class=”alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-24906″ style=”margin: 10px” src=”https://www.heyuguys.com/images/2010/06/The-Karate-Kid-220×150.jpg” alt=”” width=”220″ height=”150″ />This past weekend saw two big movies open at the US box office. There were high hopes for The Karate Kid and The A-Team, and they enjoyed remarkably differing fortune at the box office. With an opening weekend gross of around $25M, The A-Team only made a small percentage of its production budget, while The Karate Kid opened with a massive $68M, against a budget of $40M.

Both are reboots of much loved 80’s properties, and are surely just attempts to milk some more money out of our collective nostalgia. So why has one cash-in so outperformed the other? Here’s five potential reasons.

1. Trailers

It all began with the trailers. Whilst the promos for Joe Carnahan’s action film oozed cheese, bad dialogue and over the top set pieces, the trailers for The Karate Kid evoked more of the spirit of its source material. It threw in some reflections of the original film, whilst updating them for a more contemporary audience. It seemed to understand the charm of the original film, and translated it perfectly to the present day. The A-Team however threw in some lazy one liners evocative of the eighties series, without showing them in any relatable context, and almost seemed to be mocking the much loved TV series. The A-Team stank of cynical money-grabbing, whilst The Karate Kid looked to be a genuine attempt to bring a classic story to a 21st century audience.

2. Buzz

Because of the differing success of the trailers, The A-Team was written off pretty early as a trashy, poorly conceived action film, whilst the enthusiasm for The Karate Kid was greatly increased. Then along came the review scores. Currently, The Karate Kid holds a 69% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. Conversely, Carnahan’s picture trails with 52% rotten. Whilst on a broad level i don’t think review scores mean all that much anymore (particularly considering the relatively small percentage of the theatre audience that internet movie sites actually hit), if you are given a choice between two movies aimed at similar demographics, that 20% review score differential is going to obviously curry favour for the picture with the greater numbers.

4. Story

We all loved The A-Team. It was pure eighties. There were bullets flying, but no-one got shot. BA had superhuman strength, taking on several goons at a time. Murdoch was Howlin’ Mad, and we all watched with anticipation as sparks flew from the heroes’ welding tools, as they put together another hastily constructed tank. We enjoyed watching it, but even then, deep down, we knew it was rubbish. The same basic story every week, with a very similar setting, it was The Seven Samurai on a pitiful budget. The Karate Kid, on the other hand, had a really very touching story at its heart. The young son of a single mother, moving to a new school, being bullied by the local teenagers, was heartbreaking. The friendship struck up between Daniel Larusso and Mr Miyagi was compelling, helped greatly by the overwhelming likability of the quiet, noble Miyagi as played by Pat Morita. The underdog story wasn’t original thematically, but was presented in a compelling and fresh way, through a young boy overcoming the odds using martial arts. The Karate aspect was very much of its time, when a generation of young western boys became fascinated with the hand to hand combat styles of the Far East.

3. Demographic

There are many reasons why The Karate Kid proved more compelling to the movie-going audience than The A-Team. One of the biggest is its broader appeal, particularly to a family audience. Starring a young teenager, with a wholesome story at heart, and no guns in sight, it is a much more suitable option for a family trip to the cinema. With a love story contained within, it also is probably more of a date movie than The A-Team. The A-Team is pitched to a very specific demographic. An over the top, boys own action television series, it appealed to 18-30’s males, but not really to women in the slightest. With no fond memories of watching the TV series as young girls, there is not much really to draw them in.

5. Big Willie Style

Will Smith is the box office man who can. Despite his prolonged absence from the big screen, his influence obviously still holds sway, even rubbing off on his family. If the Karate Kid of the title had been played by an unknown, i don’t think there would have been as much talk surrounding the movie, particularly early on. There was a lot of criticism for the casting of Jaden Smith, with people decrying the fact that ‘Will Smith’s kid’ had won the role through nepotism. Whether this is the case or not, i’m not sure. But it is clear that people were interested to see what kind of job he could do, and no doubt there were many who went into the movie hoping he would fail. The presence of Jackie Chan obviously helped too. It took a long time for Chan to gain cinematic credibility in North America. After big successes with Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon, he had finally won audiences over. His recent movies have begun to damage that, so his suitable casting here has come at a great time. The cast of the A-Team have had success. Last year, The Hangover and District 9 were two of the surprise hits of the summer, bringing relative unknowns Bradley Cooper and Sharlto Copley to the fore. One big role does not however make a bankable star. Liam Neeson is well respected, but despite winning his action credentials with 2008’s Taken, he has never really been a box office draw. The stars of the A-team movie are reasonably well known, but the interest and curiosity factor really just aren’t there.

Movies based on television series don’t traditionally do all that well, and TV shows that are suitable for adaptation tend to have more of a cult following than a big mainstream fanbase. Remakes of movies tend to have an advantage, because they already have a reputation AS movies, and in the case of The Karate Kid, the reputation of a good one. When you remake a successful movie, you know it’ll probably work, because it already has. TV shows are written into a smaller block of time, around 42 minutes, and when attempts are made to make a feature length version, the concept doesn’t tend to stretch far enough for 2 hours. There are exceptions of course, with Mission: Impossible being the one that immediately springs to mind.

It’ll be interesting to see if The A-Team closes the gap next weekend, by suffering a smaller drop off at the box office. Considering the huge deficit, there isn’t a chance for it to catch up with The Karate Kid’s total at the end of their respective runs. It may be, though, that The A-Team enjoys a second life on DVD, with those that didn’t see it in theatres checking it out. I don’t think we’ll see an A-Team sequel, but there is already talk of another Karate Kid film. That may very well become a victim of diminishing returns, but its success relative to its budget makes it worth a punt, and with the success it has enjoyed, we certainly haven’t seen the back of the 80’s cinema revival.

Bazmann – You can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/baz_mann