Remakes - The Karate kid

Karate kid

The Karate kid is a perfect example of the phrase; Milking a Cash cow. Originally made back in 1984 the karate kid was an instant classic enjoyed by people of all ages and became an iconic film to watch in the 80’s. Directed by John G. Avildsen and Starring Ralph Macchio as the main protagonist, Daniel Larusso, the story follows young Daniel who is relentlessly tormented and bullied at school after moving to a new city with his mother. The handyman of the building is the eccentric but kindly Mr Miyagi (Noriyuki ‘Pat’ Morita) who agrees to teach Daniel karate after he saved Daniel from an attack from his bullies. The story is a classic and really makes you feel sorry for Daniel the underdog because we have all felt this way at one point or another. The way the Director uses Character personality to make you feel certain ways is very effective and captivates the audience well. The film was distributed by Columbia pictures and raked in $90,815,558 at the box office. In 2010 the film was remade purely for financial gain and is often criticized by the fans of the original 1984 edition, Starring Jaden smith and Jackie Chan the film is pumped full of everything or instant recognition and millions of dollars to roll in. Jackie Chan is a well-respected and well known martial artist and instantly recognizable film star, Jaden smith is the son of the extremely famous will smith which means that he doesn’t even have to do anything to be instantly recognizable as the son of will and also become very famous. Following the Same basic Story of the original the film feels so artificially produced to a point where there feels like no artistic merit behind it. One of the main Reasons the karate kid was remade?  Synergies. Synergies are products that the film companies can sell to further increase Revenue beyond ticket sales. These can range from everything from hats and clothes to Games and phone covers and such, Merchandising is such a huge part of the Re made karate kid it feels less about the film and more about buying some mass produced products with the logo and title on it.  Even the soundtrack felt artificially forced for popularity with the main song being ‘Never say never’ Written by about 4 different people and sang by Justin Bieber and Jaden smith. The song itself was mostly positively received but was not as popular as probably expected Reaching only low places on the singles charts around the world (e.g Uk – 34) but Reached Number 8 in Americas Billboard hot 100 charts, (Big surprise there).Generally the Film was well Received and made millions as expected Raking in about $359,126,022 from just ticket sales alone. This Rendition of the film was also Distributed by Columbia pictures But this time around Featured a different director; Harold Zwart. The thing about annoying the fans of the original karate kid is it will make them want to watch the original for nostalgic reasons, so obviously this allowed Columbia pictures to re-release the original karate kid on dvd and even went as far to bundle it with the new copy and charged twice as much. Rather sneaky but cleverly done . All in all the Karate kid 2010 could be seen in a more positive light  by saying that the film companies simply wanted to bring something iconic and loved by many parents into the modern era for their children to love as well but in a more relevant and recognizable format.  and so we come to the end of the remakes articles where we have explored areas such as Synergies, horizontal integration and multiple other factors that influence a remake.