The Summer of 2003: The Summer of Sequels

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in X-Men 2.

The Summer of 2003 has been called the 'Summer of Sequels' and for good reason.  Nine out of the fourteen number one movies were sequels.  As were several other movies that might have wished they'd opened at number one, but fared less well.  Has Hollywood lost all sense of original ideas?  Some might say they never had it.  And even those movies that opened at number one, which weren't sequels, at least some will probably generate sequels of their own.

Summer begins in May for Hollywood now and it got off to a great start this year with the release of X-men 2.  The superhero sequel opened with what was at the time, the 4th highest opening ever, behind only the first two Harry Potter films and Spider-man.  Hailed by critics and audiences alike, it would go on to take in $214 million at the US box office, beating the original X-men's take by approximately $60 million.  It would also be the only Summer number one movie to hold that position for two weeks in a row until Freddy vs. Jason did it in the closing weeks of August.

While it didn't receive quite the same critical acclaim or warm fan reception, The Matrix: Reloaded did fill the theaters when it took the top spot away from X-Men 2.  With a record $42.5 million on just its first day in release, the Sci-Fi sequel became the highest grossing R rated film in history.  It would go on to take in $284 million, to become the second highest grossing movie of the Summer.

You can't just have a great opening anymore, you also have to break a box office record.  And it doesn't matter what record, which is why the producers of Bruce Almighty were happy to exclaim that their movie had the 'highest-grossing non-sequel comedy opening of all time'!  They also went on to say that it was the 'highest opening for a movie based on original material' and the 'second best Memorial Day opening of all time'.  Records broken or not, its $85 million opening was quite impressive and put its star Jim Carrey back on the hot list in Hollywood.  The movie would go on to take in nearly $240 million and became one of only five films released this Summer, to break $200 million.

And then Disney and Pixar landed the big one.  Finding Nemo made quite a splash with a $70 million opening  weekend (the best ever for an animated movie) and would chug on to become the highest grossing film of the Summer with nearly $330 million.  And while it would lose the number one spot the following week, it did manage to regain that position the week after that.  So far it is the only movie released this Summer to have broken the $300 million mark. It currently stands as the eighth highest grossing movie of all time, and the highest grossing animated film ever.

With two weeks in a row without a sequel in the number one position, the franchise machine fought back by putting 2 Fast 2 Furious, minus the original's star Vin Diesel, at the top spot.  And just to prove that this movie could break records too, it was announced that its $50 million opening was the highest ever for a movie opening in the first week of June.  It wasn't all good news though, the film would fizzle out slightly, falling short of the original's $144 million take, and would eventually bring in $122 million.

Next up in the top spot was the critically panned The Hulk, which smashed its way into the record books with a $62 million opening, the best ever June opening.  That was to be the last bit of good news for the movie though, as it barely managed to squeak its total box office take to $130 million, meaning that nearly 50% of its business came during that opening weekend.  This might not have been such bad news, after all $130 million is still respectable, but when your budget is $120 million, I wouldn't be betting too strongly on a sequel appearing any time soon.  It would also be the last movie of the Summer to debut with more than $50 million.

Without a record breaking opening of any kind, it seems that Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle was doomed from the start.  Its $38 million opening didn't even manage to beat its predecessor's $40 million opening.  Its eventual $97 million box office total fell far short of its $120 million budget and might have spelled the end of this cheesy franchise.  Looks like Demi Moore's hopes for a comeback will have to be put on hold for awhile.

And then came the fourth of July and the return of the Auhnold-nator.  T3: The Rise of the Machines opened with $44 million, a personal best for an Arnold opening, and the second best opening for an R-rated film, behind only The Matrix: Reloaded.  That R-rating might have hurt it in the long-run though, as the film only managed to take in a total of $147 million, not quite enough to cover its $175 million budget.  Let's just hope he's better at balancing California's budget.

Just when things were looking dark at the box office along came Disney's long-titled Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Starring critic's darling, but until now unbankable, Johnny Depp, the movie showed strong sea legs, taking in $248 million so far, and remaining in the top ten right through the Summer.  Talks of a sequel are already in the works.

The following week saw another strong opening when yet another sequel, Bad Boys II, opened with $46 million.  But like so many other movies this Summer, a strong follow through failed to materialize.  The Will Smith/Martin Lawrence buddy movie would eventually generate $129 million, just $1 million short of its budget.

Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over showed that you don't have to have a blockbuster style opening to make money.  Its $33 million opening was one of the lowest of the Summer, but with a budget of just $39 million, its eventual $97 million haul makes for quite a profit.

And ditto for American Wedding, the number one movie for the week after that.  The third in the American Pie series also opened with just $33 million, but it too had a comparatively small budget of just $55 million.  Its eventual $80 million box office total, while dwarfed by some of the bigger films, means that at least it was profitable.

While at the time of this writing S.W.A.T. has only taken in $69 million, with a budget of $80 million, it does still remain in the top ten movies at the box office.  While it won't be raking in the money, it should just about manage to break even, which as this Summer proved, is an achievement in itself.

What better way to end the Summer of Sequels than with a sequel to not just one movie but two!  The grandparents of overly done sequels, Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th, joined together to create the final number one movie of the Summer.  Budgeted at just $25 million, Freddy vs. Jason became the only number one movie of the Summer to become profitable in its debut weekend when it took in $36 million.  It also book ended the Summer nicely when it, like X-men 2 that started it all, managed to stay at the number one spot for two weeks in a row.

As is typical, the most interesting box office stories had nothing to do with the number one position.  Bend it Like Beckham and 28 Days Later, two British imports with budgets less than $10 million each, generated some of the best buzz and profit margins of the year.  28 Days Later took in more than $43 million and Bend it Like Beckham made more than $30 million.  Daddy Day Care, lambasted by critics, but budgeted at just $60 million (small by modern Hollywood's standards), reached $102 million.  If that doesn't show Hollywood that you don't need to spend over $100 million to make money than nothing will.

But what about those other sequels?  Well, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde came and went without much hoopla, but still made a profit, generating $88 million in ticket sales with a budget of just $45 million.   Although not even a tell-all interview with Barbara Walters could generate enough interest in  Angelina Jolie's Lara Croft: Tombraider: The Cradle of Life (What is it with all the long titles this year?) to put it in the black.  The best it could manage was $60 million.  That's $35 million less than its reported budget.

The movies that made the biggest belly flop this Summer weren't sequels.  And perhaps this more than anything else reveals why Studios rely on franchises with built-in fan bases.  A successful first movie is supposed to guarantee at least some interest in the sequels.  We know of course this isn't always the case, but look what happened with unknown quantities Hollywood Homicide (Budget: $75 million, Box Office: $30 million), Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (Budget: $60 million, Box Office: $26 million), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Budget: $78 million, Box Office: $63 million), and of course Gigli (Budget: $54,000,000, Box Office: $5,660,084).  Those movies were packed with big name stars such as Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt, Sean Connery, and Ben Affleck and they still failed loudly at the box office.  Before you can say Indiana Jones, it's enough to drive a star and a studio right back into the arms of a franchise, the adoration, and the money to which they've become accustomed. 

Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde.

 Will Hollywood ever give up on the sequel?  You only have to look at next Summer's schedule to see that they won't.  On tap for next year is Shrek 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Spider-Man 2, The Bourne Supremacy, Mad Max: Fury Road, Alien vs. Predator, Blade 3, House of a Thousand Corpses 2, Jimmy Neutron 2, and (a sure sign that they've run out of ideas) Duece Bigelow 2: Electric Gigolo.  In Hollywood it's the Summer of Sequels all year long.