Arnold Schwarzenegger has played many iconic roles in his career and has also created great franchises from them. The fantasy film Conan the Barbarian was supposed to get a reboot in 2011, but it was not well received by critics.
What kind of film was it? In one of his first roles, Arnold Schwarzenegger portrayed Conan the Barbarian in 1982, based on the novels by the author Robert E. Howard. To this day, that role, along with the Terminator, is one of his most known, even though there was an accident during filming. In 1984, the sequel Conan the Destroyer followed.
Afterwards, there were TV series, both animated and non-animated, comics, and various games. In 2011, there was an attempt to bring the franchise back to theaters with a reboot. Jason Momoa was to step into Schwarzenegger’s footsteps, who was also seen in Game of Thrones in 2011.
Instead of a celebrated fantasy reboot, there was a flop that was not well received by critics.
Not just a financial flop
How did Conan the Barbarian (2011) perform? According to Box Office Mojo, the film’s budget was 90 million US dollars, but it only grossed about 63 million US dollars worldwide. That’s a pretty poor result, especially since there were probably also marketing costs that were not included in the budget.
Critics were also not satisfied. With 152 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, the film scored a mere 25%. The audience was also not forgiving. With over 25,000 reviews, it managed only 30%. The classical aspects such as storytelling, character development, choreography, and CGI were criticized.
Even Jason Momoa expressed himself not particularly positively about his own film years later. In an interview with GQ Magazine, he said the following:
I was involved in many projects that were really bad, and in films where you have no influence […] Conan was one of them. It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, and then it was taken over and turned into a big pile of crap.
Why did the film flop? Aside from the critiques, the film also flopped at the box office. A precise explanation for such flops is always difficult, but assumptions can be made. On one hand, Conan is a series that fits very much into the 80s. Big, muscular guys engaged in brutal fights were simply in back then.
And one must also say: Even the first films were not gigantic hits. The first film grossed nearly 70 million at a budget of 20 million US dollars in 1982 (via IMDb), the second part fared worse. According to IMDb, the film earned only 31 million at an estimated budget of 18 million US dollars. Those aren’t bad numbers, but they’re also not great.
Reboots are a tricky business. While many old brands still work today, other franchises are products of their time and only function in that context. Another reboot had better financial success, but the film is still considered a flop: A sci-fi film grossed over 240 million dollars – Yet still considered a flop and never received a sequel
