LuckyWillDo movie sequels work?
September 13th 2006 00:30
Well, according to IMDB’s stats for the “All-Time Worldwide” box office sales it does!
Ranked 2nd worldwide
A staggering 7 out of the top 10 films were sequels raking in more than $866,000,000 not including rentals, DVD buys and other miscellaneous promotional purchases. Out of the top 3 films were 2 sequels that grossed over A BILLION DOLLARS! What are these popular sequels you ask? Admittedly you’ll probably guess them. They’re all franchises and from the Harry Potter, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings license. Makes perfect sense now - almost common sense. Surprises included the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel (Dead Mans Chest) doing better than the first (Curse of the Black Pearl) and Shrek 2 being more lucrative than Shrek.
Ranked 3rd worldwide
To a degree I found they do, examples including the Godfather trilogy, the Alien trilogy (mostly), X-Men’s, the Rocky’s, the Shanghai Knights/Noon series, Spiderman, Lethal Weapons, The Mummy, Austin Powers, Kill Bill volumes, the Indiana Jones saga and the above mentioned on the highest grossing list. However, if they depart from the style too much by changing lead actors/actresses or cohesive content then this is where the sequel runs into trouble. Instances include the Matrix sequels and Batman films and a whole other host of ‘straight to video’ titles. Also problematic is if the sequel doesn’t introduce anything new or slightly deviant to the originals concept. This is seen in Saw II, Speed 2 and the last half of the American Pie films.
Titles which continue the style without modifying the content too much work in my opinion and sometimes further the original. Stellar cases are Terminator II, The Bourne Supremacy and Young Guns II whereby it’s simply a progression of the former but adds further depth and evolution to advance the story as a whole.
Images taken from:
www.news.bbc.co.uk
www.art.com
Q. What are your favourite sequels?
Is there a sequel which ruined the series for which you cannot accept?
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Comment by Ragin Cajun
Observer's Post
Death By Myopia
In my book, Mission Impossible 2 was way better than the original. Even though it was basically just a shoot-em-and-blow-em-up film with a flimsy plot, at least it didn't put me to sleep like the first one.
Comment by Stanley
Comment by Chantal
To be honest... my favourite sequel was Grease 2, lame I know... but it was sort of Grease (c'mon, it's a classic) but for big people! I was at that transitional stage when I watched it, like 13 or something and it seemed just that little bit more grown up!
Comment by Justin
Stanley: Yeah I agree. If only they'd tone down the budgets so they weren't so sales-driven and reliant on bankable ideas and stars to make the money back, we might see more creativity and imagination rather than churning out similar plots and characters. Though there's hope in indie releases and the odd film an actor subscribes to for love of the script.
Comment by Justin
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
I guess we dont have the old Flash Gordon, Phantom serials anymore and that really is what most sequels do, is just serialize a character.
Here are a few sequels I dont mind-
Return Of the Pink Panther-could be the funniest in the series.
Evil Dead2- essentially the same film as the original with a bigger budget and more laughs
From Russia With Love IMO is the best of the James Bond Film
Tarzan and His Mate- the movie that basically forced censorship to appear and the most enjoyable jungle adventure ever.
No point in listing the lousy ones because its just to many. I find in the last 10 years I dont like many of the originals in franchises, (eg: Pirates, Bourne, Austin Powers, Mummy etc) let alone there followup.
Comment by Justin
Was Bourne too Mission Impossible/Nikita with an unlikable Matt Damon?
Mummy too frilly and almost slapstick?
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
As for Bourne, Im a massive fan of this genre and of the Ludlum Books.
Just found the films dumbed down and uninspired. ( I enjoyed the Chamberlain version more)
Director Doug Liman (Swingers) managed to make GO a fun little ride that had velocity and thrills without the fear of death. In Bourne we have constant danger and lethal threats everywhere yet at no time did I feel any suspense and the film just sat their like a turd most of the time..
For me its an Average spy film, Id seen it all done much better before and really didnt stand up to other efforts in the genre- eg: Ronin, The Assignment, 3 days of The Condor etc.
Comment by Lilla
From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop
New to the blog scene, but just tuned into your site. Good conversation on movies ... what better ... good one, I'll be back.
Now then, I think the Batman sequel was actually a Pre-qual, wasn't it? That's the new thing now for directors to come along and do pre-quals. Sort of in the Star Wars Fashion. To go back beyond time and space and everything as we thought we knew it and start at the beginning.
I love them and I love sequels, especially the Matrix (however, I didn't like the ending very much - too dystopic for my tastes - although it was undefined and open to another sequal, don't you think?). Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Pirates, Raiders of the Lost Ark, RoboCop, Terminator, and Beverly Hills Cop. Spider Man, Childen of Dune, Santa Clause, Mulan and all the Disney's too. Who didn't love the Lion King (who has kids that is, not those of you who still are), although I think there is a lot in them if you can stand takky.
By far the best for me was also Back to The Future I, II and III, especially since I saw them out of order in the first place and was tipsy for most of the second one, which was really the third one, anyway. It took years to sort that mess out, I can tell you.
I guess I get my love of sequels and pre-quals from being a closet Trekkie. Hands up those who haven't seen every episode of Voyager or Next Gen.? I agree that I'd like more on the Phantom and the like, added, although again, I think a pre-qual on these comic book characters would be spellbinding, just like Batman Begins... what an epic.
No doubt about it, we want more out of our entertainment these days.
Love this site, perhaps you could come and help me sort my next quandry out on mine when you get time, I need opinions.
Thanks.
Lilla.
Comment by Justin
I'm fairly new to the blog scene too. Thanks for dropping by.
You're right; prequels are a fairly new addition to film chronology, the most popularly recent being Star Wars and Batman where I think the screenwriters or producers realise a richer history away from film that could be presented to us that they haven't included, but would be a great idea to supplment the existing films history on that topic. So it's here that we get prequels in a "y'know what we forgot to include?" kind of understanding that broadens the topic as well as fitting it to a model of a new or vogue method being "the prequel".
I thought the first Matrix was brilliant and the later ones somehow became too self indulgent and derivative of the originals mesmerising post-modern science fiction. But the rest you mentioned I liked too! (It would take me a blog and a half to give each film it's credit though)
I only saw the first Lion King and thought it was spectacular. On second thought may have seen the sequel so the two could've blended together for me. The storytelling, visuals and musical score were just such a celebration of life it was hard not to get taken away by all of it.
Hah, yeah, the "Back to the Future" series were great and were some of the first movies I saw at the cinemas as a kid along with Ghostbusters. Come to think of it, the BttF series may have started off the idea on prequels, having the characters go back in time as themselves and also the environment likewise..
Can't say I'm a trekkie fan, didn't mind the films though - guess I caught onto it too late possibly. Did you see the Phantom film with Billy Zane? Luckily comic book adaptions are coming thick and fast these days thanks to their box office reciepts and are written adequately well.
Thanks for your praise, I'll be sure to check out your sites if I haven't already stumbled over them, but I don't think I can offer advice. It's your personal display board so illustrate it Lilla-style and all the things that you'd like to have and for people to recognise you! Otherwise, just give the tech guys an e-mail to see what they think.
Bye for now =)