Rise of the Planet of the Apes revived a stalled franchise with $481M

Tim Burton's expensive 2001 Planet of the Apes remake underperformed and produced no sequels, leaving the franchise stalled for a decade. By 2011, Fox's decision to try again looked like a gamble with no clamoring audience.

Fox chose a different approach: an origin story set before the original films, with Caesar (Andy Serkis) leading an ape uprising, built on Weta's performance-capture technology. Director Rupert Wyatt's film was 'prequel, remake and reboot, all at the same time,' in Den of Geek's description.

The gamble paid off. Rise opened in August 2011 to $54.8 million — called 'one of the summer's biggest box office surprises' — and finished with $481 million worldwide on a $93 million budget, reviving a franchise that would run for more than a decade.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes opened to $54.8M — one of the summer's biggest surprises — and finished with $481M worldwide, restarting a stalled franchise.

Burton's 2001 remake underperformed and stalled the series.

Fox reframed it as an origin story with Weta motion capture.

The $54.8M opening surprised the industry.

It finished with $481M worldwide on a $93M budget.

The success relaunched a multi-film franchise.

After a failed remake, change the approach rather than the property: Fox made an origin story with performance-capture apes and a human point of view, converting franchise fatigue into a hit.

Rise's success produced Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), which became the reboot series' biggest earner at $710 million worldwide, and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) at $490 million. The franchise continued into 2024's Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the fourth film of the rebooted line.