Wheels come off ‘Ben-Hur’

Even an epic chariot race made with today’s computer technology couldn’t redeem Ben- Hur.

Paramount Pictures’ resurrection of the 1959 biblical epic opened in fifth place with weekend sales of $11.4-million in US and Canadian theatres, researcher ComScore Inc said on Sunday.

Warner Bros’ DC Comics feature Suicide Squad led the box office for a third weekend with $20.7-million, while two other new movies — War Dogs, a comedy starring Jonah Hill, and the animated Kubo and the Two Strings — placed third and fourth.

The thin take for Ben-Hur highlights the challenge producers face bringing back old stories — let alone a classic that captured 11 Academy Awards. Though sequels and remakes rank among the year’s top hits, they are also among the worst flops. That shows movie-making remains a big risk even when the subjects are familiar — as budgets can reach $250-million and marketing runs many tens of millions more.

“With Ben-Hur, there was never a large amount of interest to begin with,” said Gitesh Pandya, of the Boxofficeguru website. Many sequels and remakes have had only moderate sales because people weren’t excited about seeing a new version, he said.

Viacom Inc’s Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios spent about $100-million making Ben-Hur, according to researcher Box Office Mojo. Paramount was expecting domestic weekend sales of about $20-million, while other estimates ranged as high as $13-million.