Written By: Ken HulseySource: Obsessed With Film
It wasn't too long ago that only huge Hollywood blockbusters warranted sequels, now it seems that moderately successful ones do as well.
Robert Rodriguez's monster reboot "Predators" hasn't done too bad at the box office, $46 million so far, then again it didn't reach the much coveted $100 million plateau in it's opening weekend either.
So, one might wonder why Fox would be so inclined to shell out more money for a "Predators" sequel based on such average numbers? The answer is simple. True Rodriguez's film didn't blow people away, but it did turn a profit, making more than it's scaled back $35 million budget in returns.
So, Fox is very willing to see if yet another Predator film would be able to generate a profit from a relatively small investment, in Hollywood movie terms.
Rodriguez explains, “(FOX) said, ‘Let’s do some other ones. What other story ideas do you have?
Because it was like, let’s test out the market with this one. They really wanted it to be pretty contained, pretty scaled-back. They didn’t want to put too many of the ideas into it that we could save for a second one. So we could see what the appetite was, because the bigger movie would actually be what comes following that. That kind of sets up a new storyline, new location and world, and then you can really go crazy from there.”
Though the director is optimistic that he will be given a bigger budget for a bigger film this time, I wouldn't bet on it myself. Fox learned long ago, with the "Planet of the Apes" movies, that once you have a successful movie series, with an iconic character, a huge profit can be generated by a film with a low-budget. In other words, fans will pay to see the product, whether you sink a lot of money into it or not.
Hopefully the film maker is right, and the studio will be more inclined to go with a larger scale production next time around. I think that the fans would rather see a really hard-core sci fi action film than a watered down one
See Also: Meet The (New) PREDATORS / Will The Fans Buy Adrien Brody As An Action Hero In Robert Rodriguez's "Predator"? / Robert Rodriguez To Give Predator A Reboot / Dark Horse Resurrecting Alien And Predator Comic Book Titles / Aliens vs Predator Requiem (2007)