One life occurrance was just not enough. It was obvious from the first one I wrote that more would follow, regardless of popularity, or critical acclaim. Alas that cannot be said for movies. It seems that nowadays if a movie makes a big cut in the box office, there will be more to follow. So what’s the big dea, right? Isn’t that what the public wants? Apparently so, but to me it seems that it dilutes the market. Hollywood pictures have been reduced from , “What do you think would be a great movie to see?” to “What movie can we make that will guarantee us a lot of money?!?”
I guess we can only blame ourselves for this. It seems we dish out more money to see a rehash of a good movie than to go and see the original movie itself. Word of mouth is not sufficient in some cases. We need to see the final product on the small screen ourselves, then kick ourselves in the rear end for missing it, and THEN we pay full price for a movie that is not nearly as good, and we kick ourselves again for NOT waiting to see that one on video!
The truth is that early on, (at least based on what I’ve seen) most sequels were horror movie sequels. Take a scary character and continue to scare moviegoers with this guy over and over and over again: guys like Jason, and Freddy, and Michael Myers, who among them have almost 30 movies to their credit (and more on the way with another Halloween on the horizon!). But that has changed. It now seems that if a movie hits it big, it is almost guaranteed a sequel. Some of the most ridiculous movies have wound up with sequels thanks to their initial success. The most ridiculous in the bunch? In my mind, that would go to “Weekend at Bernie’s 2″. Talk about dragging an old joke until it’s dead! (Pun definitely intended) But nowadays, every big movie gets the treatment, with few exceptions.
Looking at the top 10 grossing movies made, some are sequels, some have spawned sequels, and few did neither. Let me list them for you:
TITANIC $600 million
STAR WARS $460 million
SHREK 2 $445 million
E.T. $435
STAR WARS: EPISODE 1 $431 million
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 2 $423 million
SPIDERMAN $404 million
STAR WARS: EPISODE 3 $380 million
LORD OF THE RINGS 3 $377 million
SPIDERMAN 2 $373 million
In the bunch there are 3 Star Wars movies, and 2 Spiderman movies. Shrek, Pirates and Lord are all sequels. That only leaves Titanic and E.T. as not having spawned sequels. Well, it’s easy to see how to make an E.T. sequel, but the statute of limitations seems to have run out on that right? I mean it’s been 25 years! Yet, E.T was re-released with new footage a few years back, and with updated special effects. I guess if a sequel was not in order, how about a “better-looking” version of the original. (Star Wars did that too… THEN came out with three more!!!) Which leaves us with Titanic. If you think about it, it would be kind of difficult to pull of a sequel there, huh? I’m sure James Cameron was kicking himself for that one! BUT WAIT! Six years after Titanic Cameron released a movie, “Ghosts of the Abyss” about the wreckage of the Titanic itself. Not even HE could leave well enough alone!
Now I’m not here to completely knock this whole sequel thing. Let’s face it, I’m the first one to line up to see these very sequels… I’ve seen the last 3 Star Wars and last 2 Spiderman movies at their midnight openings… but I must say, I think it is important to get some new stories out there. Instead of Mission Impossible 4, or Lethal Weapon 5, or Naked Gun 45rpm, let’s get some more fresh ideas out there. It seems every year there is only one (at most two) audience gripping movie a year. And most of the time that movies animated!! Again, I’m the first to line up to the animated movies, but how about some fresh live action stuff?
Chances are that the three top grossing movies this year will be sequels to 3 of the top 7 movies of all time… Spiderman 3 (which in 3 weeks is already the 21st highest grossing movie of all time with $305 million), Shrek 3 (which after 10 days was already over $215 million and in the top 60 all time) and Pirates 3 which in 5 days has aleady grossed over $150 million dollars! The other big movies this summer? ANOTHER Fantastic 4 movie, ANOTHER Ocean’s 11 sequel, a sequel to Bruce Almighty, ANOTHER Harry Potter, Die Hard, Rush Hour, Bourne movie, and Hostel. Oh yeah and for the thrid year in a row: a penguin movie… even ideas are rehashed! Possible blockbusters that are not sequels? Ratatouille, PIXAR’s latest, The Simpsons, Transformers, and Underdog… TWO animated movies, and TWO based on animated series! Does everybody see a pattern?
I understand why people would go see so many sequels. After all when you get to grow to love a character, you enjoy watching what happens to him or her. You feel you know the person and want to find out more about the person. It is why Star Wars was such a successful franchise. And Spiderman, and Pirates, and Lord of the Rings. Great characters! But sometimes we get carried away. Austin Powers overstayed his welcome… smae jokes over and over. And by the third Matrix, I was ready to see Neo die, really. And if they make another movie about Hannibal Lecter, I think I’ll scream! All three of these have run their course, but you never know. My favorite movie of all time is Raiders of the Lost Ark. Well, guess what? After almost 20 years, someone decided that number 4 would be a good idea. You know I’m going to go see it… I can’t NOT go. But everyone knows the driving force behind making that movie… the fact that the other three made $200 million during a time that only Star Wars, ET and Jaws had made that much money.
Last year, we were fortnuate enough to get A NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM. It was a fresh idea that people embraced and went to go see. It was not a sequel, it was not an animated movie. I didn’t think it was great, but it was a great premise and people went to see it. We need to get more of these out there to get people interested in NEW again. The PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS was also a nice surprise. The other big original was THE DAVINCI CODE. Of the three only Davinci was expected to be that big thanks to the story so many had read. We need to find more like that to open our appetites to new fare as opposed to retellings of the same stories, to take away our fear of the unknown so that we won’t continue to revisit the same old thing over and over and over again.
In case you are wondering, last year’s top 10
PIRATES 2
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM
CARS
X-MEN 3
DAVICI CODE
SUPERMAN RETURNS
HAPPY FEET
ICE AGE 2
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS
CASINO ROYALE
TOTALS: 5 sequels, 3 animated (1 animated sequel!). I will say that Casino Royale being the umpteenth in the Bond class stands alone in that each Bond movie could stand alone. Youy can change Bond’s name to somethingelse in each movie and you’s have 20 free standing movies. It’s the name that brings everyone back, though. And I guess that’s my point of this whole thing.
Let’s bring creativity back to the movies! I think I’m going to go out and make my own movie! And after I do, I’ll go and write about it. And hopefully you’ll read it, because you are accustomed to reading my articles, and you care what I have to think! I give you permission to hold on to my mini-sequels. No really, come back and read them. OH, I hope I didn’t make my point TOO well.
Until the next L.O. (I hope)
