Page 226 - A Handbook Genre Studies in Mass Media

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Table 8.1
Familiarity Breeds Receipts: A Look at Domestic Box Office
Sales for Film Sequels

Original Sales Sequel Sales
American Pie $102 million (1999) American Pie 2 $145 million (2001)
Terminator 2:
The Terminator $38 million (1984) Judgment Day $205 million (1991)
Lethal Weapon $65 million (1987) Lethal Weapon 2 $147 million (1989)
Source: Lyman, Rick. “Summer of the Spinoff,” New York Times, April 17, 2002,
p. E1.

It used to be sequels, on average, earned about 65 percent of the gross of
the original. Now, if you make a good one, you can earn even more than
the original, sometimes much more. . . . Sometimes, you can do two or
three times what you did on the original. So why not go in and mine that
field? It’s there. If you’re not doing it, somebody else is. 37

To illustrate, while the original Austin Powers: International Man of
Mystery (1997) grossed $54 million in 1997, its sequel, Austin Powers:
The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), generated $205 million. Similarly,
Rush Hour II (2000) grossed $226 million, exceeding the $141 million
of the original Rush Hour (1998).
Sequels have become such a part of mainstream Hollywood produc-
tions that in some cases film studios shoot both the original and sequel
at the same time to save expenses. The sequel is then released at a later
date. For instance, in 2006, Walt Disney filmed two sequels to its suc-
cessful Pirates of the Caribbean together, thereby saving the considerable
location expenses.

Prequels

Prequels focus on the action that took place before the original narrative.
For instance, in Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith the audience
learns about how Darth Vader originally became a villain. A prequel as-
sumes that the audience is familiar with the original—the audience must
rework the narrative so that they can understand how the prequel leads
up to the beginning of the original.

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