32 box office flops that deserve a sequel
Nov. 29, 2024We all deserve a second chance, and so do these movies
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Sometimes, when a movie opens in theaters, the fight to become a box office hit can look like bloodsport. While some bad movies wind up making billions, some more deserving movies wind up making next to nothing at all. But what of all the box office flops actually deserve a sequel?
True to the spirit of capitalism, Hollywood operates by the simple adage: “Give the people what they want.” When a movie is a hit, chances are good that a sequel – or even, perhaps, an entire franchise – will happen later. But with people’s attention always divided and only so much expendable cash to go around, some flicks with serious potential for longevity see their future prospects cut way too short. Let’s also not forget that hindsight is 20/20, and that many movies are considered “bad” at first (especially to critics) only to wind up so-called cult classics.
From franchise non-starters to cult darlings, here are 32 movies that flopped at the box office but actually deserve a sequel.
Equilibrium’s story about cops in a dystopian future is awfully derivative of sci-fi classics like Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, and 1984, and its visual aesthetics too evocative of The Matrix. Still, though audiences ignored Equilibrium at first, the picture has slowly drawn attention as a cult movie. If nothing else, it has slick (if also silly) action choreography revolving around its own invented martial art called “gun kata.” Far from Christian Bale’s best movie, Equilibrium has its merits, and its setting of a post-World War III totalitarian state is too interesting not to see more of.
30. The Replacement Killers (1998)
Antoine Fuqua’s action thriller had all the makings of a would-be franchise. Chow Yun-fat, a superstar in his native Hong Kong, was at last making headway in Hollywood. Mira Sorvino was an Oscar-winning actress on the cusp of blockbuster stardom. Combined with budding director Fuqua, The Replacement Killers – in which Chow plays a professional killer who needs the help of an expert documents forger (Sorvino) to escape China – could have marked a new era in Hollywood action. But studio meddling held the movie back, which led The Replacement Killers to bomb with critics and barely made back its $30 million at the box office. While both Chow and Sorvino are now past their prime as headlining stars, The Replacement Killers still deserves a second look and maybe even a second shot.
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Notably the last movie to be released by “20th Century Fox” before it was retitled underDisney’s ownership, the moody and claustrophobic sci-fi horror Underwater had a last minute surprise that ought to have given it franchise juice. Spoilers: The creature causing the movie’s destruction is none other than Cthulhu, from H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu.” While Underwater’s director William Eubank said the inclusion of Cthulhu was a last-minute decision, it still opens up possible sequels to introduce more monsters from Lovecraft’s weird canon. Sadly, Underwater bombed at the box office due to its historically bad January release date and negative word of mouth, dooming Underwater’s future to drown with it.
Shoot ‘Em Up, a mostly-forgotten gem from the late 2000s, willfully ditches story and plot for experimental action choreography and editing. The result is nothing short of impressive, with its “story” – that of Clive Owen playing a highly trained former black ops soldier who teams up with a prostitute (Monica Belluci) to protect a newborn baby from assassins – being an excuse to stage some of the most exciting action sequences ever put to screen. While the movie flopped in theaters during its September 2007 release, Shoot ‘Em Up is an idea begging to be revisited.
In the 1990s, Image Comics challenged the reign of Marvel andDC Comicswith a slew of creator-owned original characters. Among Image’s most popular new icons was Todd McFarlane’s Spawn, a deceased U.S. soldier who returns to the living world as a vengeful avatar of Hell. In 1997, a live-action film starring Michael Jai White hit theaters just a few years shy of the massive superhero boom. Spawn wasn’t a box office dud necessarily – in the U.S., it opened at number two behind Harrison Ford’s Air Force One – but notoriously bad reviews have kept Spawn from his resurrection. McFarlane has since publicly explored a smaller budget reboot, but White proved himself a formidable lead and his Spawn deserves another shot at life.
To be clear: The Iron Giant, directed by Brad Bird, is an incredible movie that tells an emotionally complete story. A sequel isn’tnecessary. However, the movie’s notoriously bungled release in theaters is something of a cruel cosmic joke, and if there were any justice in the world it would be one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. Its tender story about friendship centers on Hogarth (voiced by Eli Marienthal), a young boy in 1957 who befriends a giant robot from outer space (Vin Diesel). While the movie’s warm and resonant story about purpose and identity wraps up in a neat bow, a similarly carefully crafted sequel could progress the story forward, or see the Giant befriend new kids from different backgrounds and time periods. What a shame The Iron Giant soars as a cult classic and not the massive success it deserves to be.
It’s the movie that Robert Downey Jr. himself has said landed him Iron Man. But imagine an alternate timeline where there was the Kiss, Kiss, Bang Bang Cinematic Universe (KKBBCU)? From writer/director Shane Black comes this deliciously clever crime noir satire, where Downey Jr. plays a thief turned protege to a Los Angeles detective (Val Kilmer) who stumbles upon a conspiracy involving an old childhood sweetheart (Michelle Monaghan). Despite razor-sharp dialogue and an ingenious reinvention of hard boiled mysteries, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang failed to crack the code for box office success. But its happy ending is begging to see a continuation.
Edgar Wright’s cult smash Scott Pilgrim vs. The World covered all the most critical beats in Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novels, which chronicles its title character battling the exes of his new girlfriend Ramona. As much as some die-hard fans may want to see it, a “sequel” is pretty much impossible. Not to mention, a critically acclaimed Netflix series (which reimagines the story) already stars the movie’s cast. Butwhat ifa new movie explored Scott and Ramona’s happily ever after? What if a movie took on the characters in their 30s instead of their slacker 20s? Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was a box office failure that found a dedicated audience as soon as it hit DVD and Blu-ray. A sequel where the characters wrestle with proper adulthood would speak to the original movie’s audience who’ve since grown up themselves.
The Wachowskis’ mystifying sci-fi epic Cloud Atlas centers on the premise of shared human connectivity, that our souls are echoed across time and space. This is made explicit in how the movie’s ensemble cast play different characters of varying backgrounds in different time periods. While this drew some controversy – and admittedly, Jim Sturgess in yellowface makeup is off-putting – the Wachowskis were striving to tell a story about the expansive beauty of our species, warts and all. Although Cloud Atlas befuddled critics and had a poor opening weekend, its story is flexible and ripe for further exploration in theoretical sequels. And the Wachowskis have long ago proven themselves capable of doing something so unexpected.
At the dawn of satellite and cable TV and home video, director David Cronenberg saw our collective humanity get numb. With his 1983 classic horror Videodrome, Cronenberg dove into the dark side of our screens with its story about a TV executive (James Woods) who gets obsessed with a bootleg program in which people are tortured and murdered on camera. Although Videodrome had a confusing release – released in theaters for just a short time – it has earned retrospective praise as an unflinching piece that speculates on media’s power to completely annihilate our sense of self. While a direct sequel is kind of impossible given its grim ending, a new story set in its universe is begging to be made. Just imagine it: Videodrome for the era of social media, doom scrolling, misinformation, and predatory algorithms.
During Star Trek but before The Boys, Karl Urban donned the uniform of British comic book antihero Judge Dredd for Pete Travis’ R-rated thriller, simply titled Dredd. The movie sees Urban as Judge Dredd, a licensed law enforcer in a crime-ridden dystopian city who reluctantly takes on a rookie partner (Olivia Thirlby) when they are both trapped in a 200-story high-rise apartment block ruled by a ruthless drug lord (Lena Headey). While critics adored Dredd, bad marketing kept the movie from box office success. (Audiences eventually came around due to its unadulterated violence and ultra-cool Urban in the main role.) According to Urban, talks of a sequel have happened including a follow-up series with Urban again in the lead role.
Alex Garland’s Annihilation, based on Jeff VanderMeer’s novel – the first in a four-book series – follows a group of female scientists who enter a dangerous zone known as “The Shimmer,” where plants and fauna are mutating due to a dangerous alien presence. A muscular piece of sci-fi horror, Annihilation drew rave reviews but only a modest box office, its stable of A-list stars like Natalie Portman, Gina Rodriguez, and Tessa Thompson eclipsed by its own dark vibe. In the face of stiff competition from family-friendly fare like Game Night and Black Panther, Annihilation failed to generate enough revenue to see the rest of VanderMeer’s Southern Reach books play out as movies.
Aim to misbehave. A few years after the cult sci-fi TV show Firefly was canceled, it had one last ride in a big screen continuation/finale Serenity. Despite some word-of-mouth buzz from Firefly’s passionate online fandom, Serenity still only opened at number two at the U.S. box office and generally underperformed during its theatrical run. But the movie was beloved by fans, and has only drawn further acclaim over time as more people discovered Firefly via streaming. While the opportunity has passed for any kind of revival, be it a new season of Firefly or a sequel to Serenity, it’s a miracle that Serenity exists at all. You really can’t stop the signal.
After two esoteric horror movies, Robert Eggers stepped up for what he believed was his most mainstream movie up to that point in The Northman, a Viking-era revenge epic based on the folk legend Amleth. Despite the combined strength of a star-studded cast with Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, and Nicole Kidman, The Northman misfired like a bad arrow at the box office; pundits believed its audience of hip twenty and thirty-somethings were split between it and the sardonic Nic Cage movie The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Still, The Northman had the backing of critics who praised the movie’s intensity. Though Amleth’s story is wrapped up at the end, it’s not hard to imagine a sequel that follows a different Viking berserker on their own mission of revenge.
With so many legacy sequels out there, it’s bizarre how Ridley Scott’s haunting storybook fantasy Legend hasn’t received that same treatment. Directed by Scott and starring Tom Cruise, the movie tells of brave Jack (Cruise) who stands up to Darkness (Tim Curry) as he tries to plunge the world into eternal night. Critics in 1985 panned Legend; though there was praise towards its sets and Curry’s makeup as Darkness, most critics were left in the cold over its shabby story, plot, and characterization. In spite of this, Legend has become a cult film and Cruise’s oversized stardom has given it even more power. While it’s unlikely either Cruise or Scott would be willing to return, Legend is practically screaming for more especially in an era ruled by Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones.
Calling Sky Captain! Come in, Sky Captain! A stylish homage to 1930s-era pulp heroes and an innovator of new techniques in VFX filmmaking, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow didn’t really take off as a box office hit but has since flown steady as a cult classic. Set in an alternate 1930s, Gwyneth Paltrow plays a photojournalist who hires an old paramour, the dashing “Sky Captain” (Jude Law) to investigate a case of missing scientists. With beautiful art deco aesthetics and set in a wholly original universe, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow has all the fuel for a franchise. Unfortunately, its underwhelming box office has grounded it seemingly forever.
On one hand, it’s not a great idea to anchor a would-be franchise around a mute ninja. It’s also not a great idea to have giant snakes, undercooked characters, magical relics, and loads of Japanese stereotypes. Coupled with a pandemic-era box office, and what you have is a recipe for a box office bomb. (Worldwide gross: A measly $40 million.) But Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, a prequel/reboot that tried and failed to launch a new era for the G.I. Joe series, has some worthwhile merits, namely capable leads Henry Golding (post-Crazy Rich Asians) and Andrew Koji. This origin story of the coolest member of the Joes, the commando Snake Eyes, chronicles his bond and subsequent rift with his rival Storm Shadow. It may lack brains and refinement, but Snake Eyes has muscle and Golding deserves to actually suit up in that dope costume.
Lost to memory as the film Seth Rogen got in shape for, The Green Hornet suffered from its January release window and people’s unfamiliarity with The Green Hornet, an all-but-forgotten superhero from the 1930s. (If Bruce Lee hadn’t starred in the TV show in the ’60s, it might be even more obscure.) But Michel Gondry’s movie version has aged well as an action-comedy that thrives on its sincere portrait of male friendship. While the movie lacks any real sting, the onscreen chemistry between Rogen and Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou – as sidekick Kato – is too potent to ignore. Here’s hoping that the Green Hornet and Kato may one day strike again.
It remains infamous as one of Disney’s biggest disasters of all time. That’s a shame, because John Carter doesn’t deserve to be “the worst” anything. Based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' seminal science fantasy hero, John Carter tells the rise of its title hero (played by Taylor Kitsch), a U.S. Confederate soldier who winds up on Mars and embeds himself in the planet’s own bloody civil war. An eye-popping spectacle, John Carter was set to become a whole new franchise for Disney. But its eye-watering production budget, rumored to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 million, meant it was a steep uphill battle to success. (And let’s be real: Does the plain title “John Carter” actually inspire excitement?) In the end, John Carter’s box office was so bad, Disney turned to acquiring Star Wars shortly afterward. Disney has since relinquished the rights back to the Burroughs estate, but in another lifetime, John Carter would be as big as Luke Skywalker.
Eric Francisco is a freelance entertainment journalist and graduate of Rutgers University. If a movie or TV show has superheroes, spaceships, kung fu, or John Cena, he’s your guy to make sense of it. A former senior writer at Inverse, his byline has also appeared at Vulture, The Daily Beast, Observer, and The Mary Sue. You can find him screaming at Devils hockey games or dodging enemy fire in Call of Duty: Warzone.
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