‘Twisters’ success shows moviegoers still love sequels

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“Twisters” stormed its way to a record-breaking opening weekend, exceeding expectations and signaling that moviegoers still like disaster movies, Hollywood’s new leading man Glen Powell and, despite what you may hear about franchise fatigue, sequels.

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The new movie, a sequel to the 1996 thriller starring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, opened to an $80.5 million domestic weekend. The film has broken the record for biggest domestic opening for a natural disaster film – yes, that is a category – by unseating 2004’s “The Day After Tomorrow,” which earned $68.7 million after three days at the box office and the apocalyptic “2012,” which earned $65.2 million.

Based on numbers so far, 2024 may be remembered as a year of sequels. “Dune: Part Two” kicked off the year with $711 million earned worldwide. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” (the 10th overall film in the franchise and the fourth in the more modern saga) notched $396 million globally. “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” the fourth film in the Will Smith and Martin Lawrence franchise, similarly took in $388 million globally.

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Then came “Inside Out 2,” a Pixar sequel that has earned $1.4 billion so far and has become the highest-grossing Pixar film of all time. It stands only behind “Frozen II,” a Disney sequel, for the highest-earning animated picture in history. Pixar said it would explore more sequel opportunities if “Inside Out 2” was a winner.

“A Quiet Place: Day One” and “Despicable Me 4” fought off franchise fatigue, with both seeing high earnings (“Despicable Me 4” reached No. 1 at the box office, while “A Quiet Place” sat below “Inside Out 2” during its opening run). The success of “Twisters” has only reinforced the sequel success and showed that there’s still a hunger out there for follow-up films, experts said.

The wins come as several original films have floundered. Kevin Costner’s passion project “Horizon” earned $32 million (leading to its already-filmed sequel getting pulled from theatrical release, at least for now), while Apple’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum, opened to $9.4 million domestically. These numbers don’t look great compared with 2023 when three original films – “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer” and “Sound of Freedom” – dominated the summer box office.

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Not every sequel did well this year so far, though. George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” (the fifth movie in that franchise) was a box office dud with a $26.3 million opening weekend. “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” (the sequel to the soft reboot of the popular ’80s films) earned $45 million in its opening weekend – about the same as its 2021 predecessor.

“I think people get tired of movie franchises when they are inundated with the number of titles released from that franchise,” said Jamie Broadnax, founder and CEO of Black Girl Nerds, a podcast and film culture website. “Case in point, Marvel Studios.”

Indeed, Marvel has seen its fair share of sequel struggles recently. Movies related to the Marvel Cinematic Universe started seeing diminished returns by the end of 2023 with “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” and “The Marvels.”

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Another test of sequel power will come this weekend with the release of Marvel’s “Deadpool and Wolverine.” (It’s the 34th movie of the MCU and third of a “Deadpool” trilogy.) The film is projected to earn in the $160 million range for its opening weekend, which would be the biggest opening of the year and on par with “Iron Man,” “Thor” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” sequel debuts (which are all touted as MCU success stories). The film will see the widest Imax release ever, opening on 1,642 Imax screens in 83 markets, said Craig Dehmel of Imax Distribution.

Other sequels on tap for 2024? “Alien: Romulus,” “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” “Joker: Folie à Deux,” “Gladiator II,” and “Moana 2.” There’s even a sequel to the horror movie “Smile” on the way. It’s unclear if these films will see the success that those from the first half of 2024 did. But all roads suggest sequels aren’t extinct yet.

“The big franchise series should have staying power,” said David Gross, publisher of the Franchise Entertainment Research newsletter, which reports on box office insights. But he noted, “audiences respond one movie at a time.”

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