NOTE: This article focuses on reboots to movies that generated sequels (theatrical, not straight-to-video), so movies like “Clash of the Titans” or “Ocean’s Eleven” don’t qualify.  Those films are considered only in the category of remake by the studios, even though they were re-made with the intent of turning them into franchises.  2001’s “Planet of the Apes” also isn’t mentioned because, while successful, the movie was seen as a both forgettable to moviegoers and a critical failure, hence why Fox abandoned doing another one and opted for this summer’s prequel, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”.

2005-Present

Film franchises have always been a staple of the movie industry, but after the beginning of the blockbuster era with 1975’s “Jaws”, Hollywood began to shift toward film series being the backbone of the movie business. This happened following the massive success of the original “Star Wars” trilogy, beginning in 1977.  Now, film franchises are essentially carrying the industry (for the most part) in terms of their tent-pole features, especially during the summer months.

What I want to talk about is the relatively new trend of rebooting a series that has either grown stale or produced an extremely poorly received movie.  This current trend began with the 2005 re-launch of the Batman series, “Batman Begins”.

Following WB’s disastrous 1997 sequel “Batman & Robin”, the studio put the Batman franchise on ice (pun intended) after the film earned series lows in both domestic ($107.3 million) and worldwide ($238.2 million) grosses.  The movie ran up a price tag north of $150 million in marketing and production costs. 

That year also saw WB try their first hand at rebooting one of their mega-million dollar franchises with Tim Burton’s “Superman Lives”.  After many production delays in the wake of the many scripts that Burton wasn’t happy with, the studio parted ways with both the director and star Nicolas Cage.  Both walked away with about $30 million combined in fees thanks to their pay-or-play deals (meaning they get their contracted salaries whether or not the movie gets made).

The studio never copped to the actual figure that they lost in trying to reboot Superman between the years 1997-2004.  Some speculate that well over $100 million was lost since sets were built, costumes were made, the several fees paid out to various directors (Tim Burton, Brett Ratner, and McG), on top of all the screenwriters that were paid to ink scripts that ended up shelved.

WB opted for the safer route in 2005 by hiring director Bryan Singer to helm “Superman Returns”, which was essentially a sequel to the earlier Christopher Reeve Superman flicks.  Singer, fresh off of the massive success of the first two ‘X-Men’ movies, ended up delivering a movie that was little more than a homage to the brilliant 1978 Richard Donner ‘Superman’ epic.

“Superman Returns” went on to earn solid earnings of $200.1 million domestically and $391.1 million worldwide, though both were franchise bests the studio was less than blown-away by the movie’s performance.  The main problem was that the ‘Returns’ cost close to $300 million in production and marketing fees.  The film also failed to generate any respectable toy sales and ended up being largely ignored on home video, thus prompting the studio to cancel the sequel(s) that Singer hoped to make.

WB then turned to “Batman Begins” helmer Christopher Nolan to “grandfather” the new Superman movie, “Man of Steel”.  Nolan and his ‘Batman’ team will serve as producers on the project.  Nolan will also be credited as “story consultant”, with his “Batman Begins” scribe David S. Goyer serving as the screenwriter.  Nolan chose WB vet Zach Snyder, who helmed “300”, “Watchmen”, “Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole”, and “Sucker Punch” for the studio, to direct the feature.

Which brings us back to Mr. Nolan.  It can’t be understated what he achieved with “Batman Begins”.  The movie was made for $150 million and, after a modest opening weekend, legged its way to a domestic mark of $205.3 million domestically and $371.9 million worldwide (the second best marks of the franchise at that time).  The film also gave the studio very decent toy sales on top of becoming one of the studio’s biggest performers on home video.

What’s amazing is that Nolan did all of this based on the strength of the plot.  “Batman Begins”, unlike the previous four ‘Batman’ flicks, had no major villain to base the marketing around, as well as no (at that time) major box office star to showcase.  Two-time Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey and Singer himself featured heavily in the marketing push for “Superman Returns”.  Plus, WB spent half what they spent in terms of marketing when comparing ‘Begins’ and ‘Returns’.  ‘Returns’ ended up earning about $200 million less than what WB execs were hoping for.  They felt they had a movie that would top the $300 million mark domestically, as well as passing the $500 million plateau in global earnings.

Though the studio spent a good chunk of change on ‘Begins’, the perception was that it over-performed compared to the studio’s expectations.  That plus the strong merchandise/DVD sales, as well as the fantastic reviews from both moviegoers and major film critics earning a fresh rating of 84% at Rotten Tomatoes.  “Superman Returns” earned a fresh rating of 76% but its 67% audience rating was far below the 90% mark earned by “Batman Begins”.  Meaning moviegoers enjoyed what Nolan pulled off a great deal more than what was achieved by Singer.  Something the studio also took note of.

With both critics and moviegoers alike being impressed by ‘Begins’, as well as backed up by its very strong numbers, the industry took notice and thus began the current wave of rebooting dormant and/or troubled franchises. 

WB was so happy with what Nolan pulled off that they gave him a $200 million budget and basically full control on his ‘Begins’ sequel, “The Dark Knight”.  Nolan furthered his position at the studio by bringing the massive production both on schedule and under-budget, words that studio execs absolutely love.  The movie was released in 2008 and became one of the biggest hits in history, on top of being the first comic book/superhero flick to top the billion-dollar mark in worldwide box office earnings.  Nolan’s third (and final) ‘Batman’ adventures, “The Dark Knight Rises”, hits theaters next summer.

In the wake of the success of “Batman Begins”, other studios began developing franchise reboots.  The first next three to hit screens were all horror films.  Studios love horror movies because generally speaking they carry small budgets are consistently profitable.

Fox Searchlight’s “The Hills Have Eyes” (costing only $15 million, it made $41.8 million domestically and $69.6 million worldwide), “The Omen” (costing only $25 million, it made $54.6 million domestically and $119.5 million worldwide), and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (costing only $16 million, it made $39.5 million domestically and $51.8 million worldwide).  As you can see, all three were cheap and all were profitable.  “The Omen” is so far the only one of the three that has yet to spawn (I know, another pun) sequel, but I hear that Fox is still interested in pursuing another one, they’ve just yet to come across a plot that anyone can get behind.

Later that year (’06) would see MGM/Sony’s re-invention of the industry’s longest running film series, James Bond.  Following star Pierce Brosnan’s massively successful four-film turn as agent 007, the producers decided to recast the role (largely because they didn’t want to pay Brosnan $20 million-plus) and do something a little radical and focus on Bond’s early days as the world’s best secret agent. 

This surprised many within the industry as well as fans of the series since Brosnan’s four outings as Bond earned a whopping $1.482 billion of the $3.739 billion the 20 movies had made at that point.  Daniel Craig took the role and director Martin Cambpell’s grittier take on the material gave the producers the biggest Bond hit to date as “Casino Royale” earned $167.4 million domestically and a whopping $594.2 million worldwide, both beating franchise highs, surpassing the $160.9 million and $432.0 respective domestic and global runs of Brosnan’s final outing as Bond, “Die Another Day”.

The industry was now five-for-five in terms of series reboots.  2007 only saw one high profile reboot, “Halloween”.  The industry did play it safe again by revamping a horror flick, but the results speak for themselves.  Director Rob Zombie’s take on John Carpenter’s 1978 classic cost a mere $15 million, took in $58.3 million domestically and earned a global tally of $80.3 million.  Again, cheap and profitable.  The sequel hit theaters two years later, but was less successful as it was only able to earn $33.4 million domestically and $39.4 million worldwide.  Still, the budget was the same as the first one   ($15 million) so the follow-up did end up turning a profit, albeit a small one.

2008 saw a first as a film that wasn’t successful enough to spawn a sequel was rebooted.  In 2003, Universal made the film “Hulk”.  The film, from Oscar-winning director Ang Lee, cost the studio about $140 million in production fees and ended up earning a solid haul of $245.4 million globally ($132.2 million of that coming domestically).

What prompted the reboot?  Moviegoers absolutely hated it.  When studios release a big (and often very expensive) tent-pole feature, they don’t mind bad reviews as long as the moviegoers like their product, since we’re the ones that end up making or breaking the movie at the box office.  “Hulk” earned just-okay-to-decent reviews (rated 62% at Rotten Tomatoes), but moviegoers (an extremely poor 34% rating) revolted after the movie’s fat opening weekend ($62.1 million) to the tune of a 70% freefall the following week.  Ouch.

Marvel came up with a grand plan to reboot the film, largely in order to have it introduce and support story arcs aimed at the studio teaming Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, and Captain America in a big budget move based on the comic book “The Avengers”.

With “Iron Man” becoming an unexpected blockbuster in the summer of ’08, “The Incredible Hulk” was released a month later and the film’s storyline, as well as the final scene showcasing Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downy Jr.) talking about a “team” being put together, really got supported “Iron Man” (which had an after the credits scene showcasing Avengers’ team architect Nick Fury played by Sam Jackson) in getting the ball rolling on what Marvel expects to be a huge summer 2012 entry.

While “The Incredible Hulk” earned pretty much the same amount of money as “Hulk” did, pocketing $263.4 million worldwide ($134.8 million of that coming domestically), the movie is widely regarded as the far better of the two films as it earned a fan rating of 75% at Rotten Tomatoes (the critics rating was 66%).  That’s a full 41% stronger than the fan rating of 2003’s “Hulk”.  Plus, the new ‘Hulk’ film was a much stronger performer on home video. 

2009 would see the release of the most successful franchise reboot to date with the release of J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek”.  Paramount pulled the plug on ‘Star Trek’ features after the tenth film, “Star Trek: Nemesis” earned a paltry global sum of $67.3 million ($43.3 million of that coming domestically).  While the series had earned consistently solid numbers, there had yet to be one that earned blockbuster-like number (i.e. earning north of $200 million domestically). 

While the hardcore fans were split on how they felt about Abrams’ movie, it did a great job of bringing in new fans.  The movie pulled in a stellar $257.7 million domestically and $385.7 million worldwide.  The sequel is slated to hit theaters in either December of 2012 or the summer of 2013. 

Two more high profile reboots were added to the hit list in 2010 with “The Karate Kid” ($176.6 million domestically and $359.1 million worldwide) and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” ($63.1 million domestically and $115.7 million worldwide). 

While this year’s “Arthur” reboot was a flop at the box office, “X-Men: First Class” (I don’t care what the studio says, this movie is more reboot than prequel) has so far tallied $320.4 million worldwide ($133.8 million of that coming domestically).  This summer will also see “Conan the Barbarian” hit theaters.  The industry is expecting big things next year for series re-launches to Spider-Man (“The Amazing Spider-Man”) and Superman (“Man of Steel”).

The coming years will see reboots to Alex Cross, Daredevil, Death Wish, Escape from New York, Fantastic Four, Fletch, Gremlins, Highlander, The Howling, Jack Ryan, Police Academy, Porky’s, RoboCop, Short Circuit, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Terminator, and Tomb Raider.

And those are just the ones that are in active development and/or have been greenlit. 

So as you can see, reboots have now become Hollywood’s “get out of jail free card” whenever they have a franchise that gets stale and/or they release a poorly received movie.  Along with prequels, remakes, and sequels, the industry has given themselves many options in terms of creating and extending film franchises.

Until next time…

Mr. Box Office$