Will You Watch Footloose (2011)?

The old Footloose came out 27 years ago, in 1984. Yet a lot of people absolutely hate the fact that the movie is being remade. Those few who did go out to see the new movie (that saw the original), seem to like it. I am indifferent about a remake, but I am not hostile to the idea either.

The old movie made a killing, bringing in over 80 million off of an 8 million dollar budget. The new movie has a much higher budget, at $25 million, but has yet to break even. Even adjusted for inflation, the studios put more money into this film than they had the original.

The bottom line is that these remakes pay off for the studios. The 2009 remake of Fame brought in $77 million, from a budget of $18 million. That is far more than the original earned, at $22 million. Sequels which can easily be confused with remakes, such as Tron Legacy, pay off as well. Tron Legacy brought in $400 million, on a budget of $170 million. The original Tron was produced on one tenth of that budget but only brought in $33 million.

Kids that missed the original can see what all of the excitement is about. One can argue that tickets cost more these days, so the high box office figures for remakes is not all that impressive, but if Footloose can bring in $250 million, it will have been just as successful as the original. Unfortunately that means that it will have to keep up the momentum it had opening weekend for about, well, 16 weeks. By then another movie, well, another remake, would have come out.