most disappointing performances for a sequel?

[John Marston]

I will say 

 

 

Back to the Future 2 and 3 - both sequels are considered superior sequels and are well liked yet 2 had a massive drop from the first and 3 didn't even make 100m and make the top ten grossing movies of the year

 

Rambo 3 - dropped massively from Rambo 2 domestically. Like close to 80% in admissions. Rambo 2 sold about 42m tickets and 3 only sold about 13m. What happened?

 

Gremlins 2 - Gigantic drop from its predecessor. A flat out flop even. Sold about 9.8m tickets when the original did 45m! 

 

Scream 4- I thought it would make more opening weekend than what it made domestic total! 

[Maggie]

Jack Reacher 2.  The first one wasn't that big of a hit, but there was room for improvement. The second one killed the franchise theatrically

[clockwork]

Right now off the top of my head: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.

 

The first Fantastic Beasts wasn't beloved but it got decent reviews and solid word of mouth and managed to make over 800 mil worldwide. Not bad for a movie that marketed itself as a spin-off with practically no recognizable characters or all that popular actors with minimal references to the OG Harry Potter story.

 

Then the sequel happened; which did have some good trailers and had fan favorite character Dumbledore in it, but it wasn't enough. It got torn to shreds by critics and the general audience for being too convoluted, scatterbrained, meandering, and for muddying certain parts of the established HP cannon. It made 200 million less worldwide than the first and had it been on par with or even better than the first one it likely would have cracked a billion dollars. And now the future of the franchise is in jeopardy, assuming they still want to make 5 total.

[Napoleon]

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 - the first movie was a surprise hit, with fantastic word of mouth, louded as something fresh and unique for the MCU, and continued to do great after its theatrical run. It was supposed to be the next billion dollar Marvel franchise. Yet the sequel, despite being considered just as good or even better, didn't have the increase that was predicted (went from $773 million to $864 million worldwide). 

 

Feel kinda the same way about Star Trek Into Darkness and The Kingsman 2.

 

Jason Bourne also did well at the box office, but considering the return of Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass and the addition of Alicia Vikander, it was very disappointing.

Edited October 11, 2020 by Napoleon

[HouseOfTheSun]

Batman v Superman has one of the most embarrassing box office performances of all time in a vacuum and certainly for a sequel 

[charlie Jatinder]

How long till we have Age of Ultron as response.

[charlie Jatinder]

24 minutes ago, Napoleon said:

went from $773 million to $864 million worldwide). 

Exchange rates is the culprit.

 

GoTG 2 grew 30% in footfalls in Europe.

In Canada GoTG did C$42mn ($38mn) while GoTG2 did C$55mn ($40mn).

Same in China, 1st did ¥596mn ($97mn) 2nd ¥686mn ($99mn).

Latin America despite +65% in Brazil $ was just 20% up. Same Mexico lc increased 30%, $ decreased 5%.

 

30% increase in general almost everywhere is no disappointment. At 2014 er, GoTG2 would be billionaire or very close.

Edited October 11, 2020 by charlie Jatinder

[MrFanaticGuy34]

Here are some of my picks for sequels with sadly disappointing box office results:

 

Just a warning, the post will be pretty long.

 

Kung Fu Panda 2 & Kung Fu Panda 3 - As a huge fan of the entire franchise, I need to point this out: The first film was a surprise hit back in 2008, with $215M DOM & nearly $632M WW. It had also great reviews from critics with 87% on RT, praising it’s beautiful animation, emotional story and memorable characters. And the audience loved it as well. Kudos to the great performances, especially Jack Black as the main character, Po. And due to that film’s success..it was inevitable that Dreamworks Animation had another great franchise in their hands. Quality-wise, they delivered. In terms of box office though, it was complicated.
 

While not a bad DOM-gross for KFP2, it only made $165M DOM, though luckily the film did increase a bit WW-wise, with $665M WW, thanks to a large gross from China with over $90M+ over there (a time where China was just getting started with phenomenal box office grosses), back in 2011. And like the first one, it was a really well-liked and well-received sequel with 81%. This wasn’t the only big summer blockbuster that opened on a Memorial Day Weekend, since this family film was released on the same weekend as another blockbuster with a counterprogramming, the R-rated comedy sequel know as The Hangover: Part 2 and that one fared better DOM-wise with $254M DOM. While not the best DOM-performance for an animated sequel, it’s not a terrible one either.

 

But then came the third one, which I thought easily would be one of the heavy-hitting blockbusters of 2016. Like the last two films, it was once again very well-liked and well-received by audiences and critics alike, praising the same elements that made both it’s predecessors great animated films, with an 87% on RT, same as the first film. Sadly, this is where the good parts end. Unfortunately, KFP3’s box office did not justify the positive reception it had.
 

And you know what the saddest part is about KFP3’s box office is? It’s that this had everything in it’s power to be a huge hit, even bigger than the last two films. It was released in the January, which normally wouldn’t be much of a blockbuster month perse..but with the enormous success of Clint Eastwood’s War/Drama-film “American Sniper”, which that made $350M DOM & $547M WW, then any movie released in January, can do great. So I was all high on Po’s third cinematic appearance. It had everything to go big. What could go wrong? Well...It underperformed yet again, that’s what went wrong. While it didn’t drop too much DOM-wise from the second one, it only made $143M DOM, which is even lower than an original Dreamworks-film that came out the year before, called “Home” which was released at March 2015. That film made $177M DOM, which was better than what Po’s third film did. However, the heartbreaking box office tragedy about KFP3’s gross, was it’s WW-gross. It only made $521M WW, which was lower than the previous films. While the last two films film at least made over between $630-670M WW, this one did not. It’s $377M OS was even lower than the first film’s $416M back in 2008, despite China giving the third one the biggest gross in the franchise from Po’s native homeland. Maybe the near 5 years wait, wasn’t probably the best idea...but in my theory...i think the bigger cause of KFP3’s underperformance was that it was sadly ignored by by a mass audience. In a decade where we had animated sequels/prequels/spin-offs that were large $1B-blockbusters like Minions Despicable Me 3, Incredibles 2, Finding Dory, Frozen 2, Toy Story 3 & Toy Story 4...it’s sad that Kung Fu Panda of all animated franchises, did not have the nearly same money-making numbers as those other afore-mentioned films. Hopefully, the KFP-franchise will be treated in the future as a classic animated franchise that brought us memorable characters and top-quality storytelling.

 

Now with pandas out of the way, let’s talk about apes..which segues to:

 

War for the Planet of the Apes - This was a rough one. Another franchise that I love. This time though, it’s underperformed for a more...different reason.

 

First film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, was a huge surprise back in 2011. Not many people had high hopes for that film before release. It was previously seen as another attempt of rebooting/remaking an old classical franchise like “Planet of the Apes” for example.

 

First time someone attempted that was Tim Burton, back in 2001 with his own remake of an Planet of the Apes-film. And that film had some..mixed results. It’s true that it was financially successful with $180M DOM & $362M WW, which at the time made it the biggest grosser in the entire Apes-movie legacy, the reception though..were pretty mixed. At worst, it was seen as a betrayal to the old classic Apes-movies and regarded it as THE worst of all Apes-movies in general...or at best, it was a summer-popcorn flick that was enjoyable enough, and some thought while it wasn’t close as good as the previous films it was between average and decent. Hence there were concerns for how Rise would have turned out.

 

However, the unthinkable happened: Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a very good and well-thought out film with heart & emotion. Thanks to the amazing acting & motion-capture performance of Andy Serkis as the main ape called “Caesar”. And with the reward of being very good, it let to great box office results. It made $176M DOM which although lower than the Tim Burton-version, it was a very good DOM-gross nonetheless. Worldwide though, it did better with $481M, beating out the 2001-Apes version. So due to “Rise” being a surprise hit for 20th Century Fox, it was clear that Fox had a potentially great franchise in their hands.
 

Which gets us to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Released in 2014, this was a test if audiences would be there on mass, to see how Caesar’s comeback would be in his second time on screen. And luckily, it definitely payed off. Critics & audiences really loved it as much...if not more than the previous film with 90% on RT, praising the visual effects & performances of the apes and even performances from human actors like Jason Clarke & Gary Oldman for example. Box office-wise proved that this franchise would really go ape (no pun intended). As “Dawn” made over $208M DOM & $710M WW, making it even a bigger hit than “Rise”. So with the grosses getting bigger with each film, you’d think that a third one would pull off a “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” with a threepeat and go even much higher with the box office?

 

Sadly though...it didn’t. This was another sequel, whose box office numbers didn’t justify the stellar reception it had. Now, to the positives..it was indeed beloved by critics and audiences alike with 94% on RT, for the visual effects & acting performances of the apes. Again, the standout being Andy Serkis as Caesar. And also considering ”War” as a great conclusion to Caesar’s story. So...like KFP3, I was all high on War for the Planet of the Apes’s box office potential. I even said that if everything went right, it would have been going as high as over $1B WW. That’s how much I was confident with the film. However...instead of rising from Dawn, it only sinked and took a nosedive, box office wise. While “War” beat out “Rise” with a WW-gross of $490M (though barely)...it unfortunately dropped like a boulder from “Dawn”s $710M WW. The DOM-gross also wasn’t great either. ”War” only made over $146M DOM, which makes it the lowest grosser in the reboot franchise. And that really saddens me...since i predicted it would be the biggest of the franchise with more than $260-280M+ DOM. Sighs...I guess not every great and beloved trilogy can be “Lord of the Rings” in terms of box office grosses. But we can still be happy that we still have a franchise like the Apes-reboot that has splendid storytelling and amazing CGI & visuals from the Apes themselves.

 

Phew...this was a long list.

[lilmac]

The Last Jedi. 
 

I enjoyed the sequel so much and wanted it to do better. It made the top 10 all-time list at least, I guess. 

 

Edited January 10, 2021 by lilmac

[lilmac]

On 10/11/2020 at 4:51 PM, MrFanaticGuy34 said:

Here are some of my picks for sequels with sadly disappointing box office results:

 

Just a warning, the post will be pretty long.

 

Kung Fu Panda 2 & Kung Fu Panda 3 - As a huge fan of the entire franchise, I need to point this out: The first film was a surprise hit back in 2008, with $215M DOM & nearly $632M WW. It had also great reviews from critics with 87% on RT, praising it’s beautiful animation, emotional story and memorable characters. And the audience loved it as well. Kudos to the great performances, especially Jack Black as the main character, Po. And due to that film’s success..it was inevitable that Dreamworks Animation had another great franchise in their hands. Quality-wise, they delivered. In terms of box office though, it was complicated.
 

While not a bad DOM-gross for KFP2, it only made $165M DOM, though luckily the film did increase a bit WW-wise, with $665M WW, thanks to a large gross from China with over $90M+ over there (a time where China was just getting started with phenomenal box office grosses), back in 2011. And like the first one, it was a really well-liked and well-received sequel with 81%. This wasn’t the only big summer blockbuster that opened on a Memorial Day Weekend, since this family film was released on the same weekend as another blockbuster with a counterprogramming, the R-rated comedy sequel know as The Hangover: Part 2 and that one fared better DOM-wise with $254M DOM. While not the best DOM-performance for an animated sequel, it’s not a terrible one either.

 

But then came the third one, which I thought easily would be one of the heavy-hitting blockbusters of 2016. Like the last two films, it was once again very well-liked and well-received by audiences and critics alike, praising the same elements that made both it’s predecessors great animated films, with an 87% on RT, same as the first film. Sadly, this is where the good parts end. Unfortunately, KFP3’s box office did not justify the positive reception it had.
 

And you know what the saddest part is about KFP3’s box office is? It’s that this had everything in it’s power to be a huge hit, even bigger than the last two films. It was released in the January, which normally wouldn’t be much of a blockbuster month perse..but with the enormous success of Clint Eastwood’s War/Drama-film “American Sniper”, which that made $350M DOM & $547M WW, then any movie released in January, can do great. So I was all high on Po’s third cinematic appearance. It had everything to go big. What could go wrong? Well...It underperformed yet again, that’s what went wrong. While it didn’t drop too much DOM-wise from the second one, it only made $143M DOM, which is even lower than an original Dreamworks-film that came out the year before, called “Home” which was released at March 2015. That film made $177M DOM, which was better than what Po’s third film did. However, the heartbreaking box office tragedy about KFP3’s gross, was it’s WW-gross. It only made $521M WW, which was lower than the previous films. While the last two films film at least made over between $630-670M WW, this one did not. It’s $377M OS was even lower than the first film’s $416M back in 2008, despite China giving the third one the biggest gross in the franchise from Po’s native homeland. Maybe the near 5 years wait, wasn’t probably the best idea...but in my theory...i think the bigger cause of KFP3’s underperformance was that it was sadly ignored by by a mass audience. In a decade where we had animated sequels/prequels/spin-offs that were large $1B-blockbusters like Minions Despicable Me 3, Incredibles 2, Finding Dory, Frozen 2, Toy Story 3 & Toy Story 4...it’s sad that Kung Fu Panda of all animated franchises, did not have the nearly same money-making numbers as those other afore-mentioned films. Hopefully, the KFP-franchise will be treated in the future as a classic animated franchise that brought us memorable characters and top-quality storytelling.

 

Now with pandas out of the way, let’s talk about apes..which segues to:

 

War for the Planet of the Apes - This was a rough one. Another franchise that I love. This time though, it’s underperformed for a more...different reason.

 

First film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, was a huge surprise back in 2011. Not many people had high hopes for that film before release. It was previously seen as another attempt of rebooting/remaking an old classical franchise like “Planet of the Apes” for example.

 

First time someone attempted that was Tim Burton, back in 2001 with his own remake of an Planet of the Apes-film. And that film had some..mixed results. It’s true that it was financially successful with $180M DOM & $362M WW, which at the time made it the biggest grosser in the entire Apes-movie legacy, the reception though..were pretty mixed. At worst, it was seen as a betrayal to the old classic Apes-movies and regarded it as THE worst of all Apes-movies in general...or at best, it was a summer-popcorn flick that was enjoyable enough, and some thought while it wasn’t close as good as the previous films it was between average and decent. Hence there were concerns for how Rise would have turned out.

 

However, the unthinkable happened: Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a very good and well-thought out film with heart & emotion. Thanks to the amazing acting & motion-capture performance of Andy Serkis as the main ape called “Caesar”. And with the reward of being very good, it let to great box office results. It made $176M DOM which although lower than the Tim Burton-version, it was a very good DOM-gross nonetheless. Worldwide though, it did better with $481M, beating out the 2001-Apes version. So due to “Rise” being a surprise hit for 20th Century Fox, it was clear that Fox had a potentially great franchise in their hands.
 

Which gets us to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Released in 2014, this was a test if audiences would be there on mass, to see how Caesar’s comeback would be in his second time on screen. And luckily, it definitely payed off. Critics & audiences really loved it as much...if not more than the previous film with 90% on RT, praising the visual effects & performances of the apes and even performances from human actors like Jason Clarke & Gary Oldman for example. Box office-wise proved that this franchise would really go ape (no pun intended). As “Dawn” made over $208M DOM & $710M WW, making it even a bigger hit than “Rise”. So with the grosses getting bigger with each film, you’d think that a third one would pull off a “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” with a threepeat and go even much higher with the box office?

 

Sadly though...it didn’t. This was another sequel, whose box office numbers didn’t justify the stellar reception it had. Now, to the positives..it was indeed beloved by critics and audiences alike with 94% on RT, for the visual effects & acting performances of the apes. Again, the standout being Andy Serkis as Caesar. And also considering ”War” as a great conclusion to Caesar’s story. So...like KFP3, I was all high on War for the Planet of the Apes’s box office potential. I even said that if everything went right, it would have been going as high as over $1B WW. That’s how much I was confident with the film. However...instead of rising from Dawn, it only sinked and took a nosedive, box office wise. While “War” beat out “Rise” with a WW-gross of $490M (though barely)...it unfortunately dropped like a boulder from “Dawn”s $710M WW. The DOM-gross also wasn’t great either. ”War” only made over $146M DOM, which makes it the lowest grosser in the reboot franchise. And that really saddens me...since i predicted it would be the biggest of the franchise with more than $260-280M+ DOM. Sighs...I guess not every great and beloved trilogy can be “Lord of the Rings” in terms of box office grosses. But we can still be happy that we still have a franchise like the Apes-reboot that has splendid storytelling and amazing CGI & visuals from the Apes themselves.

 

Phew...this was a long list.

Great post! I agree with your picks. 

[excel1]

On 10/11/2020 at 11:36 AM, HouseOfTheSun said:

Batman v Superman has one of the most embarrassing box office performances of all time in a vacuum and certainly for a sequel 

No question. 

[WittyUsername]

They don’t get much more disappointing than BvS. Almost everyone was certain it was going to be a billion dollar hit, but it couldn’t even cross the $900 million mark. It also currently holds the record for the worst multiplier of any movie that opened above $100 million at the domestic box office. If that wasn’t enough of an insult, it didn’t even crack the top five biggest movies of 2016. 

[excel1]

4 years of inflation, 3D uncharge, Superman added in, + no mass shooting and it still BARELY opened higher than TDKR and did not come close domestic or global.

[Saul Goodman]

Batman v Superman and Justice League.

[Barnack]

I think many were giant drop like GodFather 2, Empire Strike Back, Grease 2, Sting 2, American Graffiti 2, exorcist 2 but in a era where sequels have big drop was more the norm that make them hard for someone not from that era too judge them.

 

Some were big modern drop but with product/proposition that would have an hard time causing deception to anyone not involved in the projects themselves, like Blair Witch 2/Speed 2/Basic Instinct 2/Dumb and Dumber 2, people didn't care for those doing well or not and could not be disappointed, they would have not mind if the movie were never made to start with.

 

That make BvS a good candidate, considering the stakes, the amount of people rooting for it, the giant launch at the start of the OW and it was in a time when SH movies adding SH in them could grow a lot.

 

Some canvas about it about it is a sequel of which movie exactly ? (If it is Man of Steel and in that case 200M more) and so on, but still, it's own debut proved how much it was a dunk 1.1-1.2 billion movie a la Aquaman (but more domestic) for sure with a good reception and when down under 900M.

 

Far from the worst performing sequel, but disappointing maybe.

 

 

[ReptileDysfunction7]

I would say Frozen II, but for domestic. I know this might attract criticism but hear me out. Frozen made $400.7M back in 2013/2014 off of a $67.4M opening which was absurd legs. But Frozen II just feels like it should’ve done more domestically. I mean not that $477.4M is bad (it's not), but it just felt like an easy $500M+ grosser (Hype comparable to Incredibles 2, prime release date ahead of holidays, holiday boost like the first Frozen), especially after the 2nd weekend of $86M (higher than even Lion King’s 2nd weekend and almost reaching BATB’s $90.4M 2nd weekend). Its post-holiday legs were just all-around lackluster, and its multi (3.66x) wasn’t that much higher than TS4 (3.59x) which is a tad underwhelming considering it had holidays to help bolster its legs, and you would’ve thought it could’ve finished with Aladdin’s multi (3.89x). 
 

Overseas ($972.7M) and worldwide ($1.450B) wasn’t an underperformance imo, it did exactly as it should, but domestic it seemed locked to pass Finding Dory, I mean like I stated earlier the trailer views and hype were comparable to that of Incredibles 2, so Finding Dory’s OW ($135.1M) and 500M+ should’ve been an easy target but it missed the marks ($130.3M OW and $477.4M total, which was only $76.7M above the first one when it should’ve been doing close to $100M+ more domestic like it did OS and WW).

[CrashBandicoot81]

Wreck it Ralph 2. Added all the Disney Princesses and Star Wars cameos, but performed modestly over the original.

[european1992]

Scream 4 had predictions of 50m ow and then it flopped.

[Krissykins]

Addams Family Values and Sister Act 2. 
 

Both much better than the originals, and both more popular now. But huge drops at the box office. 

[Menor the Destroyer]

Most of the answers in here are kinda weird and are putting mild disappointments or "great but not as great as they could have been" performances up there with genuine disasters. Frozen 2 really? Alice Through the Looking Glass has to be up here I suppose, though wasn't on the forums to know what the expectations were, but a sequel to a billion dollar movie doing only 300 mil has to be a disappointment. Lego Movie 2 also had a disastrous drop from the first. As far as answers on here already I do agree with BvS and War for Planet. 

Edited October 30, 2021 by Menor