The fact that Hollywood is struggling to come up with new ideas for movies is nothing new. Sequels, prequels and remakes come along our ways every month. Some succeed, whereas some don't. However, the laziest way for Hollywood to make money is with re-releases. Studios just take old movies, polish them up a bit, add some new scenes and put them again on release. This has been done more often in the 80s than nowadays, but still, there are some successful re-releases from time to time with the most prominent example being the re-relase of the Star Wars Trilogy, back in 1997.

Let's take a look at the most successful re-releases of all time. Unlike the BOM-chart, I consider a movie a rerelease, only if it came back to theatres at least five years after the original release.


1. Star Wars: A New Hope - Special Edition - $138,247,327
2. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - Special Edition - $67,594,302
3. 101 Dalmatians (1991 Re-Issue) - $60,830,285
4. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1987 Re-Issue) - $45,747,081
5. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi - Special Edition - $45,427,242
6. The Jungle Book (1990 Re-Issue) - $44,645,619
7. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1993 Re-Issue) - $41,634,471
8. The Exorcist (Version You've Never Seen) - $39,671,011
9. Bambi (1988 Re-Issue) - $39,047,150
10. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (20th Anniversary) - $35,306,015
11. Cinderella (1987 Re-Issue) - $34,101,149
12. 101 Dalmatians (1985 Re-Issue) - $33,049,729
13. Lady and the Tramp (1986 Re-Issue) - $31,129,082
14. Peter Pan (1989 Re-Issue) - $29,445,131
15. Grease (20th Anniversary) - $28,411,018

Other re-releases of popular movies include:

Beauty and the Beast (IMAX) - $25,487,190
The Lion King (IMAX) - $15,686,215
The Wizard of Oz (1998 Re-Issue) - $14,817,226
Lawrence of Arabia (1989 Re-Issue) - $6,986,278
Gone with the Wind (1998 Restored) - $6,750,112
Rear Window (1983 Re-Issue) - $4,664,248
Apocalypse Now Redux - $4,626,290
The Godfather (25th Anniversary) - $1,267,490

Well, it is obvious that mostly Disney flicks could benefit from re-releases so far. Re-releases like The Passion Recut have shown that re-releasing the movie a ayear after the original was in theatres is not a smart idea. However, some rare re-releases like The Exorcist, E.T., Grease and the Star Wars Trilogy: SE have proven that even re-releases of non-Disney films can be successful at times.


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My question is: What movies do you think, if re-released could be somewhat successful. Of course I am talking a more or less wide re-release with at least 500-800 theatres to begin with.

Possible titles that are often thrown around in such discussions are Titanic, The Shawshank Redemption, Halloween, Jaws, Moulin Rouge, Ghostbusters and a couple of others.

Personally, I think that The Shawshank Redemption and Jaws would stand the best chance of those.

How'd Nuovo Cinema Paradiso do?

I think it might have actually grossed more than during its original release (even taking into consideration inflation) so even though its technically not that big a number, I would consider it a very successful rerelease.



Oh yes, and great re-releases would be anything that developed a huge rental fanbase but still needs big screen. They re-released The Good, the Bad and the Ugly last year and I managed to see it big screen, but it was bothced. They need to advertise and do accessable distribution like star wars did, and that could have reached 10 million I think. It that popular amongst the young and the old alike.

If they rereleased 80's sci'fi like BladeRunner, ALien, etc, I'm sure there would be a huge turn out as well.

Hehe, not quite:

Cinema Paradiso - $11,990,401
Cinema Paradiso: New Version - $406,809

Re-releases aren't worth it anymore. The home video market has killed it. Studios can make more money off Special Edition DVD releases and they know this so that's where you see them putting their resources. Most of the public is not interested in going out to theaters for a movie they can rent/buy on DVD.

A New Hope's re-release in Jan 97 was nothing short of incredible. It still hold the Jan opening record - the oldest monthly record still standing.

Back in 98 -Speilberg was supposed to re-relase Jaws with a digital shark but it never happened - probably for the better.

Though these days - without some sort of gimmick or "extended or never before seen cut" successful re-releases are a thing of the past thanks to the DVD explosion.

It made that little in re-release? Oops, I take it all back. I didn't see it because I don't love the original enough to, but everyone else kept talking about it. I thought it took in at least 4 or 5 million for some reason. Ah well.

Yeah, they should totally re-release Alien. I wonder why they never tried that.

Oh that's right. THEY DID. And nobody cared.

The thing is that Alien, while a good and well-liked movie wasn't a huge hit to begin with and it didn't develop such a cult audience. I believe that a well-marketed Jaws re-release and, as Dolce has mentioned, a well-marketed The Good, the Bad and The Ugly re-releases could do somewhat well.

Also, I believe that there will be a Titanic re-release sooner or later. Moulin Rouge and The Shawshank Redemption re-releases are already planned, even though I think it's a bit early for the former at this point.

Sorry Lecter but Shawshank had a re-release - last year I think as I saw it - bombed - guess it didn't even cause a ripple

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And Jaws - I don't think so - it is too well known - unless they would come up with something new.

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And except for Disney & old Star Wars - re-releases might only be good if they are timed with DVD releases

as that is what Shawshank did.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?pa ... mption.htm

Shawshank's gross wasn't even reported. It probably was re-released in selected theatres for a week or two not more. That's not quite a re-release.

Was it a rerelease or a showing. Fellini played pretty regularly at festivals near me, I knew they weren't in rerelease. The only one that has been so far I think was I Vitelloni that I saw a year and a half ago. I thought I heard somewhere too that Shawshank is going to get a big second chance. That's different than theatres that rent old reels, or have reels in their archives that they pull occasionally.

I think Jaws would do fine, but only unaltered. People would go for the nostalgia and the (now) hokey tomato juice. If they kept the orginal line but digital altered the shark, it wouldn't do nearly as well.

Rereleases almost all botch because of bad advertising. The only ones i remember adds for were Star Wars and Grease, and lo and behold, those are the ones even as a kid I saw in theatres (Grease for the first time actually). They need to almost market them as they would new movies, with trailers and posters and everything.

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I just don't think it will come out again. They did this for the 10 year anniversary - probably tying in with the DVD release. And with most re-releases I don't think that they will play for more than a couple of weeks. Now especially with the increase $ from the DVD

UK 17 September 2004 (re-release)
USA 24 September 2004 (limited) (re-release)

A movie must have a big reason to come out as a re-release. Look at the list other than Star Wars and ET, no main movies are at the top. And they had reasons - coming out 20/30 years later which is bringing the movie to a new generation. Exorcist brought out 4 new scenes and ET almost falls into the Disney category with the kids. 10 years on SR is just too early and as that is so well known from cable tv, I don't think that movie is a draw.

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One question that I forgot above, I don't understand why Lecter left out movies under 5 years - every movie after that year is a re-release so it would have been interesting to see if any movie under 5 years brought in serious money and showed a public's interest.

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I remember the GREASE rerelease. It was the first movie I saw at my movie theater here