10 Signs An Upcoming Film Is Going To Bomb HARD
3. It's An Expensive Reboot Nobody Asked For
If studios aren't busy making belated sequels, they might decide instead to revive a defunct but recognisable property with an inevitable reboot.
And while dozens of properties have been successfully dusted off by matching an inspired premise with talented artists and a modest budget, sometimes studios get a little over-confident that name branding is enough to ensure sizable profits.
And so, there are innumerable examples of Hollywood resurrecting franchises for needlessly pricey reboots which, if we're being honest, none of us really asked for in the first place. To anyone with any idea of how the film industry works, box office failure is virtually guaranteed.
The 2016 Ghostbusters reboot was both wildly over-budgeted and strayed too far from the originals, while the upcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife has been conceived on just a fraction of the price tag with direct ties to the first two films.
Then there's Guy Ritchie's King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, which blew $175 million on a gritty revival of the IP that few were interested in, before Robin Hood basically got the very same treatment, Hellboy made a feckless comeback without Guillermo del Toro or Ron Perlman, and last year's Charlie's Angels rehash only barely made its budget back before fading into the ether.
If you're going to bring a dormant series back to life, it's more sensibly accomplished on a modest(ish) budget - $30-70 million for most projects, and definitely under $100 million.
Instead, the aforementioned examples got lost in a sea of bloated, CGI-addled bombast, and audiences couldn't have given much less of a damn.