5 Most Profitable Hollywood Remakes Of Asian Horror Films
11 remakes since 2002 and too few have been successful...
Since 2002, Hollywood has released 11 remakes of horror films from Japan, South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, and Hong Kong/Singapore. The idea of spirits transcends geographic boundaries, but most of the remakes struggled to translate spirits from the Asian culture into Western productions.
Unsurprisingly, only 13 Sins and The Ring have been certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and hardly any of the films have been massively profitable. At least not in blockbuster terms and certainly not to warrant the confidence the studios had in speeding them into remakes.
But even with small returns, there is some money to be made in remaking foreign horror movies as these five profitable productions prove...
5. Shutter
Budget: $8 million
Box Office: $47 million
Released in 2004, Shutter was a remake of the 2008 Thai film of the same name. At only 9%, Shutter has received the lowest Tomatometer rating among the top five most profitable Hollywood remakes of Asian horror films. Similar to the original film, Shutter focused on spirit photography.
Instead of a Thai setting, most of the story in Shutter was set in Japan and featured an American couple portrayed by Joshua Jackson and Rachael Taylor being haunted by a Japanese ghost portrayed by Megumi Okina.
The hauntings included appearing in the couple’s home and on photographs taken by Jackson’s character. Both the ending of the original and remake featured the ghost sitting on/draping over the back of the male lead.