As is expected of someone who adamantly opposed the project’s production from the very beginning, original The Crow film adaptation director Alex Proyas is having an absolute field day over the fact that the remake is a certified box office bomb.
That assessment is no hyperbole either.
Releasing to early previews on August 22nd ahead of a full-fledged theatrical release the next day, the Bill Skarsgård-led take on James O’Barr’s gothic comic book hero has thus far, per box office analytics outlet The-Numbers, only managed to pull in an international total of just $4,811,456 in its opening weekend.
Given the film’s reported budget of “around $50 million” (meaning its actual budget, in light of the standard ‘estimate a film’s true total budget including marketing by doubling the reported amount, sits closer to $100 million), short of a supernatural revival à la Eric Draven himself, The Crow remake is likely to go down in history as one of the biggest production misfires across all of 2024.
However, while this may be causing panic among the Lionsgate offices, it’s led to nothing but joy for the aforementioned Proyas, who has in recent days has taken to his personal Facebook page to relentlessly mock the remake’s failure.
Said victory lap started off relatively reasonably, when on August 23rd, the director posted to his page the simple observation, “Wow. The reviews are brutal.”
This would then be followed up with the likewise brief observation on August 25th, “Wow. Box office is a bloodbath.”
And from there, the gloves came off.
In his next post, Proyas would mock, “I thought the remake was a cynical cash-grab. Not much cash to grab, it seems.”
From there, the director shared a fake ‘Facebook safety check-in’ alert which notified his followers that he had been marked ‘safe’ from The Crow‘s release.
Sharing a review from YouTuber Thorias Unlimited in which the headline questioned if The Crow was “even WORSE than Madame Web“, Proyas opined, “I love how enraged this guy gets. Is that a ‘thumbs down’?”
“Maybe they can lend their [Digital Cinema Packages, essentially a collective package of a film’s production files, as used by theaters to screen the film via digital cinema projectors] to film schools for classes on how NOT to make a movie?” he added. “The theatres sure won’t need ’em after next weekend.”
Sharing another review, this time from French-language YouTube critic Merej, Proyas made reference to the video’s thumbnail and facetiously asked his followers, “Gigantesque Insulte!” Is that good?”
Finally, the director closed out his celebration by sharing The Critical Drinker‘s review of the film, titled The Crow – The Worst Move of the Year, and declared, “The review we’ve all been waiting for.”
“It’s a bit like flogging a dead horse now so I think I’ll stop after this,” he ultimately promised his fans, “until another funny one comes along!”
