Remakes are common in modern film and are influenced by several factors. These include using popular stars to attract wider audiences, advancing technology to improve visual effects, capitalizing on the success and recognition of original films, and creating synergies through related merchandise. Recent successful remakes like Quarantine, The Karate Kid, and War of the Worlds employed these strategies, had larger budgets than the originals, and earned significantly higher box office returns, while also potentially raising the profiles of the first films. Key factors in their remakes included quickly releasing Quarantine while interest in the Spanish film REC was high, casting Jackie Chan and using Will Smith's son to appeal broadly in The Karate Kid remake, and employing advanced

1. Remakes are a very common part of the modern day film industry and more and more are
being released every year. Remakes usually involves taking old films and remaking them into
a more modern version but sometimes it can involve taking a recent foreign film and making
a remake where the film is in English. Recent remakes include films such as War of the
Worlds, Karate Kid, Casino Royale, Ocean’s Eleven, Dawn of the Dead, Quarantine, House of
Wax, A Nightmare on Elm Street and many more. The factors which influence remakes
include synergy, which is the selling of products relating to the film, they can make more
money off the remake through this. Also it can raise the profile of the original film; if the
film is 30-40 years old and quite unknown then it might gain a bit more attention from the
remake. Another factor is when there isn’t very much out in the cinema at a certain point,
releasing a remake of a popular older film can fill in the gap and attract a bigger audience
because there isn’t much else to watch at the cinema.
A popular recent make is the horror film Quarantine, which is a remake of Spanish horror
film REC. Quarantine was released only a year after REC which was done intentionally
because REC was a popular film in English speaking countries and releasing Quarantine as
soon as possible would attract a larger audience because REC would still be quite popular.
People would much rather watch a version of the film in English than in Spanish so it would
attract a lot of viewers.REC was released around the same time as films such as Cloverfield
and Diary of the Dead which are also horror films done from the point of view of the
character, these were quite popular around this time and probably helped REC/Quarantine
be as successful as they were. Film audiences were beginning to demand a bigger role in
cinema and so a lot of films where they felt part of the action were released in order to
satisfy their needs. REC was directed by Spanish director Jaume Balaguero, was released in
2007 and the distributor is Filmax International. The budget for the film was a very low sum
of €1,500,000 and the box office takings were €32,492,948. Also REC spawned two sequels,
REC 2 was released 2009 and was directed by Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza, REC 3:
Genesis was released in 2012 and was directed just by Paco Plaza this time. Neither were
nearly as popular as the remake but got a fair amount of attention due to the success of the
original. REC follows a TV reporter, Angela Vidal and her camera man Pablo go into an
apartment building to get coverage of an old woman trapped in her apartment for their
show ‘While You’re Asleep’ but end up becoming trapped in the building and there is a virus
spreading that causes people to basically become zombies, Angela and Pablo have to stay
alive long enough to escape from the apartment building.
Quarantine is an American remake of REC which was directed by John Erick Dowdleand was
released in 2008, a year after REC. It was distributed by Screen Gems. The film’s budget was
significantly larger than REC’s, $12 million but the box office takings were slightly higher,
$41,319,906. Like REC, a sequel was made but only one this time (Quarantine 2: Terminal)
which strayed away from the story of the REC films and took place in an airport. Likewise to
REC, Quarantine was filmed in a “found footage” style where see everything from the point
of view of a camera which the main characters are using, this follows what REC did and also

2. a trend that was being used in lots of films around that, mainly horror films. It allows the
audience to feel more involved in the film and that was a big selling point of REC so it was
carried over to the remake Quarantine. The plot of the film was basically the same as REC,
even the protagonist’s name remained the same (Angela Vidal). It just followed the TV
presenter into the apartment buildings as they all tried to survive against an outbreak.
Quarantine was released only a year after REC, this was done intentionally to expand the
popularity of REC and earn more money out of those films. REC was a very successful film
but was obviously in Spanish meaning some people may not want to watch it, American film
companies would see it as an opportunity to make a lot of money because REC was still
popular at the time and the quicker they released Quarantine the more success it would
bring. Also things such as synergy would help make more money, merchandise based on
REC and Quarantine would help the film companies make even more money. When
Quarantine was released, there were quite a films filmed in that style, Cloverfield, Diary of
the Dead etc. Releasing Quarantine at that point would make sense because those are the
kind of films that were released around that time and people would obviously go and see
Quarantine because of that, also when you take into account that is a remake of REC which
was also very successful then you would expect Quarantine to be one of the most successful
of its time.
Another example of a popular recent remake is The Karate Kid. The 2010 version, directed
by Harald Zwart is a direct remake of the film which was released in 1984, directed by John
G. Avildsen. Likewise to REC/Quarantine, there were a number of factors which influenced
this remake, one of these is the fact that Jackie Chan stars in the 2010 version, this is going
to help the film reach a wider audience and encourage people in Asia to watch it because he
is such a big star over there, the cast in the original Karate Kid weren’t as famous and were
only really known for those films. Also Will Smith, who is a massive star in terms of film was
the producer of the 2010 Karate Kid, this gave him the chance to cast his son Jaden in the
film to help make him a big star because it would be a popular film and also because it
would appeal to a wider audience because of Jackie Chan, it would give Jaden a wider range
of fans, so realistically it was a very good idea by Will Smith. Those factors are both referred
to as star theory which basically means using stars to get the biggest audience possible.
Another factor which influenced the remake of the Karate Kid is the fact that Columbia
Pictures, the company that produced the 1984 version, is now a subsidiary of Sony. This
would allow Sony to make a remake of the Karate Kid, and taking other factors into account
such as star theory it seemed like a good idea. This is referred to as horizontal integration
and can quite often be a leading cause for the creation of remakes. At the time Sony
pictures were probably short of ideas and didn’t have too much going for them in terms of
making money, and making a remake of the Karate Kid would be a great way to make
money because the original was popular and this remake could have been even more
popular. Also because the Karate Kid is a film that appeals to quite a large age range, it
opened the possibility of lots of merchandise and synergies. Quite often when a film has just

3. been released there are lots of products in shops related to the film, and there could be
more products because it could appeal to both children and adults, particularly adults who
were a fan of the original. Things such as web apps, posters, t-shirts, possibly toys for a
younger audience, soundtrack on CD as well as sales of the original 1984 movie would be
sold in many shops, allowing Sony to make even more money from these synergies.
The original 1984 Karate Kid film had a total box office success of $90,815,558 compared to
the box office success of the 2010 remake which was $359,126,022 on a budget of $40
million. So you can see the remake has brought in a lot more money than the original and a
lot of the deciding factors in the creation of the remake have most likely helped in the
amount of money brought in. Also it probably raised the attention of the 1984 movie
because generally, the original is considered better than the remake, it may have influenced
people to watch the original.
Another very popular remake that has been made fairly recently is War of the Worlds,
released in 2005 and a remake of the original Sci-fi film which was released in 1953, directed
by Steven Spielberg. This time around one of the main factors in influencing the remake was
technology, back in 1953, the technology and special effects would have been very limited
and probably looked a bit comical. The 2005 version had features such as CGI which allowed
for much better aliens and other main elements in the film. Also things such as explosions
and big, epic action scenes would have looked a lot better, particularly in a modern day
cinema or on a modern day television. This would allow people who liked the original to see
a good remake in better quality and make it more enjoyable for them, or for younger people
who saw the original and didn’t like it, this may be appealing to them because the effects
would be more up to date. Another big factor in producing the remake of War of the Worlds
is star theory, Tom Cruise was a very popular actor at the time and still is now so casting him
was a very good decision in terms of making money, he is admired by a lot of movie fans.
Also Dakota Fanning, who was quite young at the time, was and still is largely popular with a
young audience so that could also possibly attract a younger audience as well as a slightly
older audience. The opportunity to use these stars would have influenced the remake
because they would play a large part in making money. Another big and also quite unusual
factor in the creation of the remake was the chance Steven Spielberg had to create a
political subtext and convey a message. The sub text refers to the 9/11 attacks and basically
represents them as an alien attack, showing people running scared, unaware of what’s
happening and showing it on the news, it would express similar feelings to 9/11. Spielberg
used it as an opportunity to make a statement about terrorism and the fear of being
invaded. Also in the original 1953 film, there was a similar sub text which related to being
invaded, it was released not long after the war so a lot of countries were scared of being
invaded and war breaking out once again, director Byron Haskin showed this in the form an
alien invasion and war breaking out once again. Synergy could have been a potential factor,
although not as much as The Karate Kid but merchandise would have been released at the
time. Like the Karate Kid, it would appeal to a younger and older audience because there is

4. both a popular child actor and adult actor within the film. These synergies would have been
another factor in influencing the remake and would have helped make even more money.
The Steven Spielberg remake had a total box office success of $591,745,550, on a budget of
$132 million compared to the $2,000,000 box office takings of the original 1953 movie, so as
you can see the box office takings were a lot greater in the modern remake which was
probably because of the factors mentioned. There is also a possibility that the remake raised
the profile of the 1953 film because people may want to see if it is better or not or see the
difference between the two films.
Overall remakes are a big part of the film industry, there are lots of factors which influence
remakes and generally they do bring in quite a lot of money, usually more money than the
original.