The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2016
MGM funded 80% of a $100M Ben-Hur remake nobody asked for, and lost $120M
The remake of a film already considered a classic grossed just $94M worldwide, and MGM, which covered most of the budget, absorbed the bulk of the loss.
MGM · Paramount Pictures · 2016-08-19
What happened
MGM and Paramount co-financed a remake of Ben-Hur, an epic already famous from its Oscar-winning 1959 adaptation and a story audiences had little evident appetite to see retold, with MGM covering more than 80% of the roughly $100 million production budget.
The studios bet a new director's take and updated effects would justify remaking a story so closely associated with an earlier definitive version, without a strong marketing hook explaining why this new version needed to exist.
Ben-Hur opened weakly and closed with $94 million worldwide, a fraction of what the combined production and marketing spend required. Analysts estimated the total loss at $120 million, with MGM absorbing the largest share given its majority financing stake.
Why it happened
- The studios greenlit a remake of a story with no audience demand signal, betting production value alone would justify a new version.
- MGM's outsized financing share concentrated the downside risk on one studio without a correspondingly strong reason to expect a hit.
- Marketing struggled to articulate why this Ben-Hur needed to exist next to the well-remembered earlier film.
- Nobody tested audience appetite for a remake of this specific story before committing the budget.
The lesson
A story's fame doesn't create demand for a new version of it — sometimes it's the opposite, since the earlier version already owns the audience's memory.
Aftermath
Ben-Hur's failure became a widely cited example in industry discussions of studios remaking beloved classics without a clear creative or commercial rationale, reinforcing caution around similar projects.
Sources
- Ben-Hur (2016 film) — Wikipedia
- The Hollywood Reporter — 'Ben-Hur' Faces $120M Loss, Summer's Biggest Box-Office Bust
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