20 Years Ago, Samuel L. Jackson Led a Movie That Became a Viral Sensation, but It Still Failed at the Box Office

Over three decades in Hollywood, Samuel L. Jackson has achieved a filmography few performers even dare, with dozens of iconic characters fans love to quote. For instance, Jules Winnfield helped turn Pulp Fiction into essential viewing for any movie lover. Nick Fury also anchored the earliest years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Mace Windu gave the Star Wars prequel trilogy one of its most memorable Jedi Masters. Those roles established Jackson as one of the most bankable and instantly recognizable actors of his generation, capable of selling tickets with his name alone. However, 20 years ago, Jackson starred in a movie with a premise so absurd it went viral before tickets went on sale, and the movie still didn’t break even.

Released on August 18, 2006, Snakes on a Plane cast Jackson as Neville Flynn, an FBI agent escorting a witness from Honolulu to Los Angeles to testify against a mob boss. The mobster arranges for crates with deadly snakes to be put on board the plane, setting a time-release device to unleash chaos. That’s how hundreds of venomous snakes get inside a commercial airliner mid-flight, prompting Flynn to keep the passengers alive long enough to land the plane safely. New Line Cinema produced the film on a modest $33 million budget, a relatively small sum for a wide theatrical release even by mid-2000s standards. Still, the wacky premise and the hilarious on-the-nose title helped turn the initial footage viral, with Snakes on a Plane even being shaped by fan reaction.

How Snakes on a Plane Became Viral Before Hitting Theaters

Snakes on a Plane‘s title told the movie’s entire plot in four words, making it an internet joke months before release. Users on forums like Something Awful began circulating parody posters within weeks, and in March 2006, a Maryland fan named Chris Rohan produced an R-rated audio trailer while imitating Jackson’s iconic voice screaming “I want these motherf-cking snakes off the motherf-cking plane!” New Line noticed the reaction, and that same month the studio scheduled five additional days of filming specifically to add graphic violence, stronger language, and a variant of that fan-written line for Jackson to deliver in the finished film: “I have had it with these motherf-cking snakes on this motherf-cking plane!” That reshoot also pushed the film from a planned PG-13 rating to an R. In August 2006, a Varitalk promotion let even fans send personalized voicemail messages recorded in Jackson’s voice, generating more than 1.5 million calls in its first week alone. For all intents and purposes, Snakes on a Plane had gone viral, and everyone believed it would be a hit.

That online enthusiasm never converted into ticket sales. Snakes on a Plane earned $15.25 million domestically on its opening weekend, below the $20 million to $30 million range analysts had projected based on site traffic and media coverage alone. Interest did not carry into a second week, as the film fell to $6.4 million, a decline of 58% from its opening figure. By the end of its run, Snakes on a Plane had grossed $62 million worldwide, not enough to cover production costs and marketing, even before deducting the movie theaters’ cut.

Why Did Snakes on a Plane Fail at the Box Office?

Critics who liked Snakes on a Plane praised the film for fully committing to its title, embracing the campier, self-aware tone of the story. As expected, Jackson’s performance was singled out repeatedly as the element holding the film together, with reviewers crediting his commitment to the material even as the writing around him grew sillier. There was also fair criticism, as some reviewers underlined how the plot connecting one snake attack to the next felt thin, the reshot dialogue read as bolted-on fan service, and the film’s polished production values worked against the scrappier B-movie it seemed to promise audiences. Rotten Tomatoes currently lists the film at 69% approval across 178 critic reviews, Metacritic’s score sits at 58 out of 100 from 31 critics, and the audience-driven Popcornmeter runs lower still at 49%. That’s a mixed response that reveals why Snakes on a Plane didn’t take off.

The last-minute changes made to please fans also worked against the movie. Principal photography wrapped in Vancouver in September 2005, and the viral-driven reshoots did not happen until March 2006, stitching louder scenes shot for an R rating onto a film made under a different tone months earlier. The seam between those two productions shows throughout the finished cut, with the added profanity and gore sitting next to comparatively straightforward B-movie thriller scenes. Furthermore, while the Snakes on a Plane premise can carry a handful of memorable set pieces, stretching it across a 105-minute runtime exposes how little story there is in the movie. Once the novelty of the title wears off, fans hoping for something beyond the joke will be disappointed. Snakes on a Plane worked as a punchline that audiences repeated to each other online as a meme, but a joke alone is not enough to justify the price of a theater trip to watch a movie that, while not awful, is not great either.