There comes a time when a movie generates a large amount of buzz that movie studios decide that it’s a good idea to make a sequel. But out of all the sequels that have ever been made, only a small handful of them have ever generated the same amount of interest and buzz and have lived up to the same quality as the original.
Most of the time, sequels tend to fail because they’re nowhere near as good as the movie, and here’s why.
Characters change.
Movie studios may find it difficult to lock up the same actors from the first film. Because of this, they end up having to put a different actor in the role of a main character, and although it may be a minor detail, it can often be a nuisance to those who truly enjoyed the film.
You have higher expectations.
The first time you see a movie, you don’t have very high expectations because you’re not sure what to expect. In most cases, you walk into the original movie without expecting to be blown away, and if you are, then the movie ends up being better than your expectations. When a sequel comes out, you now expect that the sequel will be just as good as the original was. Now, you have very high expectations, and if the movie doesn’t live up to these high expectations, then you end up being more disappointed than you would if you didn’t have high expectations.
They’re inconsistent.
It’s possible that the sequel will end up leaving out things that happened in the original or stray away from storylines that were important in the first. For example, a married character may all of a sudden be single with no mention as to what happened. A character with a child may all of a sudden be childless with no mention as to how or why.
They’re not different.
Sometimes a sequel fails because they cannot create a storyline that is separate from the first. Take the hangover for example. The movie was based on a group of friends trying to reconnect the pieces from a drunken stupor the night before. In Hangover II, they were trying to do the exact same thing, and the only difference was the location. This makes it difficult for the movie to be a success because the audience, though they want the similarities, they also want to experience something new along the way.
They don’t reach the same audience.
In order for a sequel to be successful, they require the audience to have seen the original. Most people are not going to spend their time or money watching the sequel to a movie when they have yet to see the original. This means that the movie studios are only reaching an audience that has seen the original, which means that they may not do as well in the box office as the original due to a smaller niche audience.
About Today's Contributor:
Joshua Reynolds is the husband of an adoring wife and father of two sons. He is a journalist and editor for the local newspaper and recently wrote about some exciting family entertainment ideas.
