Sequel season: The big blockbusters back for more
IT’S a massive year for the sequel with some if our favourite epic movie franchises coming back for more fun. We’ve already seen Deadpool 2, Solo and Avengers: Infinity War, but there are many more on the way to get excited about.
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It’s blockbuster movie season and that means we are once again in for a slew of sequels. But while some past sequels have been seen as cynical movies-by-numbers from big studios — who remembers Speed 2: Cruise Control or the abysmal Jaws: The Revenge? — moviegoers now demand them.
This week Top Gun fans got their wish when Tom Cruise confirmed filming had begun on one of the most hotly anticapted sequels in movie history, with Maverick strapping back into his flight suit for the first time in more than three decades.
Box office figures from the past decade (see separate box) prove sequels are huge business for Hollywood, with many doing even better than the originals. So what’s changed? Are the movies better — or is the growing trend for nostalgia driving our desire for more of our favourites?
Universal Pictures managing director Mike Baard says sequels work when studios bring something new to old favourites.
“As technology enhances the cinema-going experience, filmmakers are able to bring even more exciting elements to stories which were not possible before,” he says.
“Fans have shown that if you advance the story and provide a rich world of characters, they definitely enjoy the experience of seeing sequels.”
But get it wrong and your fans will punish you.
While Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool 2 “over delivers” according to Sunday Telegraph film critic Vicky Roach, who says, “The gags come so thick and fast they demand repeat viewing,” Solo: A Star Wars Story has discovered the fan empire can strike back. Released two weeks after Deadpool 2 which has already topped more than $500 million at the worldwide box office, the Star Wars prequel is on target to fall well short of its predecessors say box office analysts.
Turns out it is not just quality that will annoy fans — timing is everything. Solo, which has had mixed reviews, is suffering at the box office because it was released too soon after The Last Jedi (December) and smack bang in the middle of a monster six months for movies, according to Luke Sword, secretary of the world’s longest running Star Wars fan club Star Walking Inc.
“You’ve got Black Panther, The Avengers, Deadpool, Ant Man And The Wasp and a few others like The Incredibles and Jurassic World. All these big movies before July,” Sword tells Insider. “Are people just saving their money and they’ll see it when they see it?”
Launching so soon after The Last Jedi, which polarised fans, also did this prequel no favours, Sword says.
“I believe it was too soon,” he says. “A lot of people had mixed reviews on (The Last Jedi) and then there’s this movie five months later. If that’s still fresh in their mind, are they going to (ask) ‘Is it another one of those movies or is it going to be better?’”
For those who can’t wait to get reacquainted with their favourite characters, here are the titles we are about to revisit for the second, third, or fourth time:
OCEAN’S 8
Opens Thursday
The Oceans franchise makes a much-hyped return with an all-female cast. Sandra Bullock is joined by Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Rihanna and Helena Bonham-Carter.
INCREDIBLES 2
Opens June 14
Fourteen years after The Incredibles was released, its writer and director Brad Bird is bringing us another instalment — not for the money, he says, but because he had a good story. “If it were a cash grab, we would not have taken 14 years — it makes no financial sense to wait this long — it’s purely (that) we had a story we wanted to tell.”
JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM
Opens June 21
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is tipped to top the box office — in part because Jeff Goldblum is back. Directed by J.A. Bayona (The Orphanage, A Monster Calls), it promises sell-out cinemas 25 years on from the first movie.
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3: SUMMER VACATION
Opens June 28
Giving Incredibles 2 some competition this is the third outing in the series, which started in 2012. With all the old voices back, including Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez and Steve Buscemi, it’s expected this version will beat the $628 million the last installment made at the box office.
ANT-MAN AND THE WASP
Opens July 5
Following on from 2015’s Ant-Man, Paul Rudd returns as the superhero fighting alongside Evangeline Lilly’s The Wasp with Michael Douglas and Michael Pena, in this Marvel adventure. Considering the first movie made $689 million, it’s a fair bet this will be a smash.
MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN
Opens July 19
Ten years after the first love letter to ABBA charmed the world, we’re back for another summer of fun in Greece, with Amanda Seyfried, Lily James, Andy Garcia, Meryl Streep, Dominic Cooper, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Cher. All together “Mamma mia, does it show again, my my, just how much I’ve missed you?”
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT
Opens August 2
The sixth outing for Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. The stunts are so dramatic Cruise broke his ankle leaping between buildings in London while filming and literally limped on so the film could make its release date.
BY THE NUMBERS
THESE sequels had movie theatres packed and their producers laughing all the way to the bank.
THOR: RAGNAROK: 2017
Chris Hemsworth’s character gets more popular with age, with each new instalment more successful (financially) than the one before. Ragnarok pulled in a tidy $1.1 billion.
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES: 2012
Christian Bale is arguably the best actor to play Batman and fans seemed to think so too with the three movies he helmed pulling in $3.3 billion — The Dark Knight Rises the most successful of the trio.
FINDING DORY: 2016
It was going to be tough work topping Finding Nemo, but 13 years later Pixar did it with this great family movie — Dory beat her fishy friend at the box office when she pulled in $1.4 billion.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — GHOST PROTOCOL: 2011
Ethan Hunt and his IMF team have made more than $3 billion since first hitting our screens in 1996. Ghost Protocol has so far made the most with $920 million.
TOY STORY 3: 2010
The adventures of Woody and Buzz is another that just keep getting more popular each
time the number moves up at the end of the title, with three the most lucrative of the trio so far.
THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE: 2013
The second instalment of the quartet was the most successful ($1.1 billion), unless you combine the two Mockingjay chapters, which some called out as a bit of a cash grab (it worked!).
AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR: 2018
It’s no surprise that the latest chapter is the most successful at the box office ($2.5 billion) — it was tough work finding a cinema that had any seats left for weeks after its release.
FURIOUS 7: 2015
The first of the franchise’s eight instalments released after Paul Walker’s tragic death, this movie went on to make just under $2 billion.
JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
The Rock and Jack Black helped this surprise hit of 2017 — released more than two decades after the original — rake in a whopping $1.2 billion worldwide.
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