It seems that almost every movie gets a trilogy these days. Truth is, though, a number of
hugely popular movies, each followed up by sequels, have yet to see a third instalment
join the franchise… and likely never will. These are the trilogies that will never be
completed.
Bringing a hilariously gruesome irreverence to the world of superheroes long before Deadpool
made his silver screen debut - no, we don't count X-Men Origins: Wolverine and neither
should you, director Matthew Vaughn's adaptation of writer Mark Millar and artist John Romita
Jr.'s Kick Ass was a hit with critics and audiences alike, earning $48 million domestically
and $97 million worldwide. Universal wisely played it safe, only spending $28 million
on the sequel, but made a few critical errors in the meantime. The first being that it was
released in 2013, a full five years after the original. The second was that directing
duties were given to Jeff Wadlow, as Vaughn was occupied with X-Men: First Class in 2011
and Kingsman: The Secret Service in 2014.
Critics KO'd Kick Ass 2 with a 32% Tomatometer rating, a significant drop on the first movie,
and it earned just $28 million domestically and $63 million worldwide. While Vaughn revealed
his hopes of directing both a prequel and a sequel in 2015, he eventually stuck to the
Kingsman series instead. Given Kick Ass 2's diminishing returns and the several years
that have passed, it's probably fair to say that Kick-Ass and company won't be making
a return anytime soon.
Before Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead made bank and AMC's The Walking Dead made history,
Danny Boyle's 2002 hit 28 Days Later was the little undead flick that could. Critics lauded
the movie upon its release, and audiences were generous too — delivering a $45 million
domestic and $82 million worldwide take against a measly $8 million budget. Profits like that
invariably spell a sequel, but it would be four years before 28 Weeks Later arrived in
theaters.
While Boyle passed directorial duties on to Juan Carlos Fresnadillo for the sequel, it
still managed to garner a relatively warm critical reception. Alas, audiences were less
enthused, as the $15 million budgeted sequel earned $28 million domestic and $64 million
worldwide. That's still highly profitable, but it was also a 22% drop from the first
film, despite costing twice as much.
Even though the numbers were trending downwards, Boyle later told MTV there were a few ideas
swirling about for a third film, though screenwriter Alex Garland said copyright issues with the
rights holders to the original film were holding them back. However, in 2019, Boyle told The
Independent that somebody had come up with a "wonderful" idea for a third film. Nobody's
said a word about it since, however, and for now it seems like the 28 Days trilogy is very
much dead and buried.
With a combined $1.2 billion domestic and $2.29 billion worldwide box office across
all his movies, Quentin Tarantino can pretty much call his own shots.
"Oooh, that's a bingo!"
Still, one of his hardest sells was Kill Bill, a kung-fu/spaghetti western/revenge thriller
mishmash that was originally meant to be one four-hour film — but was wisely split into
two releases. Both Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2 were hits with the critics, and
both made a decent amount at the box office — although Vol. 2 saw a 14% drop on the
first movie's takings.
While the Kill Bill films were modest financial successes, Tarantino went over budget and
over schedule on the movies, forcing him to cut a climatic beachside battle between the
Bride and Bill, and eventually having to miss the Cannes film festival. He revealed plans
for a Vol. 3 in 2004, suggesting it would follow Vernita Green's daughter as she sought
revenge against the Bride — with the hope being that Tarantino would begin filming 15
years later.
While 15 years seemed like an impossibly long time then, 2019 came and went with no Vol.
3, and Tarantino conceded in 2012 that a third film was probably not happening. "Probably
not" seemed to turn into "definitely not" when Uma Thurman called Tarantino out for
a stunt that nearly killed her during filming on the first two. They've apparently buried
the hatchet since, however, and now Tarantino says Vol. 3 is "definitely in the cards."
Believe it when you see it.
Chinatown brilliantly mixed the film noir genre of the 1940s with the New Hollywood
aesthetic of the 1970s and quickly became one of the definitive films of the latter
decade. While its $29 million box office didn't break any records in 1974, the movie's 11
Oscar nominations and one win at the 1975 Academy Awards cemented its sterling reputation.
While Chinatown is remembered as an all-time great today, however, its 1990 sequel has
been practically forgotten.
Jack Nicholson returned as private eye J.J. "Jake" Gittes in The Two Jakes, also stepping
in for Roman Polanski as director, for pretty obvious reasons. The Two Jakes did all right
with the critics, though it didn't blow anyone out of the water — and its box office performance
was truly atrocious, earning just $10 million.
Nicholson told MTV in 2007 that a third film, titled Gittes vs. Gittes, would have been
set in 1968, following Jake as he goes through a divorce. Given Nicholson effectively retired
in 2010, however, it seems that this pulp detective take on Kramer vs. Kramer will probably
never see the light of day.
"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."
Escape from New York introduced one of the most iconic characters ever conceived in the
eye-patch-wearing, smack-talking Snake Plissken, played with a rebellious swagger by Kurt Russell.
"We'd make one hell of a team, Snake."
"The name's Plissken."
While the film made a profitable $25 million worldwide on a $6 million budget in 1981,
it wasn't the kind of breakaway blockbuster that demanded an immediate sequel. Carpenter
and Russell focused on other projects for the rest of the 1980s, including their equally
beloved collaboration Big Trouble In Little China.
Meanwhile, Escape from New York's reputation continued to grow — so in 1996 the duo returned
for Escape from L.A. Releasing a sequel to a cult hit 15 years after the original was
a risky bet, especially with a $50 million budget, twice what the original film even
made. Unfortunately, Escape from L.A. face-planted with critics and bombed with crowds, earning
just $25 million worldwide — much less than the first movie after inflation is taken into
account, and with ten times the production budget, to boot.
While an Escape From sequel wasn't going to theaters, there were plans for a TV series
in the early 2000s, although they never amounted to anything. A remake was also announced in
2015, with Robert Rodriguez set to direct, though the movie's screenwriter has more recently
said that the project is still in development.
Everyone knows that, if you want to add prestige to your YA movie franchise, you simply turn
the final film into a two-parter. For a while, everyone seemed to be getting on board with
the trend — from Harry Potter to Twilight to The Hunger Games. Of course, this was probably
down to the fact that it's an incredibly easy way to make money, especially when you film
both parts at once. And surely nobody would be foolish enough to only film Part 1 of a
two-parter, right?
Enter The Divergent Series. The first movie managed $276 million worldwide on a $85 million
budget, while the second made $295 million against a $110 million budget, though its
domestic opening weekend and box office were smaller than the first. That should have been
a clue, but Lionsgate still went full steam ahead on the series' two-part conclusion.
This wasn't a great move.
The Divergent Series: Allegiant tanked with $66 million domestic and just $172 million
worldwide. It was decided that spending the money to properly conclude the trilogy would
be a waste, so the final instalment was announced as a TV movie instead… before being abruptly
cancelled. Still, you've got to give Lionsgate credit for releasing the first ever two-and-a-half
film trilogy.
The Wayne's World franchise is the most successful SNL film series ever, with both movies earning
$169 million domestically and $231 million worldwide. Bringing in that much bacon usually
spells more sequels, but instead, we wound up with mediocre SNL spin-offs such as Superstar
and The Ladies Man. So what gives?
Well, for one, Wayne's World 2 absolutely plummeted at the box office, earning $136
million less in 1993 than Wayne's World; a terrifying 76% drop in earnings. And while
Paramount may have still been willing to produce Wayne's World 3, it sounds like the creative
team just wasn't interested.
Mike Myers left SNL in 1995 and went on to star in the hugely successful Austin Powers
and Shrek franchises.
"Layers!"
Dana Carvey, meanwhile, starred in his own short-lived TV show, The Dana Carvey Show,
starting in 1996. In 1993, Entertainment Weekly had reported that "the ego-swelling success
of Wayne's World is taking its toll on the relationship" between Myers and Carvey, which
started when Myers wrote a draft of Wayne's World 2 that included plenty of Wayne, but
not a lot of Garth.
Couple that with Carvey's medical issues, and it's no surprise the world never got to
see Wayne's World 3. Still, the duo at least reunited for an UberEats commercial during
Super Bowl LV, which is probably as close to a third film as we'll ever get.
When it comes to box office bankability, Denzel Washington is the king of Hollywood. In the
gritty Equalizer series, Washington plays Robert McCall, a former Marine who comes out
of self-imposed retirement to take on Russian mobsters. The Equalizer and The Equalizer
2 earned similarly impressive numbers at the box office, though the sequel cost 29% more
than its predecessors. As such, Sony Pictures may have been cautious about spending more
on a hypothetical Equalizer 3 — and potentially earning less.
Worse still, Denzel Washington doesn't seem interested in franchises in general; in fact,
Equalizer 2 was his first and, thus far, only sequel. One person who is interested, however,
is director Antoine Fuqua, who told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018:
"Personally, I'd love for it to happen. [...] It would be great to do it again with Denzel.
I'm looking forward to The Equalizer 3, if that happens."
But it hasn't, and it doesn't look like it will — at least, not on the big screen.
CBS recently rebooted the series on which the movies were based, premiering the show
right after Super Bowl LV on February 7th, 2021. In this iteration, Robert McCall is
now Robyn McCall, with Queen Latifah stepping in for Denzel Washington, because if you don't
have the king, you get the Queen instead.
You may not know this, but there are actually two Adam Sandlers. One is the gifted actor
of Punch-Drunk Love and Uncut Gems. The other is, well, Adam Sandler. Alas, most of Sandler's
$5.5 billion in worldwide grosses have come from his comedy work, including the incredibly
successful Grown Ups series. The first Grown Ups earned $272 million worldwide in 2010,
and Grown Ups 2 made $247 million in 2013, making Grown Ups Sandler's highest-grossing
franchise — besides Hotel Transylvania. Obviously.
Even with the Grown Ups movies' all-star casts ballooning the budgets up to $70-80 million,
they were incredibly profitable… but the franchise seems to have stalled. Maria Bello
told Flickering Myth in 2016 that she'd love to come back, saying:
"Boy, it's fun to work with those guys."
On January 6th, 2020, Sandler fanatic and comedy writer-producer Tom Scharpling even
posted his unsanctioned script on Twitter, writing:
"In April 2019, I wrote a script for GROWN UPS 3. I was not asked to write it. It is
the best thing I will ever do in my life, professional or otherwise."
This script was a meta "making of" Grown Ups in which the various cast members are slowly
killed off. Predictably, it went viral, and equally predictably, it also went nowhere.
With Sandler busy making more Hotel Transylvania movies, a host of Netflix productions, and
a number of more serious films, it's probably fair to say that this comedy megastar has
grown out of Grown Ups.
Video game movies are generally synonymous with the word "awful," but for one brief moment,
it looked like the Mortal Kombat series would break the curse. And yes, obviously 1995's
Mortal Kombat is still "bad," but it's at least bad in a fun kind of way. It also made
a lot of money, earning $122 million worldwide on a $20 million budget. The studio rushed
a sequel, which never turns out well, and despite its $30 million budget, Mortal Kombat:
Annihilation ended up looking like a SyFy Original. Its 2% Tomatometer score is the
second worst in video game movie history, while the $51 million worldwide was a horrible
58% drop in takings. Now there's a franchise fatality for you.
"Flawless victory."
New Line Cinema had been banking on at least three Mortal Kombat films, however, and signed
Robin Shou, who played Liu Kang, to a three-picture deal. Annihilation annihilated any chance
of that happening, but a third film — reportedly titled Mortal Kombat: Devastation — was
apparently supposed to happen. The movie spent more than a decade in development hell before
Warner Brothers purchased Midway Games, which owned Mortal Kombat, for $33 million. Rather
than throw good money after bad, Warner Bros. relaunched the series with an R-rated reboot
in 2021.
Jim Carrey had pretty much the best year ever in 1994, starring in back-to-back-to-back
hits Ace Venture: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb & Dumber. The Mask was the biggest
hit of the bunch by far, earning $351 million at the box office; incredible numbers for
an ultra-violent C-list character from Dark Horse Comics. Despite The Mask's insane profitability,
the only sequel was 2005's horrible misfire, Son of the Mask, which tanked with $59 million
on a $100 million budget.
"Smokin'!"
Carrey wisely sat that one out — an unsurprising choice given his long-standing distaste for
sequels. However, it sounds like the star may be open to putting back on the mask, as
he told ComicBookNews.com in 2020:
"It would depend on a filmmaker. [...] I don't want to just do it. But I would only do it
if it was some crazy visionary filmmaker."
So, granted, Carrey sounds reluctant about the whole deal, but there were rumors in 2020
that Warner Bros. was considering both a female-led reboot more in line with the darker comic
and two new Mask movies starring Carrey. Since then, there haven't been any updates on this
potential franchise — and until Carrey warms to the idea, it's doubtful there ever will
be.
Both Basic Instinct movies drew in a bunch of money at the box office, with the first
one earning $117 million domestically and $352 million worldwide in 1992, despite its
mediocre critical reception. And while "Strike while the iron's hot" may not be a basic human
instinct, it is Hollywood's mantra — making it all the more surprising that it took 14
years for Basic Instinct 2 to arrive on screens. Michael Douglas was out this time, but Sharon
Stone returned as the psychotic novelist Catherine Tramell. While the first movie made Stone
a star, however, the sequel probably killed any chance of her headlining a film again.
It tanked with the critics and did nothing for audiences either, bringing in $35 million
box office on a $70 million budget. You'd think that'd have killed the franchise stone
dead, but according to a 2006 Empire Online article, Stone was optimistic about a sequel
— and she even hopes to direct. She said:
"There's a script for the next part of the story, but I would like to direct it rather
than star in it."
According to a 2013 HuffPost article, Stone has changed her mind about not starring in
the film, and is still "eager" to give Tramell "closure."
In Crank, Jason Statham has to keep his adrenaline going to stay alive, by any means necessary.
In Crank 2: High Voltage, Statham's heart is replaced with a battery that needs constant
jolts of electricity. What would've happened in Crank 3? Sadly, we'll never know. Crank
cost $12 million and made $43 million worldwide. Cue sequel. Crank 2: High Voltage cost $20
million and made $35 million worldwide. So game over... right?
Well, co-director Mark Neveldine was confident the franchise would keep going, telling Empire
Online in 2011:
"Crank 3 is going to happen, the studios are really excited about it — it's just all
about timing."
Four years later, Statham told We Got This Covered:
"I'd love to do it! [Neveldine and co-creator Brian Taylor] have to get their heads together,
and if they want to do it, then there's a conversation."
In 2018, Taylor told The Movie Crypt podcast that, given Crank 2's disappointing box office:
"It's got to be a great idea. [...] Something insane. [...] Crank 3 should be as exponentially
more f---ed up than Crank 2 as Crank 2 was [with] Crank 1."
The Blues Brothers was one of the best comedies of its era… and Blues Brothers 2000 was
among the worst SNL movies ever. Nearly 20 years separated these two movies, but given
the sequel lacked John Belushi — or, y'know, any redeeming value — it absolutely tanked,
earning just $14 million at the box office. About 17 years later, commemorating the original's
35th anniversary, Dan Aykroyd told CBS News that if Universal ever wanted to make a third
film:
"I have a story, of course, but it involves handing it off to a younger generation."
Aykroyd was even more emphatic in a 2015 interview with the Daily Mail, telling the outlet that
the Blue Brothers "will" return for a DVD and VOD special, with Jim Belushi stepping
in for his late brother. Aykroyd said:
"The focus will be on Elwood helping find a new generation to lead the blues. And that
idea is handing down to a new generation. Finding a pair of girls who are 20, 21, [and]
want to be the Blues Sisters."
In a 2018 interview with ET Canada, Aykroyd even revealed his dream cast for this sequel,
saying:
"I like Lupita Nyong'o, and I like Taylor Swift."
Whether The Blues Sisters ever comes to pass, however, is pretty much anybody's guess.
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