This week, Dimension releases Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, a sequel that follows nine years after the first film in 2005. The Troublemaker himself, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, reunites the cast and adds a few fresh faces, namely Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eva Green, and Josh Brolin.
Shot at Rodriguez’s own studios in Austin, Texas, the first Sin City grossed $158 million worldwide on a $40 million budget. The reasons behind the sequel’s long wait haven’t been brought to light, but Rodriguez has been busy running and gunning features in the Machete and Spy Kids series.
As sequels mitigate risks by leveraging proven properties, studios are usually fast to greenlight another chapter. Sony rebooted the Spider-Man franchise just five years after the last trilogy on the promise of a sure thing. This time around, sources are predicting a $32 million domestic gross, down $42 million from the original take. But do all long-coming sequels do worse than the original? Below SSN takes a look at other sequels that took their sweet time.
SSN Insight: With so much time in between films, a child who was 10-years-old when he saw the first Toy Story was 14 when he saw the sequel, and 25, possibly with children of his own, when he saw the last one. It’s impossible to top the 100 percent Rotten Tomatoes score of the first two films, but Toy Story 3 managed to average a solid 99 percent. That was due in part to director Lee Unkrich’s decision to scrap the sequel that had been in the works at Disney, and bring on Little Miss Sunshine scribe Michael Arndt. “We felt a crushing responsibility,” Unkrich said, “we didn’t want to be known as the guys who screwed it up.” Instead they were the guys who won the Oscar for best animated film that year.
SSN Insight: Nineteen years after the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones was unearthed by Spielberg and Lucas for another adventure, this time with his son (played by Shia LeBeouf) in tow. The treasure didn’t shine like it used to as Crystal Skull’s domestic haul was $317 million to Last Crusade’s adjusted domestic gross of $402 million. Spielberg has said he was happy with the film, albeit, “When he writes a story he believes in—even if I don't believe in it—I'm going to shoot the movie the way George envisaged it.” Adding new blood to an old franchise didn’t take (a nuked refrigerator, vine swinging monkey escape, and alien McGuffins didn’t help matters), but audiences we’re still excited enough to heap gold onto Paramount to the tune of $601 million worldwide. No matter, Indie still saved the day.
SSN Insight: Tying our list with Wall Street for the most time between sequels (28 years), the state of the art effects of the first Tron were ahead of their time. Sequel scribe Brian Klugman agrees. “It was remembered not only for story, but a visual style that nobody had ever used before,” and although it underperformed for Disney, it grew into a cult classic. Jeff Bridges, back as Kevin Flynn, jumped onto the role, saying he was “most interested in taking part in creating a modern day myth.” The second film didn’t quite hit the mark with critics, maybe because the world has caught up with its concepts and effects, and while it only averaged 51 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, it was still a gorgeous piece of art to behold.
SSN Insight: Sixteen years after Rocky V, Sylvester Stallone returned to the mean streets of Philly for Rocky Balboa. These films are a unique pair for being the only two on the list where the sequel cost less than its previous iteration—$34 and $24 million, respectively. Stallone made this film because he “felt obligated to try and end the series the way it should have ended. I was very negligent with Rocky V … it bothered me.” It took the sale of MGM to Sony, and a change of leadership, before Stallone could get a greenlight. Job well done, as the film received a 76 percent from Rotten Tomatoes, up from 26 percent for Rocky V.
SSN Insight: Twelve years after John McClane claimed sweet vengeance; he was back in town for another nail-biting night in Live Free or Die Hard. The rebooted franchise gave McClane superhuman-like powers to jump off buildings, and added new blood with Justin Long. It was also rated PG-13, a move which star Bruce Willis disagreed with. “I really wanted this one to live up to the promise of the first one, which I always thought was the only really good one.” He understood that Fox was, “trying to reach a broader audience … but we still made a pretty hardcore, smash mouth film.” Although it only grossed $17 million more this time out, it gave Fox 383 million reasons to greenlight sequels in rapid succession.
SSN Insight: The film that rocketed director Zach Snyder to the A-list was 300. Adapted from Frank Miller’s graphic novel almost shot-for-shot, 300 pushed the graphic novel style of Sin City to the max, and sprung many imitators. Snyder made the movie for “a small audience that would be into this kind of crazy, comic-booky sword and sandals movie. It was kind of a genre that didn’t exist.” Critics were mixed but audiences loved it, giving it a standing ovation at its Berlin Film Festival premiere. Now busy with Man of Steel, Snyder relegated himself to the writer’s chair for the sequel and let Smart People director Noam Murro take the helm. This time around the film performed solidly but without star Gerard Butler, or Snyder as director, it couldn’t capture lightning in a bottle twice.
SSN Insight: With 28 years between Michael Douglas’s dual turns as master manipulator Gordon Gekko, the original was by no means a hit, but it cultivated a cult following when its famous one-liner, “greed is good,” entered the lexicon. The sequel picks up in much more chaotic financial waters, although Douglas admits he didn’t think Gekko changed much after his long stint in prison, saying, “He’s just had more time to think about what to do.” Hot off sequels for Transformers and Indiana Jones, Shia LeBeouf was tapped to play his protégé, and after a little back and forth, Oliver Stone came on to helm once more. Though it failed to meet Fox’s expectations, the film nearly doubled its budget at the box office and its $19 million opening weekend still remains Stone’s highest ever opening gross.
