During the past week, there have been numerous articles about the fear of, what I like to call, “sequelitis.” In other words, filmgoers have finally shown their boredom and disgust at all the countless sequels, remakes and reboots that Hollywood has foisted upon them. The evidence has been shown in the disappointing box office returns this summer with films such as Cars 2, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, The Mummy, and Despicable Me 3 which have all underperformed. Meanwhile, films such as Wonder Woman and Baby Driver (and let’s not forget Get Out) have overperformed at the box office, proving that audiences are always looking for something fresh and original that they’ve never seen before.
So have audiences finally said that they’re fed up? Actually the real answer is yes…and no. It’s true that many sequels and remakes have been disappointing box office performers such as Cars 3 and The Mummy and it would seems that filmgoers are saying enough is enough. Well, that is when they’re not.
For example, though Dead Men Tell No Tales did far less that previous Pirates films here domestically, the film has made to date over $734 million worldwide, making it the third biggest grossing Pirates film to date. Plus, Transformers: The Last Knight is already nearing half a billion worldwide this week. However, in its case, due to the cost of its production and marketing, it still needs a couple more hundreds of millions just to break even.
Most times, it depends on what the sequel is. Guardians of Galaxy 2 did extremely well this summer and has grossed over $100 million more than the first Guardians film worldwide. And Spider-Man Homecoming was the No 1 film this weekend with $117 million which is the second biggest opening for any of the previous Spider-Man movies number one being Spider-Man 3 which opened with $151 million.
“Sequelitis” also depends on what the sequel is. Guardians of Galaxy 2 did extremely well this summer and has grossed over $100 million more than the first Guardians film worldwide. Spider-Man: Homecoming was the No. 1 film this weekend with $117 million, which is the second biggest opening for any of the previous Spider-Man movies, with No. 1 being Spider-Man 3, which opened with $151 million.
Because of the success of both Wonder Woman and Baby Driver, there is already talks of, guess what — a sequel for both films.
So are people tired of sequels and remakes? Of course they are and always have been. Are they looking for some new original movies? You bet they are, but it depends mainly on what the film is. Sometimes you just can’t predict these things. No one saw Get Out coming, but it was the luck of the right film at the right time. However, something like the film Valerian and The City of 1000 Planets, which is scheduled to come out in two weeks, a hugely expensive sci-fi movie with an original plot is almost certain to flop big time. (And its even got Rihanna in it but that’s not going to help it)
Last week’s No. 1, Despicable Me 3, dropped down to second place with a troubling (that is for the studio) 53 percent drop. But Baby Driver went from second to third place with a much smaller 37 percent drop and with $56 million to date and heading for $90 million domestically, which will make it one of the more successful films this summer for the very modestly-budgeted film. It may perhaps the lowest-budgeted studio film of the summer.
Wonder Woman just keeps going with over $745 million worldwide, though Hollywood studio execs and analysts still baffled to explain its success — that it was impossible for a female superhero film to be so successful at the box office. Clearly there had to be some other reason, most likely it was Chris Evans in the film (That was Chris Evans right? I get all these white actors named Chris confused). These are the same people who are still mystified over the worldwide successes of Moonlight, Hidden Figures and Get Out. To them it defies all logic.
This weekend’s top 12 grossers follow below:
1) Spider-Man: Homecoming (Sony) $117,015,000
2) Despicable Me 3 (Uni.) $33,998,875 Total: $149,189,535
3) Baby Driver (TriS) $12,750,000 Total: $56,883,072
4) Wonder Woman (WB) $10,135,000 Total: $368,786,191
5) Transformers: The Last Knight (Par.) $6,300,000 Total: $118,916,760
6) Cars 3 (BV) $5,636,000 Total: $133,733,412
7) The House WB (NL) $4,815,000 Total: $18,630,678
8) The Big Sick (LGF )$3,650,000 Total: $6,920,323
9) 47 Meters Down (ENTMP) $2,768,400 Total: $38,462,047
10) The Beguiled (Focus) $2,086,225 Total: $7,435,559
11) Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (BV) $1,200,000 Total: $168,825,297
12) The Mummy (Uni.) $1,164,135 Total: $77,974,405
