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25 Blockbuster Threequels: Did They Sink Or Save Their Franchises?

By The Playlist Staff
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May 2, 2013 3:04 PM
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35 Comments

Features

A lot's been written over the years about sequels -- when they go right and bring us a welcome return to characters and themes we'd flocked to see the first time out and, more often, when they do not, and instead deliver diminishing returns in everything except box office terms. But what of the second sequel, the so-called "threequel"? It's a franchise entry that presents its own specific challenges -- is it the conclusion to a trilogy (like "The Dark Knight Rises") or just the continuation of a franchise (such as "Die Hard With A Vengeance")? Does it have lost ground to make up after a disappointing second entry ("Mission: Impossible 3") or are expectations at an all-time high following a mark II triumph ("Return of the Jedi")? This weekend, we all get to see whether "Iron Man 3" rises to or sinks beneath its particular set of challenges -- you can read our judgement here -- but it's a situation with pitfalls Marvel head Kevin Feige, for one, was fully aware of.

By Kevin Jagernauth
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December 13, 2011 1:17 PM
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8 Comments

News

To say that Tony Gilroy has had a bumpy relationship with the Jason Bourne franchise would be an understatement. He has never been happy with what what Doug Liman did on "The Bourne Identity" (“Those works were never meant to be filmed,” he said dismissively about the Robert Ludlum books. “They weren’t about human behavior. They were about running to airports”) and was even less impressed by Paul Greengrass' work on "The Bourne Supremacy" ("It was sort of like a crime against the gods of storytelling," he said). But the films made money. Lots of money. And moreover, Universal didn't want to jinx their luck by trying to get new writers to take on the franchise for "The Bourne Ultimatum," so they essentially gave Gilroy everything he wanted to write the third movie. Gilroy got a shit-ton of money and added stipulations that he just had to turn in one draft, he would take no notes nor would anyone be allowed to oversee what he was doing. Prime working conditions for any writer, but according to Matt Damon, that was massive mistake.