In Hollywood, money is the name of the game - and greed is good. It's also an industry where the rules of business are played fast and loose, top executives can be toppled because of a single blunder, and loyalties teeter on a "What have you done for me lately?" mentality.
That's why producers are content with taking the low-risk approach to filmmaking, whenever possible avoiding fresh and innovative material in favor of more commercial fare. Blockbuster status for a movie sends studios into a feeding frenzy, mining the source for sequels for as long as they remain lucrative.
Certain projects occasionally start out preordained for continuations during development. Lord of the Rings,based on author J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy trilogy, is currently filming each of the three episodes consecutively on location in New Zealand. Others come about by happy accident - American Pie, produced on a miniscule budget of only $11 million, arrived in theaters with little notice yet went on to make $200 million worldwide. Universal Pictures, coming off one of the worst slumps in their history, has quickly put a sequel on the fastrack to capitalize on the films popularity.
It's the 2/3 formula that keeps studios coming back. A more often than not fact that a well-developed sequel will gross at least 2/3 of the original film's earnings. But for every Indiana Jones or Lethal Weapon series that never seems to run out of gas, however, producers can just as likely push their luck too far, offering up such schlock as Caddyshack 2, Meatballs 2, Blues Brothers 2000, Porky's 2, Fletch 2, Weekend at Bernie's 2 and so on, all offspring of successful movies that studio heads gambled on in hopes of establishing a franchise...and failed.
Besides being nearly sure-fire cash cows, sequels also lend themselves to working their way quickly to the screen, avoiding the costly writing and pre-production stages. Easily made because plot points are already set in place, sequels tend to abide by three typical rules:
1. If a film is near and dear to a directors heart, never tarnish the work, especially if the film in question happens to achieve classic proportions. Steven Spielberg will never soil the magic of E.T. with another film that would simply amount to a commercial venture.
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