Viral marketing can work wonders for movies when done right. Prime examples such as The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, M3GAN, and Longlegs proved that such ingenious tactics could translate into box-office success. This brings us to Snakes on a Plane (Rotten Tomatoes: 69% | Metacritic: 58), once famously billed as the first “meme movie”, which was released twenty years ago to mixed reviews. It opened at the top spot during the first three-day opening weekend at the US box office, grossing $13.8 million at 3,555 theaters — an astonishing figure typically reserved for a high-profile, big-budget Hollywood blockbuster. But New Line Cinema went all out by treating this otherwise B-movie as if it was the next big thing.
It Opened at No. 1 — Then Collapsed 57.7% in Its Second Weekend
Despite Snakes on a Plane dethroning the Will Ferrell-starring sports comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, it was more of a flash in the pan, as the movie infamously plummeted to No. 8 in its second weekend, suffering a less-than-encouraging 57.7% drop. Definitely not something the studio execs at New Line Cinema would like to see, especially given the movie’s immense internet hype in the first place.
Although it didn’t take long before Snakes on a Plane dropped out of the Top 10 chart, the movie managed to bring home a worldwide box-office total of $62 million by the end of its theatrical run. For a movie that was expected to make a blockbuster-level profit, a $62 million gross felt more like an afterthought.
How Snakes on a Plane Almost Became Pacific Air Flight 121
Looking back at Snakes on a Plane, the fact that it became a meme movie stemmed from a then-unique strategy in the way the film was marketed. Traditionally, studios promote trailers of their upcoming movies, and people end up making memes if there is specific footage or a clip worthy of a screenshot. But Snakes on a Plane turned out to be an unusual case, thanks to the people on the internet who dictated the movie’s identity.
It all started with producer Craig Berenson suggesting “Snakes on a Plane” during — believe it or not — a game with his colleagues at a bar to see who could propose the most atrocious pitch for a movie title back in the late ’90s. Berenson apparently got the idea after reading David Dalessandro’s initial script called Venom. His idea was supposed to be an inside joke and even served as a working-title placeholder.
As the project subsequently gained traction with Samuel L. Jackson being cast and David R. Ellis (Final Destination 2, Cellular) hired as the director, the script underwent multiple rewrites until Josh Friedman — best known for co-writing Steven Spielberg’s 2005 remake of War of the Worlds — was approached by the studio to polish the existing script. But he ultimately declined the offer after finding out the studio wanted to change the title Snakes on a Plane to a more generic-sounding Pacific Air Flight 121. As it turned out, the studio was aiming for a serious, no-nonsense thriller rather than leaning on the campy B-movie title that Friedman preferred.
One Blogger’s Post Turned It Into the Internet’s First Meme Movie
So, Josh Friedman ended up writing a blog post about the title change on Hucksblog in August 2005. His post soon spread like wildfire across the internet after it caught the attention of numerous sites, such as YTMND (You’re The Man Now, Dog!), Something Awful (SA Forums), and 4chan’s /b/ and /tv/ image boards. It didn’t take long before more people became so obsessed with the title that they had fun unleashing everything from fan-made posters to fake trailers.
Because the title turned into a massively popular meme, the studio figured they had found a goldmine. They even went as far as changing their initial PG-13 movie into R-rated territory, ordering five-day reshoots, from adding Samuel L. Jackson’s now-iconic line “Enough is enough! I have had it with these mother****ing snakes on this mother****ing plane!” to incorporating sex and nudity (the raunchy bathroom scene on the plane) and graphic snake attacks.
Unfortunately, this resulted in the classic expectation vs. reality scenario. By the time Snakes on a Plane finally lifted off with its August 18 release in 2006, the box-office result didn’t exactly break the internet as the meme did. The biggest problem lies in the studio taking too long to capitalize on the trend, since the gap between the rising meme and the actual theatrical release was already a year too late.
If only the studio would treat Snakes on a Plane like a true B-movie production and work faster by releasing it way earlier, say around late 2005 or early 2006, it might stand a better chance of bigger box-office results before the meme fatigue kicks in.
Two decades later, Hollywood is still trying to understand the success of internet-hyped films like Snakes on a Plane. The formula is still very much hit-or-miss. See, for every M3GAN, where the meme actually drove ticket sales up, there’s also a Morbius, which is proof a meme (It’s Morbin’ Time) can go viral online without selling tickets.
Where to Watch Snakes on a Plane
Snakes on a Plane is currently streaming free on The Roku Channel. It’s also available to rent or buy on Amazon Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.
