The Fifth Element Director Just Released A New Movie, And No One Cares

By Jennifer Asencio
| Published 1 minute ago

You’d be forgiven if you didn’t know there’s a new version of Dracula in theaters. The movie was released on February 6, 2026, to almost no fanfare or media buzz. Critics have given it mixed reviews, earning it a 52% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Directed by French creative Luc Besson, who brought us The Fifth Element and Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets, the movie was first released in France in July 2025, despite having an American cast that includes Caleb Landry Jones of X-Men: First Class, Christoph Waltz from Inglorious Basterds, and newcomer Zoe Bleu, the latest generation of the famous Arquette family. The six-month window between releases may have hurt the movie, as critics move at the speed of the Internet, not theater chains.

Making Dracula A Love Story Is No Longer Interesting

However, another mark against the film is right there in its original subtitle, on the posters: A Love Tale. Following in the footsteps of the 1992 Francis Ford Coppola version and 2014’s Dracula Untold, the movie sets up a past-life romance between the titular vampire and Mina Harker, the wife of his British legal representative.

For some reason, the temptation to add this romantic garnish to Bram Stoker’s novel is irresistible to modern Hollywood. It gives the monster a sympathetic motivation and a tragic backstory. Dracula is a scary monster, based on a historic dictator known for his brutality. He is not someone to be pitied, and Bram Stoker did not have this element in his book. But producers seem to think that inserting this absurd origin story will sell tickets.

A Copycat Of Other Draculas?

Trailers for the movie also look derivative of prior versions, most specifically the 1992 version. Count Dracula, in his youthful disguise, looks almost exactly the same as Gary Oldman’s rendition, right down to the top hat. Elder Count Dracula is possibly wearing the very same wig from over three decades ago. So much emphasis is placed in the trailer on Dracula’s time as the war leader we know as Vlad the Impaler, and an apparent disagreement with a Catholic cardinal dominates the presentation.

Christoph Waltz, who is billed on Google as Van Helsing, is listed as playing “priest” on IMDB, suggesting liberties were taken with his character. Further liberties were definitely taken with the story, with the insertion of a character named Maria that seems to replace the infamous bug-eating Renfield. Rather than having a magnetic allure generated by the power of his evil, Dracula’s appeal is in a perfume he and his minions produce. The trailer claims it “reimagines” Stoker’s novel, but it seems to just borrow a few character names to lend it legitimacy.

Vampire Flop Or French Success?

As of this writing, Luc Besson’s Dracula has taken in $39 million at the box office against a budget of $52 million. I suppose they saved a lot on advertising, which should help cushion the blow of not recouping their investment.

Despite hints of its financial failure, it remains one of the highest-grossing French films of recent years. Audiences who see it are enjoying it (it has an 81% audience approval score on Rotten Tomatoes), but apparently, it’s not inspiring moviegoers to flock to the theaters.

So yeah, there’s a new version of Dracula out, but its reception is so muted that more people know about that Daily Wire King Arthur show critics are desperately trying to ignore. If you want to see Dracula on the big screen, don’t blink, because you might miss it entirely.