Los Angeles Times:
Three, or ‘The Third,’ or sometimes simply ‘III’ has traditionally been a tricky number for Hollywood’s great film franchises.
By the time the third film in a series rolls out, any number of adverse conditions can combine forces to make it a flop. Some, if not all, of the stars usually opt to move on to avoid typecasting (Michael Keaton after Batman Returns).
The director, sick of having made the same film twice, moves on to other challenges (Steven Spielberg after The Lost World: Jurassic Park). Or, a pathetic attempt by the studio to keep the franchise ‘fresh’ results in the addition of a character with no other purpose than to pander to the audience (Richard Pryor’s attempt to ‘hip-up’ Superman III or the cute and furry, but fan-loathed, Ewoks in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi).
Often the failure may be considered artistic in nature, but when it comes to disappointed fans, they can quickly hit Hollywood where it hurts. The third Matrix film, The Matrix Revolutions made $100 million less than The Matrix: Reloaded. Alien 3 made $23 million less than the first film in the series. And Jaws: 3-D made $115 million less than Jaws.
But this summer Hollywood seems to have finally beaten the Threes. Spider-Man 3 out-grossed both its predecessors on opening weekend was not an anomaly. Shrek the Third beat the opening weekend of Shrek 2 by $20 million, and Disney’s expectation that Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End will earn more than last year’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest seems entirely reasonable.
So what’s the secret? Read on…
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