The Remake of a Classic That Lost $100 Million Navigates the Netflix Skies- Armessa Movie News

Countless classic movies have been remade over the years, but there aren’t many that share the same level of discrepancy between 2004’s Around the World in 80 Days and its classic forebear.

The original 1956 adaptation of Jule Verne’s classic novel recouped its budget seven times over at the box office, with the whimsical adventure’s $42 million haul roughly equivalent to $465 million when adjusted for inflation. In addition, the film found itself nominated for eight Academy Awards and ended up winning five of them, including Best Picture.

Meanwhile, handing regular Adam Sandler collaborator Frank Coraci a $110 million budget to retell the tale couldn’t have gone much worse, with Around the World in 80 Days reaching just $72 million in ticket sales, securing a pair of nominations at the Razzies, and losing anywhere up to $100 million when expenses, marketing, and distribution costs had all been factored in.

Taking an anachronistic approach to the source material for the sake of cutting-edge visual effects and an uptick in action was a decent enough spin on such a well-told story, but critics and audiences vociferously rejected the end product. That’s entirely fair because it sucked hard, although Netflix subscribers have opted to indulge the fantastical feature for reasons unknown.

Per FlixPatrol, Around the World in 80 Days has taken to the skies to orbit the streaming service’s most-watched list, putting new wind into the sails of an egregious financial failure that threatened to sully the reputation of its legendary Oscar-winning predecessor along the way.