This document discusses two remakes: Quarantine, a 2008 American remake of the 2007 Spanish film Rec, and The Karate Kid, a 2010 remake of the 1984 film of the same name. It notes that remakes are popular due to financial benefits. Quarantine was remade quickly by Screen Gems to capitalize on interest in Rec while it was still fresh. Though it had a larger budget, Quarantine did not earn more than the original Rec. The Karate Kid remake earned much more than the original due to star power of actors like Will Smith and Jackie Chan, as well as extensive merchandise like clothing and music.

1. Unit 26
Film Studies
same film, different time and place:
Remakes are very popular amongst directors due to the financial benefits that come from
producing one. A remake that has been done for a particular purpose is the horror film
Quarantine, directed by John Eric Dowdle and distributed by Screen Gems in October 2008.
This film was a remake of the Spanish film Rec, directed by Jaume Balguero Paco Plaza and
distributed by Film Flex International in November 2007.
The original film Rec was produced for a foreign audience but John Dowdle thought that
Rec had potential however he decided it would be a lot more of a successful and popular
film if it was remade in the USA for an English audience as it would be able to target a wider
audience range and they knew that people would rather watch a film in their language than
sit there reading subtitles, as we know ourselves everyone would prefer not to do that. So
even though most remakes are usually done quite a few years after the original, sometimes
even a couple of decades after with this specific remake Dowdle saw a film that could
potentially be great if they remade it with a larger budget so where Recs budget was 1.5
million, Quarantine times that by 8 and had a budget of 12 million.
The reason Screen Gems decided to get the remake out so fast was because they were
aiming to try and earn as much money as they possibly could from it, so because there was
still a lot of interest around Rec and they knew that they could make it better they wanted
to do it as soon as possible and according to Quarantines director John Eric Dowdle, in an
interview he stated that “the remake wouldn’t have been as successful as it was if we had
waited”
The similarities with the films is that they was both shot in handheld documentary style, the
reason this was originally done was because director Jaume Balguero was trying to target
teenagers with this film as it is a teen horror so he wanted to make the film screen look in a
way that was like the experience of playing video games as he knew that’s what the majority
of his audience was interested in. This also abled the audience to be able to come up close
to the horror and feel as though they was a part of the film itself and everything that was
happening. This technique always proves to be very successful as when the audience feel
like they are involved and everything is happening to them to, it makes the develop a
deeper connection for the film they are watching and the characters that are in the film.
However not everyone was taken by this idea some people didn’t like how shaky the
footage had been done and on reviews said that they would have preferred it to be shot
differently with camera men using their cameras on tripods however the film was directed
at teenagers and this chosen camera style was very popular amongst them like the director
had initially hoped for, therefor when it came to John Dowdle creating the remake he
decided to continue with that style.
However despite Screen Gems spending more money on making the film they technically
didn’t earn more money than Rec because even though Rec’s box office takings totalled to

2. $32,492,948 and Quarantines were $41,319,960 when you take away the amount of money
they spent on the film and what they earned, Quarantine: $29,319,960 and Rec:
$31,992,948 so although its close the original did end up earning more than the remake.
Another remake that has been done is 2010 Action Family film, The Karate Kid, directed by
Harold Zwart and is a remake of the 1984 film The Karate Kid directed by John G. Avildsen,
this film was a contemporary remake with the original version.
The remake was distributed by Sony Pictures and because the distributors of the original
film – Columbia Pictures is now a subsidiary of Sony, Harold Zwart did not have to ask for
permission to the film, this process is called horizontal integration.
With the original film being made over 20 years ago gave the remake an advantage due to
the advancement of technology now, however because the film was so long ago and they
was trying to attract a younger audience they would have to make the film look interesting
as they could to get viewers as their audience wouldn’t remember the original version as
that was the technique that Quarantine used when they was doing a remake of Rec because
they wanted to do it whilst people still knew about Rec. However The Karate Kid used
techniques such as synergies and star theory to make the remake more successful and
popular as the original which they definitely did do as the remake earned $359,126,022
whereas the original only earned $90,815,558.
The story line for both films is: After work causes a single mother to move to China with her
young son, after being bullied in his new school the boy embraces Kung Fu taught to him by
a master who shows him that there is more to marshal arts than fighting. So although the
story lines for both films are the same certain aspects of the film have changed in order to
improve it.
One technique that Karate Kid uses is Star Theory as the film was produced by Will Smith
who is a big star himself and a well-known actor decided to cast his son as the leading role;
Jaden Smith who was also very popular. Jackie Chan, a big star in in Asia and Western
Hampshire also starred in the remake so these actor choices helped to enhance the films
fame and this helped Sony Pictures, the distributors make more money as having popular
actors made more people want to watch the film, there for creating a more popular film.
Another way they made a lot of money was though merchandise, this film made a lot of
this, they had clothes, web apps, toys, posters, movie soundtracks that featured a very
popular teenage singer Justin Bieber bringing a song out for the film that he sung with Jaden

3. Smith. Doing things like that also helps to advertise films to other people when they see the
merchandise as well as earning lots more money.