Why the 2005 Bewitched film became a notorious box office disappointment
In short: Nora Ephron’s 2005 re-imagining of the classic sitcom Bewitched arrived with high expectations but ultimately stalled. Despite a star-studded cast led by Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell, the film struggled with critics and audiences alike, eventually earning a reputation as a box office dud despite its $85 million budget.
The development of the 2005 film was a decade-long ordeal. Early iterations involved actors like Rob Morrow and Cynthia Nixon under director Ted Bessell, whose death in 1996 halted progress. By the time Nora Ephron was hired in 2003, the project had undergone numerous script revisions. When it finally premiered on June 24, 2005, the result was a meta-narrative about a narcissistic actor who accidentally hires a real witch to play his co-star in a television remake.
Critical reception was largely harsh. On Rotten Tomatoes, only 23% of 185 reviews were positive, while Metacritic assigned it a score of 34 out of 100. The New York Times labeled it an unmitigated disaster, and audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it a C+ grade. The film's poor performance extended to the awards circuit, where it received multiple Golden Raspberry nominations, including a win for Worst Screen Combo for Kidman and Ferrell.
Despite the negative consensus, some voices offered a different perspective. Australian critics Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton praised Kidman’s authentic portrayal of the character, and Gene Shalit of the Today Show famously called it one of the funniest comedies in years. Ultimately, the film grossed $131.4 million worldwide, falling short of financial expectations. By 2021, the franchise's history continued as Sony Development announced plans for a new film based on the original television series, signaling that the studio's interest in the property remained intact despite the 2005 stumble.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Bewitched (2005 film)
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