FWIW, The Ten Commandments has been remade in telenovela form in Brazil. Lasts only slightly longer than the film 
From what I read, it supposedly has more Jesus in it than the '59 version but yeah the promo is all about the action.
That is another factor - sometimes you DO get a “definitive” remake of a story, and trying to make it “for a new generation” requires more than merely more sophisticated FX, you’d need a full reinterpretation/reboot and how the heck do you do that with a religious classic…
Morgan Freeman burnout.
If only they had added vampires!
(tears in eyes) That was beautiful. I want to subscribe to your newsletter.
I just checked Box Office Mojo for the top movies so far in 2016. The highest ones that weren’t remakes or sequels were The Secret Life of Pets and Zootopia. If you ignore animated movies, the highest ones are Central Intelligence and Bad Moms. Overall, nineteen of the movies in the top twenty-five are remakes or sequels.
Free State Of Jones: Matthew McConaughey as a Confederate Army deserter who rebels against the rebellion! Didn’t break even. A Hologram For The King: Tom Hanks as a washed-up American salesman trying to close a deal with Saudi royalty! Didn’t break even. The Brothers Grimsby: Sacha Baron Cohen as a flat-broke pubgoer who gets roped into superspy hijinks! Didn’t break even. The Finest Hours: Chris Pine as a Coast Guard crewman struggling to save lives at sea during a nor’easter! Didn’t break even. Midnight Special: Michael Shannon as the father of a boy that cultists think has special abilities! Didn’t break even. The 33: Antonio Banderas leading Chilean miners to safety! Didn’t break even. By The Sea: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt as a couple with a marriage that’s falling apart! Didn’t break even.
(Don’t confuse that last one there with In The Heart Of The Sea: Chris Hemsworth as a whaler in the 1800s! Does that count, or is it effectively a Moby Dick remake? I mean, either way, it didn’t break even; you’re just not getting a hundred million dollars back at the box office with a guy who throws a mean harpoon; stop trying to make ‘fetch’ happen, it’s not going to happen.)
A committed follower of the wise teachings of the Michael Caine “never pass up a paying gig” school 
Don’t give them any ideas.
Regards,
Shodan
The commercials show a split second shot of the star’s face and a long shot of Morgan Freeman but it’s obviously not his movie. And he is on the posters. When you feel the need to market a movie based on the 6th billed actor there is a problem.
I think there’s a certain… iconic-ness, or gravitas to some movies that makes them especially hard to remake- a combination of cinematic excellence and definition of a genre. The 1959 movie and the “Ten Commandments” (also starring Heston) kind of set that bar for the religious movie genre, and are going to be extremely hard to successfully remake as a result, at least for the next few decades.
Some movies/stories don’t have their “Ben Hur”- look at how many Romeo and Juliet movies there have been, and the numerous loose adaptations, such as West Side Story there have been.
I actually saw it because there aren’t many choices here in Taiwan and you take what you can.
It’s really poorly directed. The story should be better and more compelling but it’s not. It just felt empty. The chariot scene wasn’t even that good.
I have no idea why it was marketed so heavily to Christians. The Jesus character was completely flat. There didn’t seem to be any particular reason why Ben-Hur was that attracted to him.
I can see why it bombed. I wouldn’t recommend it.
This is me! Wait, what? I opened this thread thinking that we were going to discuss why the OLD version of the movie did badly in theatres or something.
I’m only 40 and I’ve heard of it!
He’d better get an Oscar nomination.
Agreed. It’d be like redoing The Godfather in ~10 years from now, or The Lord of the Rings movies in ~40 years. Why bother? You can’t improve on the iconic-ness so the new movie will always suffer.
I saw Noah in the theater and it was easily one on the short list of worst films I’ve seen on the big screen in the 21st century. I saw Exodus (as much as I could of it) on HBO and it wasn’t much better. I wondered if two such bad back-to-back sandal epics hurt Ben Hur.
Plus I hear they blatantly ripped off the pod race scene from Phantom Menace.
Heck, as long as we’re talking about 1959, George Clooney is the perfect age to try filling Cary Grant’s shoes in a NORTH BY NORTHWEST remake.
I, uh, wouldn’t recommend that. No, not even if Martin Landau agrees to cameo.
There were actually quite a few ads on TV for this. But it depends on the TV program and the target audience correlation. And the ads I saw were absolutely awful. When a movie can’t even put together good clips well, you’ve got a stinker on your hands. (And I still didn’t know they were doing a remake of this until a few weeks ago. Very, very bad PR for a film with this budget.)
There are also virtually no name stars. Morgan Freeman in a secondary role ain’t going to draw them in. Ben-Hur himself (to me) is the weird face guy from Boardwalk Empire. So I wouldn’t recognize him without the mask thing. The target demo (churchy types) generally aren’t going to big fans of either.
It’s clearly supposed to be one of those low budget Christian Message movies that had a decimal misplaced in the budget. Where the money ended up is interesting question.
Hollywood, of late, has been great at brushing off domestic box office disaster by pointing out how lucrative the overseas market (mainly China) is now. And I’ve actually seen people mention that this might save the film. This film? China? You’ve got to be kidding me.
It’s an epic disaster movie.
And look at Freeman’s credits. He’s never the lead. He’s the guy who supports the lead.
Every time I see him now, I think of the black guy in MAD Magazine’s satire of The Sandpiper:
“I’m this film’s token Negro. I stand around saying profound things.”