A Jackie Chan Comedy Is One Of Disney's Biggest Box Office Flops

In 2009, Disney purchased the film rights to Marvel Studios. In 2012, Disney purchased Lucasfilm. In 2017, Disney purchased the 20th Century Fox library. Thanks to these major buys, Disney now owns some of the most bankable films of all time. When not adjusted for inflation, Disney also owns a controlling stake in nine out of the 10 highest-grossing movies ever, including two "Avatar" movies, "Titanic," three movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a Pixar film, a "Star Wars" film, and a remake of an animated classic.

But every major hit seems to balance itself out with a major loss. Disney also has ownership of some of the biggest box office bombs of all time, as the "high risk, high reward" filmmaking model has proven unsuccessful at least as often as it has worked. Disney also owns major commercial duds like "The Marvels," "John Carter," "The Lone Ranger," "Mars Needs Moms," "Tomorrowland," "Onward," "Strange World," "Wish," "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," and "Jungle Cruise." Although much hay has been made about the overwhelming box office numbers of films like "Avengers: Endgame" and "Avatar: The Way of Water," the last 20 years of Disney's ledgers seems to reveal that the studio merely broke even at best.

One of the studio's more notorious bombs came in 2004 when it decided to re-adapt Jules Verne's celebrated novel "Around the World in 80 Days." The new movie cast Steve Coogan as the persnickety Phileas Fogg and Jackie Chan as his traveling companion Passepartout, with Arnold Schwarzenegger making a cameo in his first film during his stint as California's governor. The project was budgeted at a hefty $110 million and ultimately grossed only around $72 million. Using Hollywood accounting, it lost about $119 million for the studio.

"Around the World in 80 Days" had been previously adapted to the big screen in 1956 under the direction of Michael Anderson. That version starred David Niven as Fogg and Cantinflas as Passepartout. The premise of both films and Verne's novel is cute: a fastidious member of a London gentleman's club, Fogg, idly figures out loud that it would only take a traveled 80 days to circumnavigate the globe. The other members of the club bet that he cannot accomplish such a task and he accepts the bet. With a new valet at his side, the pair take off on a picaresque adventure, stopping at numerous locales on their trip. A highlight of the novel is Fogg and Passepartout trying to speed across the Atlantic, feeding pieces of the ship's hull into the steam engine.

The 1956 film surprisingly won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, beating out notable contenders like "The King and I," "The Ten Commandments," and the James Dean-starring "Giant." It's often considered one of the worst films to have won the award. Despite this, it was a massive success, earning — not adjusted for inflation — $42 million on a $6 million budget. It was filmed on Todd-AO 70mm film, giving the film a huge, epic look that was distinct to major Hollywood productions of the 1950s.

Coogan and Chan are fine selections to play Fogg and Passepartout, although director Frank Coraci ("The Wedding Singer") doesn't allow them to develop any kind of comedic chemistry. The 2004 "Around the World in 80 Days" also gives Passepartout a new backstory, making him a kind-hearted Chinese bank thief named Lau Xing (who takes on the fake name of Passepartout to hide from the police).

It was the changes to Fogg that sank the movie entirely, at least creatively-speaking.

In both Verne's book and in the 1956 film adaptation, Phileas Fogg is presented as exacting, picky, and intellectual. Coraci's 2004 version of "80 Days" makes him into more of a bumbling character, a buffoonish, ambitious clown who tinkers with high-powered engines and isn't well-respected by his peers. One can see why the screenwriters of the new "80 Days" would want to give Fogg a personal challenge — he wishes to earn respect and credibility — but the appeal of the character came from his intellectual coldness; he was always ready to steam forward, only eager to win a bet. He had nothing on the line other than pride and expulsion from his gentleman's club.

A lot of the film's budget went to Chan, a worldwide superstar, who fetched $18 million for the job. Like the 1956 film, Coraci's "80 Days" was lousy with celebrity cameos, likely causing the budget to balloon further. Kathy Bates played Queen Victoria, and both Owen and Luke Wilson appeared as the Wright Bros. John Cleese and Will Forte similarly played cops, while Macy Gray was credited as "Sleeping French Woman." Meanwhile, Rob Schneider played a hobo, Sammo Hung played one of Passepartout's compatriots, and Cécile de France played a painter who joins the two leads on their way. This was all in addition to Schwarzenegger, who couldn't have been cheap.

The 2004 "80 Days" was not warmly received and currently only has a 32% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (with Schwarzenegger even being nominated for a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor for the film). Many critics were familiar with both the book and the 1956 "80 Days" movie adaptation, and saw that Coraci's version was inferior to both, aiming for lightweight slapstick nonsense instead of forward-thinking high-tech adventure.

The 2004 "80 Days" is not worth revisiting and requires no reappraisal. At best, it's affable. At worst, it's a waste. Read the book instead.