Why Universal Studios’ Two Dracula Movies Flopped
By Movieguide® Contributor
Universal Studios released two Dracula movies this year, both of which were commercial failures due to their reliance on excessive violence and gore.
Because of Dracula’s long history, particularly in cinema, many studios avoid making new movies about this story. Universal Studios, however, took a gamble this year and released two unique adaptations.
RENFIELD, released in April, focused on Dracula’s lesser-known assistant – Renfield. A rare horror-comedy, the movie follows the assistant as he joins a self-help group and is encouraged to stand up to his boss. The movie was ruined by unnecessary amounts of gore and an abundance of profanity. A portion of Movieguide®’s review reads:
RENFIELD tries to be a witty, funny horror comedy, with an extravagant performance by Nicholas Cage as the sanguinary, narcissistic count. The filmmakers try to give their movie some heart by focusing on the title character’s desire to be a hero and help the female police detective. However, the movie’s wit, comedy and heart are ruined by lots of really gruesome, bloody violence and nearly constant obscenities, especially lots of “f” words. RENFIELD is one of the most bloody, violent mainstream horror movies ever made.
The movie only grossed $26.7 million at the box office, substantially below its $65 million production budget – a high amount for a horror movie. Even with the draw of Nicholas Cage as Dracula, the movie couldn’t capture an audience due to its excessive violence, gore and profanity.
Universal’s most recent Dracula movie – THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER – has also failed. The movie attempts to expand on the story by focusing on a single chapter from the “Dracula” novel as the vampire secretly boards a ship sailing from Bulgaria to England, wreaking havoc on the crew.
Again, the movie’s plot line is marred by excessive violence and a focus on political correctness. The movie also diminishes the power of Christ as the Christian faith and Christian symbols are ineffective against a demonic occult character – a change from the novel. A portion of Movieguide®’s review reads:
THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER is a well-made horror movie. It has lots of bloody and scary violence. However, the movie’s humanist and politically correct themes dilute the brief but positive Christian references in the Captain’s log. Moreover, unlike the novel, the crew members’ Christian faith is ineffective against Dracula. Finally, THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER has a few crude, lewd references to immoral behavior and brief foul language.
Like RENFIELD, THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER is set to be a box office flop. Although the movie is still in theaters, its low $6.5 million opening weekend leaves its prospects grim. The movie carried a slightly more reasonable $45 million production budget but will be lucky to make even half of it back.
Universal Studios’ emphasis on excessive violence, gore and profanity in both movies resulted in their failures.
In recent years, studios have found that even adult audiences are not receptive to excessive gore and violence.
Furthermore, these movies decided being politically correct took priority over accuracy to the original source material, even making Christian symbols ineffective against the vampires—a major change from the novel.
Hopefully, Universal will learn from these mistakes and funnel more resources toward movies based on strong morals. Their hit horror movie M3GAN, for example, which was released at the beginning of the year, exceeded expectations, thanks in part to its conservative, traditional values.
Movieguide® previously reported on M3GAN:
The PG-13 rated thriller about a robot doll named Model 3 Generative Android, or M3GAN, also earned over $14M internationally, pushing the movie’s worldwide totals to $45M.
According to Variety, the Gerard Johnstone directed flick had an estimated budget of $12M.
Despite M3GAN’s marketing as a horror, slasher, science fiction movie, Movieguide®’s review posits that its PG-13 rating and strong worldview elements helped it to exceed expectations.
While M3GAN has some positive elements, discernment should be used before seeing the movie in theaters due to foul language and violence.
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