So all I have to go to judge the original Left Behind series is this trailer for the first one…
I’m sure I could look deeper, but I’m not gonna. The author of the books sued the production company specifically for making such a shitty adaptation, so I don’t think I’m climbing too far out on a snobby limb here.
In any event, the production company and original producers have decided to re-up with the franchise and are planning a reboot, pumping into the production of a whopping… $15 million bucks?!
Let’s pop the brakes for a second. Whether I like it or not, Left Behind is a hugely successful series of books that has sold 65+ million copies, a figure that (from what I can tell with the information out there) pretty thoroughly stomps the oh-so-hyped Hunger Games. It certainly matches it at the very least, and has much more brand equity built up over a decade+. This is a fairly titanic series of novels that in terms of licensing value would be up there with the Twilights and such (though obviously on the lower end of that particular spectrum). So whether it’s because someone stupidly sold some rights before the phenomenon hit and nobody is letting go, or just because this series can’t catch a break the books are still stuck with Cloud Ten pictures backing the feature films.
Apparently the studio has been inspired by Sherwood Films’ success, with Fireproof and Courageous making a fair amount of money on limited budgets. That seems to be the model they’re aiming for, suggesting Left Behind will become a marginally better-looking and slightly more well-produced piece of crap that barely belongs in a theater. The script is apparently still written like an epic disaster movie, which means their 2011 $15m won’t go all that much farther than their year 2000 $4m. It’s stunning that nobody involved has sold their proverbial soul to a big studio so they can make the $80m dollar version that dilutes the blatant Christian themes ever-so-slightly to aim for the mainstream. It’s not like Universal couldn’t sell a rapture movie, for Christ’s sake.
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Why reboot if they already had gold the first time? “When you hit oil, you stop fucking drilling.” Think Kirk Cameron said that in church one time.
I can easily see them making these into a very successful and watchable series of films. There is definitely an audience for this (as a number of my relatives will attest to, they being massive fans of these books). But do you really think this “franchise” is anything like the potential market for Hunger Games or Twilight?
Will there be Left Behind costumes for Halloween? Are tweens going to go gaga for Left Behind apparel, notebooks, backpacks, and lunch pails? Are kids going to color Left Behind coloring books? Is the main character a misunderstood tween hero(ine) on the verge of self-discovery and his/her first love? Will there be a Left Behind ride at Universal Studios or a Left Behind theme park, where you can buy Left Behind merch and hang out in authentic recreations of famous scenes and moments from the books?
Seriously, Left Behind could easily do the same box office as the Bourne or Davinci Code movies were it done right, but it’s no Harry Potter, Twilight, or Hunger Games. Those are actual franchises with broad opportunities for merchandising and demographic saturation.
Yeah, I assume with something like The Hunger Games, either kids are buying them for themselves, or parents are buying them for their kids because they think they’ll enjoy them as novels. With Left Behind, I’m sure a good chunk of those 65 million were bought by churches to hand out as propaganda, or bought by parents as an indoctrination tool. The parallel there isn’t so direct.
Though with that being said, JoelCE is totally right: this could make a ton of money if made well, but it’ll never make the same money as a non-propagandistic franchise.
The DTV series should obviously be the next Franchise Me topic.
I bought the first few books and enjoyed them, even with the overtly Christian crap. After that, they devolved into poorly written bs. The movie was crap and I don’t see this company making anything better, aside from a bigger budget.
It could be epic. But we’re not gonna see that.
They’re where they belong. Leave ’em be.
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