Hollywood Goes 0-for-5 on Eighties Remakes in 2011

Paramount

Over the weekend, Footloose and The Thing stiffed at the box office, opening to a respective $16.1 million and $8.7 million and placing second and third behind week-old Hugh Jackman robot comedy Real Steel ($16.3 million), itself a burgeoning disappointment. Which means that all of 2011’s eighties remakes have officially failed. Including: April’s $40 million-budgeted Arthur (total domestic gross: $33 million); and August’s $30 million Fright Night ($18.1 million) and $90 million Conan the Barbarian ($21.3 million); and September’s $25 million Straw Dogs ($10.3 million). Were these just five cases of bad luck? Or did Hollywood somehow overestimate the demand for poorly executed do-overs of badly aged thirty-year-old non-classics? Either way, best of luck to the studios behind impending remakes of Bloodsport, Evil Dead, Red Dawn, Robocop, and The Toxic Avenger.

Weekend Estimates [Box Office Mojo]

Filed Under: Arthur, Box office, Conan the Barbarian, Footloose, Movies