Return to Silent Hill director Christophe Gans has spoken out about the backlash he received for adapting such a beloved horror game series, culminating in “death threats”.
In 2006, Gans helmed the first Silent Hill movie, and though it wasn’t a critical success, it earned praise for its accuracy to the games and has gained a cult following over the years.
While Gans wasn’t involved in the 2012 sequel, Silent Hill: Revelation, he’s back with Return to Silent Hill, a horror movie that adapts the second game in Konami’s series.
Dealing with such beloved IP isn’t always easy, and this is something that the filmmaker has opened up about in a new interview.
Silent Hill director received “death threats”
Gans felt the pressure given Silent Hill 2 is widely considered the best game in the series, especially after his experiences with the first film. “It was a big challenge to adapt correctly and respectfully a game which is considered a classic,” he told Variety.
“We know that the people who love video games are very passionate. I remember when I did the first film, I received plenty of death threats. People were saying, ‘If you mess up this one, we are going to find you.’
“So I came onto the first film with great responsibility, and certainly even more with the second one. At the same time, it was important for me to imagine a movie that people who are not playing games can be interested in.”
Another challenge Gans faced was the budget; while the first film cost $50 million (in the 2000s), Return to Silent Hill’s was scaled back. “My producer Victor Hadida told me when we finished the film that it cost $23 million,” he explained.
“We had 50 days of shooting, it has 67 sets, so it’s quite huge. But I spent one year just designing everything, storyboarding everything, making tons of artwork. When I came on the pre-production, I was very well prepared.
“Sometimes, what was difficult was to make people who are not players understand why some elements were so important. Sometimes I had to fight because the fans would be pleased.
“When I’m doing a film, I’m obsessed by the detail, so that’s the fuel of my work as a director.”
Even though he’s helmed two Silent Hill movies, Gans said he’d love to do more. “If I have the opportunity, we’ll come back to Silent Hill once more,” he continued.
“I’m not looking at Silent Hill only as a great video game. I’m looking at it as a piece of modern art. It has something really edgy and experimental.
“I will adapt another chapter because there are some that are extremely good, something very different from the first film, and now Return to Silent Hill. I like this world, and I can see that plenty of people are thinking I’m doing a pretty good job.”
Return to Silent Hill box office performance
The Return to Silent Hill box office numbers are complex. Domestically, it’s the lowest performing Silent Hill movie so far, earning $3.25 million in its opening weekend against its $23 million budget.
By comparison, the first Silent Hill had a $20.2 million debut and Silent Hill: Revelation drew in $8 million during the same period. However, according to Variety, it’s made $19.3 million worldwide.
This suggests the film’s relatively modest budget could allow it to recoup the costs despite a disappointing US opening. Speaking of which, there were also circumstances that impacted its North American performance.
Deadline reported that hundreds of theaters closed across a big part of the US due to severe weather warnings. Chris McGurk, CEO of Cineverse, stated, “The weather clearly was a big factor this weekend and impacted the box office significantly for everyone.”
Another factor may be the response to the new movie, which has received a 6% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, alongside a 30% rating from audiences.
However, experts are hopeful the box office numbers will pick up when the weather stabilizes. “Hopefully the industry will get some of this missed demand back during this week and next weekend if the weather improves,” McGurk said.
How much Return to Silent Hill needs to make to break even
Return to Silent Hill will need to make approximately $57.5 million to break even.
How did we get to that figure? Well, the rule of thumb is that new movies need to make approximately 2.5 times their original budget to break even due to the additional costs such as fees to exhibitors, merchandising, and taxes.
The $23 million sum is the estimated production budget, meaning there are also marketing costs to consider. Plus, studios only keep about 50-60% of box office revenue (and even less from international markets).
So, even if the horror movie hits $57.5 million, it wouldn’t represent a major profit, but rather a modest return for a film of this scale and cost.
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