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Theatrical Film Adaptation Of Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet

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Hamlet is a world renowned play created by William Shakespeare. In this paper, I will be discussing the theatrical film adaptation of the 1996 production of Hamlet directed by Kenneth Branagh and examine the correlation between its reception and box office intake. The movie features Branagh himself as Hamlet, Derek Jacobi, Julie Christie, and Kate Winslet to name a few of the actors and actresses. It was nominated for four Academy Awards: Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, Costume Design, and Original Dramatic Score. The movie was glorified as one of the best during the time and some claim to this day it is still the best cinematic adaptation of Hamlet. To give a brief summary in Branagh’s own words, Hamlet is about a man who is incredibly …show more content…

Not only did he bring life and vigor to the Shakespearean movie theatre adaptation but he also brought solid showmanship and energy on screen with his brilliant acting. Furthermore, the huge cast and setting allowed for the story to be represented more adequately (Maslin). Many critics echoed theses praises such as James Berardinelli who said “From the moment it was first announced that Branagh would attempt an unabridged Hamlet, I never doubted that it would be a worthy effort. After all, his previous forays into Shakespeare have been excellent.” He continued to rave over the movie claiming it is one of the most impressive motion pictures of …show more content…

Hamlet’s Box Office numbers tell quite a contrary story. Not even grossing to half the budget, it brought a measly $148,321 opening weekend in the USA and grossed to a total of $4,414,535. Unfortunately, the budget was $18,000,000 (IMDB). So what exactly went wrong? The truth of the matter is the movie has unique aspects that may have been off-putting to the average family. As my first obvious point, this is a theatrical adaptation of the famous play Hamlet, a tragedy. Second, this movie is a whopping four hours long and even has intermission due to its longevity. Naturally it is not far fetched to come to the conclusion that most families simply didn’t care to go see a four hour long Shakespearean tragedy on their free

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