kid (Projected: $165 million) ($40 million) = $125 million profit
2. Friday the 13th ($65 million) ($18 million) = $47 million profit
3. Clash of the Titans ($161 million) ($125 million) = $36 million profit
4. My Bloody Valentine ($51 million) ($15 million) = $36 million profit
5. The Dukes of Hazzard ($80 million) ($50 million) = $30 million profit
6. Nightmare on Elm Street ($63 million) ($35 million) = $28 million profit
7. Prom Night ($43 million) ($20 million) = $23 million profit
8. The Fog ($29 million) ($18 million) = $11 million profit
9. The Stepfather ($29 million) ($20 million) = $9 million profit
10. Fame ($22 million) ($18 million) = $4 million profit
11. The Hitcher ($16 million) ($15 million est). = $1 million profit
12. Sorority Row ($12 million) ($12 million) = $0 profit
13. The A-Team (Projected $75 million) ($110 million) = ($35 million profit)
14. Miami Vice ($63 million) ($135 million) = ($72 million profit)



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I think it's just hit or miss. Some will do ok and others could be a great success.

 

[amazingfantasy15]

Was there really a demand for Conan, Fright Night or Arthur though? Fright Night and Arthur weren't very hot franchises to begin with. Conan looked like a very dull paint by numbers action movie. If they did something interesting with the property then maybe they'd do better. I see Footloose failing as well, since it seems to be telling the exact same story as before, looks almost like that Psycho remake with Vince Vaughn

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

I think the prologue thing for "The Dark Knight" was great marketing.
If they specifically made 5-10 minutes of the movie a cool little preview it probably could have helped Conan. As it stands, like you say, it just looked like a by the numbers action movie.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

Aye, the 'Psycho' remake is brought up, unsurprisingly, but I am surprised that no-one has brought up the fact they are bringing out that prequel to THE THING called THE THING, and of course the original THING was a flop in the first place, so it will be interesting to see how that does.

That reminds me of a joke that some old sci-fi writer made once, that if the new Testament had been brought out as a sci-fi paperback in the 50s it would have been called The Thing With Three Souls, lol.

 

[Mace Dolex]

Now I hear there's a remake of War Games cooking up which doesn't look very hopeful if the bad direct-to-video sequel from a few years back didn't garner up any response.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

Now I hear there's a remake of War Games cooking up which doesn't look very hopeful if the bad direct-to-video sequel from a few years back didn't garner up any response.

See, back in the 80s, when WG came out, home computers were very exotic, they were the new big thing to have, so you could base an entire movie around a kid sitting at his computer.

Now, home computers are like the toilet, everyone has one indoors, I don't know how you would make that movie as attractive to moviegoers as it was back then.
I used to watch that film all the time when we got out first vcr, every kid who was into computers used to fantasise about becoming some big computer hacker, so that was our movie for that fantasy.

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

Wargames are more likely to happen now than it did then.

In fact, it has happened. Albeit, without real nukes.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/computer-reads-manual-wins-civ

 

[November Rain]

i think it's too early to make a remake, alot of these films were watched by adults now in their youths when they were in their early teens

they capture a certain era and trying to force them into the new age mould just doesn't work.

then again, i'm not against remakes, i personally think the thomas crown affair remake is one fo the best films out there, not just remakes, films period.

So with that I would say it's better to make remakes of films that are timeless rather than are set in a specific generation and style of film making. film makers from older years are better at making timeless movies rather than cashing in on the era period they are made from, that's why they generally do better.

at the very very least, they should do a loose adaptation of certain filims and give them completely different names and character identities so it's more of a newa age homage rather than a remake per say. i think those will have a better chance of beating the box office by obtainig a new generation of fans without pissingo ff the older ones.

case in point, high school musical in response to grease etc...

 

[Frodo]

i think it's too early to make a remake, alot of these films were watched by adults now in their youths when they were in their early teens

they capture a certain era and trying to force them into the new age mould just doesn't work.

then again, i'm not against remakes, i personally think the thomas crown affair remake is one fo the best films out there, not just remakes, films period.

So with that I would say it's better to make remakes of films that are timeless rather than are set in a specific generation and style of film making. film makers from older years are better at making timeless movies rather than cashing in on the era period they are made from, that's why they generally do better.

at the very very least, they should do a loose adaptation of certain filims and give them completely different names and character identities so it's more of a newa age homage rather than a remake per say. i think those will have a better chance of beating the box office by obtainig a new generation of fans without pissingo ff the older ones.

case in point, high school musical in response to grease etc...

Took the words right out of my mouth. Great Post.

 

[Evil Twin]

I think that home video has a lot to do with it. At least as far as adults go. Why go see a remake when you have a fine version in color and English already readily available? Probably with good special effects as well. At least if the reviews aren't excellent? Conan is a whole series of stories so I can understand that, but seriously who was asking for more Fright Night before the remake? I'm a fan of the original, but I wasn't clamoring for a new version of that story.

Also, I think there's been some overestimation of the name recognition of these properties. Planet of the Apes is a perennial seller for Fox, so they knew there was plenty of interest out there. From all demographics. Fright Night doesn't have enough interest to justify a Blu Ray and was only a modest success in the '80s.

I do think the rules are off with family films. Something like The Smurfs or Karate Kid is seen as something that the parents are familiar with and that they can share with their kids. I'd expect a Goonies remake that's marketed to families to do fine, for example.

I also think that there's been some overestimation of the uniqueness of some of the titles. The original Fright Night, like Shaun of the Dead, isn't a remarkably original story. Take Rear Window, The Night Stalker, Salem's Lot, Peter Cushing, and teen comedy and blend. There's not a unique high concept that really defines the story. Not like Planet of the Apes, Star Trek, etc. You want to do a comedy-horror vampire story, you don't need the title Fright Night.

And, in Fright Night's case, I think you can't ignore that for a film targetted primarily at teens and young adults who probably have never seen the original, there's not a lot of the cast that teens are really clamoring to see. Yeah, I'm expecting Yelchin to break out one of these years, but nobody in that cast is really popular with the target audience.

 

[cherokeesam]

This is from an article I just read http://www.pajiba.com/seriously_ran...-remakes-are-the-safest-bets-in-hollywood.php

(the first number is box office total, and the second is the production budget).

1. Karate Kid (Projected: $165 million) ($40 million) = $125 million profit
2. Friday the 13th ($65 million) ($18 million) = $47 million profit
3. Clash of the Titans ($161 million) ($125 million) = $36 million profit
4. My Bloody Valentine ($51 million) ($15 million) = $36 million profit
5. The Dukes of Hazzard ($80 million) ($50 million) = $30 million profit
6. Nightmare on Elm Street ($63 million) ($35 million) = $28 million profit
7. Prom Night ($43 million) ($20 million) = $23 million profit
8. The Fog ($29 million) ($18 million) = $11 million profit
9. The Stepfather ($29 million) ($20 million) = $9 million profit
10. Fame ($22 million) ($18 million) = $4 million profit
11. The Hitcher ($16 million) ($15 million est). = $1 million profit
12. Sorority Row ($12 million) ($12 million) = $0 profit
13. The A-Team (Projected $75 million) ($110 million) = ($35 million profit)
14. Miami Vice ($63 million) ($135 million) = ($72 million profit)



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I think it's just hit or miss. Some will do ok and others could be a great success.

Some of those aren't actual remakes, though. Movie versions of old TV shows *generally* do okay --- hence, The A-Team, Miami Vice, Dukes of Hazzard....oh wait, Colin Farrell's Miami Vice is actually negative.... -72 million, not +72 million.

That list shows that horror fans, though, seem to have a flair for nostalgia. Of course, you're just looking at totals and not actual ticket sales --- if you adjust for inflation, I could see almost everything up there except for Jaden Smith's Karate Kid being in the negative compared to their 80s predecessors.

The 80s just don't seem like a profitable well to keep going back to...