As a seasoned cinephile with decades of movie-watching under my belt, I must admit that the recent resurgence of Firestarter on Netflix has caught me off guard. Having followed the film industry closely since the days of VHS tapes, I can’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia for the original 1984 adaptation starring Drew Barrymore.
Despite being one of the most critically panned adaptations from the past decade, the 2022 release of this remake has unexpectedly climbed up Netflix’s top five films list. Initially showing promise, the reboot failed to ignite much interest among critics or audiences at the box office.
Featuring Zac Efron and Ryan Keira Armstrong, the latest adaptation of Stephen King’s 1980 novel “Firestarter” aimed to surpass the commonly criticized 1984 adaptation featuring Drew Barrymore as the fiery protagonist. Unfortunately, the remake received harsh criticism from critics, earning a low Tomatometer score of just 10%. Audiences were slightly more forgiving, with a 47% approval rating, but the film’s main issue was that it didn’t draw many viewers to the cinema. On the bright side, Stephen King himself expressed his preference for the remake over the original movie.
On a budget of approximately $12 million, the film underperformed significantly, earning only around $15 million in revenue. With additional expenses like marketing factored in, it became clear that the movie was a financial flop. The most surprising aspect was that it boasted some notable industry figures, such as Blumhouse Productions, Jason Blum and Akiva Goldman as producers, genre icon John Carpenter contributing to the music score, and Keith Thomas, who had previously made an impressive debut with The Vigil, at the helm as director. Given these high-profile contributors, the film’s performance fell short of audience and critical expectations for Firestarter.
Firestarter Received More Attention for a Controversial Decision by The Razzies
Initially, Firestarter performed as a fleeting box office hit, with some attributing this to its simultaneous release on Peacock, resulting in a viewership of two million on its premiere. However, the film resurfaced in public discourse the following year, sparking controversy when it was nominated for an award at The Golden Raspberry Awards.
Similar to numerous films criticized in the movie industry, the film Firestarter was nominated for several Razzie Awards. Among these nominations, one included the film’s young star Armstrong in the category of worst actress. Despite being grouped with established stars like Tom Hanks, Diane Keaton, Penelope Cruz, Jared Leto, and Alicia Silverstone who also received nominations that year, the Razzies faced significant backlash for criticizing a child’s performance in one of her early acting roles. Consequently, they withdrew the nomination. In response to this withdrawal, The Razzies humorously awarded themselves the Worst Actress Award for their “43rd Worst Actress Nominations Blunder.
Although it was unnecessary to criticize the child star in the film, its dismal performance couldn’t be reversed. Initially, Blumhouse had plans to extend the franchise with prequels or sequels, but these seem to have been completely abandoned over the past few years. Nevertheless, this doesn’t diminish Netflix viewers’ enthusiasm for watching movies they missed during their initial release. As a result, a significant number of new viewers are just now discovering Firestarter for the first time.
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2024-10-05 03:01