If the proliferation of mediocre sequels lately is any indication, all it takes to launch a franchise nowadays is for a movie to bring in big international box office bucks, even if U.S. ticket sales disappoint.
It was certainly not for artistic reasons or personal prestige that instant sequels to modest recent hits like Kick-Ass, The Smurfs, Grown Ups, and Red littered the multiplexes this past summer. Every studio wants their own durable franchise, but nobody could have anticipated how flaccid all of these aforementioned sequels would turn out.
Perhaps if the studios dig a little deeper into their vaults for some of their less prestigious but reliable medium-grade sellers, and maybe look back farther than a few quarters, they’d stumble onto something worth exploring.
All it takes is money, because if a doomed project like Atlas Shrugged that few viewers saw and even fewer enjoyed can manage a Part II simply because some tenacious producer had passion and cash to burn, then there’s simply no excuse why the following geek flicks haven’t yet seen the potentially lucrative follow-ups they so richly deserve.
Production Budget: $35 million
Domestic Box Office: $13 million
Worldwide Box Office: $41 million
Box office numbers are nothing to brag about, but this movie is just too darned good to leave a sequel opportunity unexplored. Brutally and graphically violent, the tone skews closer to the source material than the campy 1995 Sylvester Stallone affair, with Karl Urban delivering a terse and commanding performance as the title character. Like all startling dystopian science fiction, the social commentary is grim and decidedly NOT for the weak of heart.
The title has performed robustly on home video, approving fans have spoken, and there’s currently a petition online to persuade Lionsgate to make another Dredd movie. Having missed this one during its theatrical run last fall, I also regretfully missed out on what I hear was an imaginative use of 3D effects. Even in 2D at home, Dredd packs a powerful punch and is a strong introduction to what could and should be a durable movie franchise.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Production Budget: $90 million
Domestic Box Office: $103 million
Worldwide Box Office: $233 million
Based on the first book in the wildly popular Millennium Trilogy, Tattoo is a seamy and complex crime story, part investigative procedural, part sordid psycho-sexual thriller. Nobody expected gargantuan box office for such a harrowing affair, but based on the success of the book and the original Swedish film trilogy, the bean-counters surely hoped this American adaptation would perform better than simply breaking even.
Director David Fincher seemed for a while to be plotting a return, teasing that he’d prefer to shoot the thematically linked second and third books simultaneously, but now it looks like he’s moved on to other projects. Even with Fincher out of the picture, I’m hoping Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig are reunited, and that a filmmaker with similar technical virtuosity and uncompromising vision will take the director’s chair.
Sony Pictures has not yet made any decision on whether or not they’ll move ahead with those adaptations of The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest so, though I hope otherwise, this could be the last we see of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist.
The Rocketeer (1991)
Production Budget: $40 million
Domestic Box Office: $47 million
Worldwide Box Office: Unavailable
Worldwide box office figures are not readily available, but with the Disney brand name, there’s been no shortage of exposure for this movie on DVD and cable TV. I’d wager this flick has earned the Mouse House enough coin in merchandizing and home video sales by now to justify a relaunch.
Dick Tracy (1990)
Production Budget: $46 million
Domestic Box Office: $104 million
Worldwide Box Office: $163 million
For years after the release of 1990’s comic strip adaptation Dick Tracy, star and director Warren Beatty was embroiled in a lawsuit over the TV and movie rights to the character. The case was finally settled out-of-court in 2011 and Beatty prevailed. In the two years since, talk of a sequel has remained just that—talk—but Beatty, now aged 76, insists he’s still game to make another Tracy flick. At least now he’s legally entitled to.
Remo Williams (1985)
Production Budget: $40 million
Domestic Box Office: $14 million
Worldwide Box Office: Unavailable
Adapted from “The Destroyer” series of pulp novels, Remo is a gritty yet lighthearted 007-style adventure about a wiseacre cop who is drafted into an ultra-stealthy government assassination program. The movie’s full title, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, is too-often mocked by adding the snarky suffix “…and Ends,” and if I didn’t have such an affinity for director Guy Hamilton based on his contributions to the James Bond series, maybe I wouldn’t get so bent out of shape when somebody utters or writes that quip.
Remo didn’t exactly set the box office on fire in 1985, but it’s gone on to become something of an ’80s cult underdog and has remained an enduring staple of home video and cable TV. There are literally dozens of “Destroyer” books ripe for adaptation, and though actor Fred Ward is clearly unsuitable to reprise his original role, a newer and younger Remo wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
Rumblings of a “Destroyer” reboot at Sony Pictures percolated across the internet back in 2009, but there’s been little or no news since then.
The Dark Crystal (1982)
Production Budget: $15 million
Domestic Box Office: $41 million
Worldwide Box Office: Not available
Lack of movement on a long-in-the-planning sequel is not encouraging, though IMDB still lists The Power of the Dark Crystal as “in development.” Is this freakish, fantastic Muppet movie EVER going to get a follow-up?
Pacific Rim (2013)
Production Budget: $190 million
Domestic Box Office: $101 million
Worldwide Box Office: $407 million
Yeah, I’ll say it again: Let there be a sequel. This hi-tech genre mash-up kicked kaiju and deserved more props from American audiences. Contrasted with the movie’s $190 million budget, the domestic grosses seem paltry but strong international figures are edging the film towards the profit zone. Foreign audiences are either less discerning or less cynical than we are, but suddenly nobody in Hollywood is saying this movie is a bomb anymore. Maybe it isn’t QUITE the new billion-dollar Avatar, but a $400+ million world-wide gross is a respectable start for a would-be franchise starter not directly adapted from anything previously published or produced. A sequel will be an easier sell, and would likely receive a warmer welcome. If Pacific Rim becomes a top seller on DVD and Blu-ray this winter, you can bet on seeing more jaeger/kaiju smack-downs in the future.
The Golden Compass (2007)
Production Budget: $180 million
Domestic Box Office: $70 million
Worldwide Box Office: $372 million
The intent was to adapt all three books of the His Dark Materials trilogy, but Part One is a painful case of counting chickens before they hatch. The meager U.S. box office tally of the very expensive Compass spooked New Line off completing the series, thus this “first installment” stands in awkward limbo as a terrific introduction to what has so-far remained an incomplete saga. The film sets up a fully realized world abundant with dark magic, visual grandeur and strong characters, and I eagerly want to see more.
Lesser similar fantasy films adapted from books have already spawned sequels—The Chronicles of Narnia films number three by now, and we currently have a second Percy Jackson and the Olympians movie nobody seemed to be hollering for. I’m not afraid to say The Golden Compass surpasses both franchises, and I’d rather see a continuation of that film more than a fourth Narnia or third Percy Jackson. No other orphaned movie listed so far smites as much as this one, for its intentional open-ended non-conclusion that simply DEMANDS a continuation. Of all the movies I’ve discussed here, Compass is the one that most blatantly does NOT stand on its own.
Technically, the production is on par with what Peter Jackson has done with his Hobbit adaptations, and the film boasts terrific performances, a wondrous production design and seamless CGI. Going by conventional wisdom that a film needs to gross twice its budget to be deemed profitable, the shareholders who ultimately make these decisions would do wise to reconsider reviving this franchise, perhaps with a tighter budget next time. Not TOO tight though: any hypothetical sequel will be expected to live up to the golden standard of its predecessor’s Oscar-winning special effects.
