I, for one, enjoy the Billy Zane movie in spite of it's flaws. It is a bit underwhelming, yes but I don't think it's a bad as you make it out to be Rowsdower.
Phantom has a difficult story that doesn't always translate well on screen and the Zane movie could have fallen foul of that problem. Just enough elements of the original Phantom concept must be taken and updated to the current times to make it a unique superhero- a fun superhero. And as difficult as it may be, it can be done.
Also, I don't think you are being fair to the Phantom when you say it doesn't have a following anymore coz I think it does. And all of them are in hibernation at the moment waiting for a beacon of some sort- for example, a new movie- to come out of the shadows. And even if we take the argument that it's following just isn't there any more that argument could be used for a number of more recent films which were successful.
And, the endeavour to make a new film even now probably stems from the underwhelming nature of the last film with many believing that that can be bettered and a more remarkable adaptation could indeed be put forward. In a way, it's the exact opposite of people not wanting a remake of, say, Back to the Future since there are perfect films that we could go back and watch. Phantom doesn't really have that going for itself.