A lot of people don’t like reading subtitles in films and Rec was so popular that the production companies thought a remake for English speaking audience would be very successful and earn large box office takings, as it would gain a bigger audience than the original and larger distribution. Through vertical integration and synergy Screen Gems continued to profit from both Quarantine and Rec, as they re-released Rec at the same time Quarantine was released, in a way to hit an even larger target audience. Screen gems basically piggybacked of off the success of REC in order to gain a larger profit. At the same time of the release of Rec and Quarantine two other films of the same style were also released, Cloverfield and Diary of the Dead, this was due to the two main trends of the time reality TV & video games so all of the films had to be released whilst they were still in popular demand. Balaguero chose to create the film in a documentary style, only using a handheld camera because he wanted to ensure REC retained the highest credibility and kept a dynamic and terrifying live feeling, the only way to do so was to shoot the film as if it was an actual live TV news report. Trends also factored into the way the film was created as reality TV shows were very popular at the time REC was produced, and the audience demanded more from horror films, to not only be spectator but feel as though they are there in the film. Also due to the advance in technology, video games also became a massive trend, which brought Balaguero to create scenes that looked and felt like a first person shooter game like ‘Left for dead’. Handheld cameras do this effectively while also upping the scare factor by making the audience feel like they are a part of the film. Although Rec and Quarantine were only a year apart and were almost identical shot for shot there was a big jump in budget (Rec: €1,500,000 and Quarantine: $12,000,000) and box office with Rec taking just $32,492,948 and Quarantine $41,319,906.
Another example of a remake being the Karate Kid films which were made 26 years apart unlike REC and Quarantine, both Karate Kid films were distributed by the same company Columbia pictures that was bought by Sony pictures so now they can profit from both films via synergy due to Horizontal Integration. (Horizontal integration is the merging of two or more companies).
Star factor was a big aspect of the remake with both Will and Jada-Pinkett Smith producing the film and their son Jaden being the main star along with Jackie Chan who is classed as a screen idol in China. In order to profit even more from the Karate kid films Sony re-released the 1984 Karate Kid at the same time the remake was being released which is exactly what they did with Rec and Quarantine. The franchise of the Karate Kid grew larger with the release of the remake, with the karate kid video game (1984), online games & apps (2010) and sound tracks for both films; this was another motive for the remake of the classic. Another being the reason why a lot of remakes are made; the original film already gained a large fan base from when it came out and with the release of a remake not only will it bring in a new audience but it will catch the eye of the old who would want to watch it to compare, an example of this being the Nightmare on Elm Street films and War of the Worlds.
Steven Spielberg decided to remake the War of the Worlds in 2005 because of 9/11, in an interview with MSN Movies when asked if Sept. 11 never happed would he have done the remake Spielberg answered “Probably not”, and further stated that the 1953 film coincided with the cold war-era when Americans feared Nuclear war and that his version “also comes at a time when Americans feel deeply vulnerable” due to the threat of terrorism after the events of 9/11.In 1953 Byron Haskin adapted H.G Wells’ novel ‘War of the Worlds’ into a film; where residents of a small town in California become excited when a meteor lands in the hills only to realize that it has passengers that are not very friendly. To create Haskins version of War of the worlds they had a budget of $2,000,000 whilst Spielberg had $132,000,000 to play with, both Spielberg’s and Haskin’s versions of ‘War of the Worlds’ were distributed by the same company Paramount Pictures, Spielberg’s ‘War of the Worlds’ brought in $588,929,061 worldwide in box office takings.
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