Unsurprisingly, the Ben-Hur remake bombs at the box office

The film at 100 million budget reported only $ 11 million in revenue for its opening weekend. Sadly, the remake looks to be more of a flop than anything else and could even be considered one of the biggest flops of the summer, with a poor opening weekend both domestically and internationally, as well as very little true hype from critics or audiences. “Suicide Squad”, which has had a problem sliding in grosses each week, handily stayed at No. 1.

Charlton Heston stans can rest easy knowing the original 1959 Ben-Hur still reigns supreme.

The film follows roughly the same story as previous versions dating back to 1907.

According to Box Office Mojo, that’s the 63rd worst opening weekend result in the USA since 1982 (for movies that were released in more than 3000 cinemas). The film was directed by Timur Bekmambetov, whose credits include “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter“.

“Ben-Hur” is more proof that audiences, especially coveted young moviegoers (94% of people who went to see “Ben-Hur” over the weekend were over 25), haven’t been excited about this type of movie since 2000’s “Gladiator”.

“This is the epic fail of the summer”, Jeff Bock, a senior box-office analyst for Exhibitor Relations, tells USA Today.

“Ben-Hur” didn’t have a prayer at the box office. “Exodus: God and Kings” disappointed at the box office later that same year.

The last new release is Ben-Hur.

Critically acclaimed heist film Hell or High Water, from CBS Films and Lionsgate (NYSE:LGF), continued to do nice business in its limited rollout, grossing $2.7-M as it expanded from 32 theaters to a total of 472 for an early domestic take of $3.5-M. The film still unknown budget grossed over $ 14 million in revenue.

But it seems like the faith-based group doesn’t come out so much for the Hollywood religious epics as it does for the independently produced ones – or maybe the studios aren’t marketing to religious consumers in the same way.

Ben-Hur is out now in the States and on opens September 7th in the United Kingdom with a cast that includes Jack Huston, Morgan Freeman, Toby Kebbell, Nazanin Boniadi, Rodrigo Santoro, Sofia Black D’Elia, Ayelet Zurer, Moisés Arias, Marwan Kenzari and Pilou Asbæk. “That decision polarized not only mass audiences, but Christian ones as well”.

“The news just gets worse and worse for Ben-Hur”.