Movies That Sequel Baited Pretty Hard

It's not uncommon for movies to plan their sequels far in advance. It's been pretty common practice to do contractually for a while in Hollywood. Noticeably, many films leave the story open to the possibility of a sequel for buzz reasons or to ease the mountains of anxiety that the Hollywood franchise writers surely suffer. Every once in a while, a film will have an ending that leaves the possibility of a sequel pretty doubtless. I figure it as a producer or studio exec betting on what they think is a sure horse. Then the sequel, for one reason or another, never comes which, the farther we get from release date, the more amusing this becomes — or maybe frustrating, depending on where your desires lie.

TMNT and Reboot Syndrome

The fourth Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie grossed well. It wasn't mind blowing, given, but it was number one on its weekend. It attempted to appeal to fans of the original work and original films. It was intended to be a darker, more complex take on the franchise more akin to the comic books without losing the comedic edge that fans of the earlier movies and cartoons had grown accustomed to. Following a degree of continuity from the earlier live action films in the franchise, the dialogue near the end of the movie, and the initial reasons for including it in this list, teased at the return of the Turtles' arch-nemesis, Shredder. So what turned this yummy-looking sequel bait rotten? Delays brought about the creative team working on other projects may have contributed, but the death blow was actually the reboot. The studio lost the rights and Mirage announced its production of the live action reboot on the 25th anniversary of the Turtles. This loss of a prospective sequel actually was a major reason that the studio that produced TMNT went under. (That and the overwhelming flop of the Astroboy movie.)

Splice is really frustratingly misleading.

So, a rather unconventional horror movie about scientists playing god. It was marketed as a horror movie about science gone wrong monster movie, but that’s pretty misleading. Many horror fans probably went into the theater expecting one thing and not knowing how to feel when they got another. But there are few things that film executives love more in terms of perspective sequels than a fresh, hot, moneymaking horror franchise. And with this movie you have a well-established sequel bait. The mad scientist is pregnant with the dead monster's offspring. It's an obvious way to tie in the protag and the monster into the sequel and a solid investment. So, why no sequel with a half-monster? Turns out the director had no plans for a sequel. He understood what the screenplay would insinuate but just thought that was how the script should end. I don't think anywhere else on this list will the answer be: “Yeah, I know what this looks like but... eh.”

Jason X and the Uroboros of Sequel Baiting

Horror. Movie execs love franchises. Horror is one of the most franchisable genres. Its also important to mention that Jason X is sort of a chimera on this list because it came out after the bait for one of the longest, most production-hell-cursed movies in history, Freddy vs. Jason. The end of Jason Goes to Hell teases a crossover film that wouldn’t come out for about 20 years. Instead, we got Jason X, a genre-bending sort of interesting piece of cinematic history. The director was very invested in this film being a staple of the series, planning the sequels in advance even. Why did they never see projector light? Bottom line. Jason X was both the largest-budgeted and smallest domestic box office to date for the franchise. And yeah, it didn’t kill Jason as a character, but the continuation of the continuity died. When Freddy vs. Jason came out, it basically ignored it, and then the series rebooted. So, no more UltraJason.

Lost in Space. Man, 1998 must have sucked.

A remake of a popular sci-fi series starring a not-unheard-of cast. If movie producers had to pick a genre to back, they wouldn’t pick science fiction. They are high budget because you can't skimp on effects and are usually considered box office risky. Studios generally don’t like to back Science Fiction. You're thinking, “What? There are tons of sci-fi movies on this list. The studios totally want them to sequel bait. Shucks, one of your Horror movies is sci-fi!” And you are absolutely right. The exception to the rule. Franchise. Everyone wants to be the new Star Wars without the risk of embarking on a space opera. But we're getting away from the point; this movie both pays homage to the original concept of the show and promises the return of The Smiths by ending with them still lost in space. You get it? Why are they still lost? A $69 million domestic box office versus an 80 million dollar budget. Flop status on top of some rather scathing reviews had the studio likely shelving this one for good.

Hellboy 2 and the Sequel Bait We Pine For

There is probably no movie on this list that a director fought harder for. While not box office smashes, the movies were far from flops or critical bombs. Both the first and second Hellboy movies spoke of greater things for Red, but the second movie featured a creature intervening on behalf of that fate. It spoke of dooming mankind by saving Hellboy. Guillermo Del Toro had plans for the third film, speaking of Hellboy accepting his prophetic role, but still trying to work for humanity. The reason we don’t have this enthusiastically-backed sequel? It seems GDT could not get the stars to align in terms of studio backing, scheduling, and creator blessing, so some combination of mid-sized factors played a role in all this, but as always a lot of studio choices come down in favor of green over red.

Godzilla and 1998 Strikes Again

I saved this one for last because no one didn't roll their eyes hard at the bloody question mark at the end of this one. They defeat the monster and destroy all the eggs and guess what? You're right — giant, radioactive worms. One of them survived and hatched right before the credits roll. So this movie, which was pretty poorly received, by a director who is pretty poorly received (so far as to make the mayor of NY a movie critic parody), didn't get a snowball's chance in hell at a sequel, right? Nah. Godzilla 2 wasn't put down right off the bat like quite a few movies on this list. Instead, it even got a script treatment (a synopsis written of a potential script to use specifically for studio discussion). But the movie remained in studio hell. Unable to find its footing just long enough for the studio to lose the rights to Toho in 2003. Final Wars came out very quickly thereafter in 2004, with a throwaway villain looking suspiciously like the Americanized Godzilla.