National Treasure spoke to the hearts and minds of many a young history enthusiast — and
action thriller fans everywhere — when it hit theaters in 2004.
The box office smash featured Nicolas Cage as Ben Gates, an explorer who steals the Declaration
of Independence in his quest to find a hidden treasure.
A sequel, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, was released in 2007 and improved on the first
film's box office return.
Talk about a third film started shortly after, and although rumors have persisted over the
years, nothing has come of those stories.
Unfortunately for fans of the franchise, production appears to have stalled on the third film.
Here's why it's unlikely that Disney will ever actually release National Treasure 3.
Busy producer
Famed producer Jerry Bruckheimer is the man behind many of your favorite action movie
franchises, including Beverly Hills Cop, Bad Boys, and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Jerry Bruckheimer Films was also one of the production companies that worked on the National
Treasure series, but that might be what's holding up a potential third film.
Bruckheimer has said that he's still looking to, quote, "get this thing going" in reference
to the third film, but right now his plate is pretty full with his work on long-awaited
sequels for some of his other popular franchises.
These films include Bad Boys for Life, a third installment in the Bad Boys series.
He's also working on a Tom Cruise-led Top Gun sequel, titled Top Gun: Maverick, which
is slated for a 2019 release.
With so many other movies awaiting his attention, Bruckheimer likely doesn't have much time
to devote to National Treasure 3.
Fact-checking
The National Treasure films may not be the most historically accurate to ever grace the
big screen...
"Let me guess!
It's the wrong time!
It's the wrong place!
I'm wrong again!"
… but apparently quite a lot of research still goes into making them, and that could
be part of what's delayed National Treasure 3 for so long.
As Cage revealed in 2016, it's been a challenge getting the script "where it needs to be"
thanks to the unique constraints of the franchise.
He told Entertainment Weekly,
"I do know that those scripts are very difficult to write, because there has to be some credibility
in terms of the facts and fact-checking, because it was relying on historical events.
And then you have to make it entertaining."
"There's thousands of years of world history down there.
And it belongs to the world."
Jon Turteltaub, who directed both films and is attached to the third, also said script
issues have been plaguing the film, telling Collider in 2013,
"[It's] so damn hard to write a great historical mystery based on fact."
Turtletaub said at the time that he thought they'd be shooting the film within two years,
but it appears that getting the script just right has been a longer process than he anticipated.
Critical aversion
Critical success isn't always tied to box office success, and the National Treasure
franchise is a perfect example of that principle in action.
The franchise has even earned a number of nominations at the Golden Raspberry Awards,
honoring the worst Hollywood has to offer, including a Worst Actor nod for Cage for Book
of Secrets.
"I'm wrong again!
Wrong about us.
Wrong about Thomas Gates.
Wrong as you'd like, the Queen Anne chair."
The fact that critics were never on board with the franchise could be something that
has deterred the studio from ordering another movie.
The falling critical and box office returns of other franchises like Transformers and
Pirates of the Caribbean hint that reviews do matter, and making another film in a franchise
that's already earned critics' ire could be too great a risk.
Cage's decline
The National Treasure franchise managed to improve its grosses from the first film to
the second, but Nicolas Cage has been seeing his box office returns fall for quite some
time now.
Aside from his Ghost Rider franchise, Kick-Ass, and his voice role in The Croods, Cage has
led a series of commercial flops in recent years, which could make the studio reluctant
to rely on him as a leading man once again.
Cage has reportedly been taking roles "left and right" the past decade to help him pay
off his debts, which could explain his string of smaller films.
Financial need may be enough to get him back to the franchise, but the studio could be
leery of signing a star whose box office appeal is in question.
"I'm like a prickly pear!"
Disney's priorities
A lot has changed for Disney since Book of Secrets hit theaters in 2007.
While the studio was never a minor player in the movie marketplace, their influence
has been stepped up significantly in the past few years, mostly thanks to major moves in
picking up Marvel and Lucasfilm.
Since the last National Treasure was released, Disney gained a lot more franchises to work
with, and they're not slowing down.
They don't need to go back to a franchise that's been in limbo for a decade.
Changing landscape
A solid franchise used to be a guarantee that audiences would turn out for a movie, but
the box office has changed a lot in recent years.
Recent franchises that have seen diminishing returns at the box office include Bruckheimer's
Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the Transformers franchise, Tom Cruise's The Mummy and Dwayne
Johnson's Baywatch.
While there are a few high-profile exceptions, including Marvel's continued box office dominance,
it's risky to assume National Treasure would be one of them, which could be just one more
reason Disney won't release National Treasure 3.
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