Five reboots that missed the mark

Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 is not alone. Here are five followups that fell short of hopes after the original’s success

1 Ghostbusters

Paul Feig’s all-female 2016 reimagining of the 1980s franchise (including the 1984 original and 1989’s Ghostbusters II) starred Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones. The $144-million film earned just $229 million, well below the $300-million break-even point.

2 The Matrix Reloaded

This actually did well in terms of ticket sales, pulling in $742 million on a $150-million budget. But the Wachowski siblings’ 2003 sequel to their pioneering 1999 sci-fi classic received very mixed reviews, and hasn’t aged well.

3 Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace

Again, big bucks at the box office, terrible movie. George Lucas’s longawaited 1999 followup to his original trilogy brought in $1 billion on a $115-million budget, setting the stage for many more sequels to come.

4 Psycho

Certain films just shouldn’t be touched. Gus Van Sant’s 1998 remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 classic starred Anne Heche and Viggo Mortensen. The $60-million film was critically panned and did poorly at the box office, earning just $37 million.

5 Blues Brothers 2000

Perhaps getting the old band back together wasn’t such a great idea after all. Dan Aykroyd, John Goodman, Aretha Franklin, James Brown and B.B. King weren’t enough to save John Landis’s 1998 revisiting of the beloved 1980 musical. It took in $14 million — half its $28-million budget.