“Sicario: Day of the Soldado” (out June 29th) is the sequel to 2015’s action/thriller “Sicario”, which earned 3 Oscar nominations, a Critics Choice Best Picture nom, a Best Supporting Actor BAFTA nom for Benicio del Toro. del Toro returns alongside Josh Brolin for the second chapter in this series.
However, “Soldado” comes from a different distribution studio than the original. “Sicario” was distributed by Lionsgate, while “Soldado” is coming from Columbia Pictures and Sony Entertainment.
This is not the first case this year where a franchise follow-up has involved a change in studios:
Warner Bros. released “Paddington 2” in January following the Weinstein Company meltdown (WB paid $30 million for the rights, though the film only earned $40M in the U.S.)
WB was the home of the first “Pacific Rim” movie in 2013. But as with the change in directors, from Guillermo del Toro to Steven S. DeKnight, Universal’s new pact with Legendary meant it was now behind “Pacific Rim: Uprising”.
Still to come this summer – the horror sequel “Unfriended: Dark Web” (out July 20), from BH Tilt (the first movie was a Universal picture).
And in 2019, we’ll see the James Bond series transition from Sony to Annapurna, through their new deal with MGM, along with “How to Train Your Dragon 3” as the first DreamWorks Animation film distributed by Universal. The first “Dragon” in 2010 came out when Paramount still distributed DreamWorks movies – and the 2014 sequel was a 20th Century Fox release. It’s rare for a franchise to go through three different studios – another reason why the “Dragon” saga is one of a kind.