If the 21st century has taught us anything, it’s that franchises never truly die. Case in point: The fifth Shaft film is airing on HBO tonight at 8 p.m. ET. Shaft (2019) stars Samuel L. Jackson as Mr. John Shaft himself and is a direct sequel to the film where Jackson first embodied the character, aka 2000’s Shaft.
The iconic police detective who sometimes calls himself “the black James Bond” was first played by Richard Roundtree at the height of the blaxploitation crime action film era in the early 70s. Roundtree made three of those films, as well as one season of a TV show from 1973 to 1974. Jackson rebooted the character in 2000’s Shaft, a crime thriller. The 2019 Shaft is a sequel to that film, and this time around, it was a full-on comedy. John Shaft II (Jackson), who was originally the original Shaft’s nephew, is now Shaft’s son. (That’s what we in the business call a “ret-con.”) Shaft II has his own 25-year-old son, JJ (Jessie T. Usher), from whom he is estranged. JJ is an FBI agent, and, when his best friend is murdered, he reunites with his dad to help solve the case.
The 2019 Shaft also brought back OG Shaft star Roundtree to be Shaft Sr., aka Samuel L. Jackson’s dad and Jessie T. Usher’s grandfather. Of course, in real life, Jackson and Roundtree share only a seven-year age difference, but that’s Hollywood for you.
From 1971 to 2019, it has been nearly half a century of Shaft films. You’ve got Shaft (1971), Shaft’s Big Score! (1972), Shaft in Africa (1973), Shaft (2000), and Shaft (2019). So how did this new film hold up when compared to the other four Shaft films? Let’s take a closer look.
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‘Shaft’ (2019)
Star: Samuel L. Jackson and Richard Roundtree (and Jessie Usher)
RT score: 31 percent
Box office: $21,360,215, domestic
Unfortunately, most critics weren’t fans of this new Shaft. David Edelstein of New York Magazine wrote that the film “stinks to heaven,” while Kevin Benavides of L.A. Weekly noted that the movie “felt rushed, as if two different scripts were mashed together.” According to The Numbers, the movie also failed to make back it’s production budget of $30,000,000. However, the film’s international release was via Netflix, so it’s hard to measure the full box office.
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‘Shaft’ (2000)
Star: Samuel L. Jackson
RT score: 67 percent
Box office: $107,190,108, worldwide
Critics were much more amenable to a Shaft reboot the first time Jackson embodied the role. Perhaps it helped that the film was directed by the late Boyz in the Hood director John Singleton. The reviews weren’t exactly raves, but most seemed to agree it was a fun action romp. It also more than doubled its production budget of $53,012,938, according to The Numbers.
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‘Shaft in Africa’ (1973)
Star: Richard Roundtree
RT score: 60 percent
Box office: Not available
The third sequel to Shaft obviously came out before Rotten Tomatoes was a thing, but retroactive reviews suggest fans of the series was, well, fine, while featuring a few standout moments. Reviews at the time were similarly lukewarm: The New York Times declared it “quite good—fairly violent and very sexy. But it is less daring, less ethnically sophisticated, more antiseptic, more comfortably middle-class.”
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‘Shaft’s Big Score!’ (1972)
Star: Richard Roundtree
RT score: 58 percent
Box office: $10,000,000
Though the Rotten Tomatoes score doesn’t reflect it—and keep in mind it’s based on only 12 reviews—many critics enjoyed this follow-up film to the hit blaxploitation film. Legendary film critic Roger Ebert gave it 3 out of 4 stars, and called it “mass-audience escapist entertainment,” and even went so far to say it was better than the original, thanks to the higher budget. According to The Numbers, Shaft’s Big Score made an estimated $10 million at the domestic box office.
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‘Shaft’ (1971)
Star: Richard Roundtree
RT score: 88 percent
Box office: $12,121,618
The first Shaft was a smash hit and these days is remembered as one of the quintessential blaxploitation films. The theme song took home the Oscar for Best Original Song, and the film put star, Richard Roundtree, on the map. Critical reception was mixed at the time, though since then scholars have looked back at the film in admiration of its cultural and historical significance. Financially, it was an undeniable success, costing just $500,000 to make and making nearly $13 million at the box office, according to TIME magazine. You can’t beat the original!
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