A remake of one of Turkey's most beloved film series hit theaters nationwide last month, apparently to the chagrin of much of the country. A mere 70,272 tickets were sold for the opening weekend of “Hababam Sinifi Yeniden” (“The Chaos Class, Once Again”), a fraction of the 450,783 for the premier of the last sequel in the series, in 2006.
The popular and iconic series “Hababam Sinifi” (“The Chaos Class”) follows the escapades of a notorious class of pranksters at an Istanbul boarding school who smoke on school grounds and cheat on exams with impunity until a stern new vice principal arrives. The original movie and the first three sequels, made between 1975 and 1977, are revered by Turks, while the three films released in the 2000s and featuring a different cast were not as well received, though they performed much better at the box office than the new remake.
