Do English language remakes bring new audiences to the original film?

Personally, if I knew that a film was a remake then I would avoid this new version and go watch the original because 9 times out of 10 the original will be far superior. So in that respect yes but I usually would of seen most excellent foreign movies anyway so that point is kind of void for me.

I don't see how a remake can really damage the original since the original has probably made most of the money its going to make anyway, it will probably get a revenue boost with more people checking it out, now they know about it from the remake as you said.

Mickeroo wrote: »

Whats people's htoughts on dubbing?? I'm generally against it myself, but if its done properly it can be ok. I remember watching a dubbed version of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and it was pretty well done, nearly forgot it was dubbed in some places. Surely its a viable option to get the film out to a wider audience who wouldn't usually watch foreign films due to subtitles? On the other hand I suppose it would put some people off watching a film too. Just a thought anyway.

Hate dubbing with a passion, I just dont see the need for it. I know subtitles obviously does throw some people off but let them off sure and they can go enjoy Transformers and the likes.

Do they bring a new audience? Maybe, it's always hard to judge these things as alot of people aren't aware some films are remakes and those that are are more likely to have seen the original already. It can be a good thing from the point of view of getting a decent cinema/dvd/blue ray release of the original film or bad in that some studios can buy the rights to the film and bury it in order to push their own version [Disney are pretty bad for doing that] From the point of view of the filmmaker depending on how up to speed they are they can make a decent bit of money from it which in turn can help them make more films or you could end up making the remake yourself and have it go very wrong ala the Pang Brothers.

Straight up remakes are usually a pain as they tend to be very watered down versions of the source material with random name actor thrown in to sell it but alot of 'remakes' are more adaptions as the original films like let the right one in are based on books and the films are both adapting the same source material rather then doing a direct remake. Sometimes there can be cultural reasons for doing a remake. I remember going to see 'the Eye' [original not remake] and not being overly impressed while my Chinese boyfriend at the time kept cultching my hand and pointing out how scary certain parts were but it was a cultural thing [things like ghosts eating candles for example] that I didn't get or films like Fever Pitch - english version focused on football, American version focused on Baseball while on the flip side some films don't make good adaptions for the same reasons...the Japanese film Shall we dance for example worked as a Japanese film as ballroom dancing is veiwed almost like porn in Japan while the remake set in america really made no sense as you lost that cultural connection.

It does work both ways though as there are some pretty awful remakes of american/english films floating around.

I think remakes are a great idea (with respect to the original). Either it's better than the original, in which case it should've been made, or it's inferior and new people hear of the better original version and many might seek it out. So it's win-win, really. I know a lot of people can't stand subtitles so at least they see the film in some shape or form.

Also tbh almost everything churned out by hollywood is a remake/reboot or reimagining. The best you can hope for really is that it's just a book adaption. I don't understand how a new version can overlook the original - it's getting free press and acknowledgement, something it generally wouldn't have if the remake was coming out.