Some recent sequels have underperformed at the box office… possibly because they arrived in theaters not long after the previous installment. “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” opened just seven months after “28 Years Later”. Last year’s “The Strangers: Chapter 2” dropped big at the box office compared to 2024’s “Chapter 1” (and “Chapter 3” comes out this weekend). “Wicked: For Good” earned $343M compared to the $473M of “Wicked”. And “Avatar: Fire and Ash” doesn’t have the power of “Avatar: The Way of Water”. It was 13 years between the first two “Avatar” installments, but only three years between the second and third chapters.
In some cases, audiences might think, “I just paid money to see this. Do I want to see this franchise again so soon? Maybe I’ll try something else instead” You can find it in the underwhelming box office results for installments released two years or less after their previous chapters, like “Smile 2”, “Daddy’s Home 2”, “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising”, “A Bad Moms Christmas” and “Sex and the City 2”. This applies to family films too, like “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked”, “The Addams Family 2”, “The Smurfs 2”, the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” franchise, and even 2017’s “Despicable Me 3”, which grossed more than $70 million less than 2015’s “Minions”. Disney even released “Planes: Fire and Rescue” ($59M) less than a year after “Planes” ($90M).
Having “The LEGO Ninjago Movie” ($59M) in theaters in the same 2017 calendar year as “The LEGO Batman Movie” ($175M) wasn’t the smartest decision. And “The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part” (2019) only managed $105M. (The 2014 “The LEGO Movie” grossed $257M).
It can also be a situation where you’re disappointed by the previous installment and don’t want to bother with the next installment, which was released fairly quickly after the previous one. Just look at the drop offs of “The Hangover: Part III”, “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” and “Fast X”. And back-to-back years for franchises often (though not always) mean the series runs out of steam and audience interest at the end, including “The Divergent Series: Allegiant”, the “Fifty Shades” trilogy, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2”, “Halloween Ends” and even “Boo 2! A Madea Halloween”.
This summer’s “Minions 3” arrives just two years after “Despicable Me 4”. Will it suffer the same kind of drop as “DM3” after the first “Minions”? And what about the live-action “Moana” just a year and a half after animated “Moana 2”? It should be another exciting year at the box office!