"Resurgence" opened during the most crowded weekend of the summer so far. But viewers do want sequels that deliver the goods the franchise has promised in the past, and as this year's sequels that have fallen short of that promise are proving, having a familiar title alone without the content to back it up isn't enough to ensure a hit anymore.
The independence day movie 2016 movie#
That doesn't necessarily mean audiences are rejecting retreads and craving originality in fact, " Zootopia" is the only movie among the top 10 earners so far in 2016 that's based on an original screenplay. Many of these were plagued by some of the same problems as "Resurgence:" poor execution, long delays between installments, and the loss of major players from the franchise. The 2016 release slate has been pockmarked with such cratering sequels as " Alice Through the Looking Glass," " Now You See Me 2," " Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows," " The Divergent Series: Allegiant," " The Huntsman: Winter's War," " London Has Fallen," " My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2," " Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising," and " Zoolander 2." It also didn't help that Fox knew they had a turd on their hands, which is why they did not screen the film for press - or junket it - in an attempt to control their losses.Ī handful of exceptions aside - notably, " Finding Dory," " Captain America: Civil War," and " The Conjuring 2" - this hasn't been a good year for sequels at the box office. Which means that viewer word-of-mouth seems to back up the critical complaints, that "Resurgence" doesn't really deliver. Of course, these summer action blockbusters are usually critic-proof, but audiences didn't think much of "Resurgence" either, judging by the tepid B grade they gave it at CinemaScore. Still, the movie needed to attract older, nostalgia-minded viewers, the ones who still read reviews. Not that Emmerich's destruct-o-thons are ever the critics' cup of popcorn (though they did give "ID4" a 62 percent fresh rating in 1996). They've been pretty terrible, just 33 percent fresh at Rotten Tomatoes. (Sorry, but Liam Hemsworth is not a big box office draw, and neither are returning "ID4" stars Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum.) Smith's presence could have been worth tens of millions of dollars, especially overseas, where he remains a bigger star than he is here. His luster has dimmed in recent years, but if he'd been aboard this installment, he'd still have been the biggest box office draw in the cast. The original "ID4" made Will Smith into a bankable box office star and the king of July movies. In a multiplex dominated by " Avengers" and " Transformers" movies, it's easy to forget how novel "Independence Day" was - if, indeed, you're old enough to remember it at all. In part that was because it offered the kind of spectacle and in-camera effects that you couldn't see anywhere else.īut the kind of modern-day disaster-film blockbuster that Roland Emmerich pioneered with the first "Independence Day" became commonplace by the time he made the second one. It's not insurmountable the " Mad Max" franchise waited 30 years, but " Mad Max: Fury Road" was still a hit last year. Two decades is an awfully long time to wait between installments. What went wrong? Here are a few of "Resurgence's" missteps. That's going to be nearly impossible given the movie's slow domestic start. (Some sources say as much as $200 million compare that to $75 million to make "ID4" two decades ago.) Given its likely promotional costs and the splitting of revenue with theater owners, "Resurgence" will have to gross about $660 million worldwide for Fox just to break even. Plus, the movie cost at least $165 million to make. Predictions by outside analysts ran from $40 to $55 million that the movie opened on the low end of those expectations, and well below Fox's own modest prediction, is not good news. The sequel's distributor, Fox, had expected the new film to open around $50 million as well, but adjusting for inflation, that means the new film did only about half as well as the 20-year-old original. Today, that would be the equivalent of a $97.5 million debut. Those are the kind of numbers most movies would kill for.īut remember, the first " Independence Day," a movie not based on a previously-existing property, and with no big stars, debuted with $50.3 million, and that was in 1996 dollars. The alien-invasion sequel premiered with an estimated $41.6 million opening wide on 4,068 screens, that's an average of $10,226 per screen. We're in a weird place where a summer blockbuster can open with the huge numbers that " Independence Day: Resurgence" did and still be considered a box office flop.
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