The name of the game in Hollywood is extending a successful franchise by any means necessary. If you can make a sequel, make a sequel. If you can’t make a sequel, do a prequel. If a prequel doesn’t make sense, remake the first movie. And then if the remake is a hit … make a sequel to the remake. And on and on and on.
While remakes are widely regarded as a debased artistic pursuit, the reality is if people stopped paying to watch them studios would stop making them. In fact, despite their bad reputation, many remakes are quite successful — and a few have proven to be even bigger hits than the movies that inspired them. In a couple rare situations, the remake franchise has superseded the original in the minds of many viewers. (Do you hear people talking about the original Meet the Parents? If you do, I want to know where you hang out, it sounds like a cool place.)
Case in point: A whole bunch of the movies below, which were remakes to successful films that then got a sequel (or sometimes several sequels) of their own. As I will point out when we get there, they have been been some sequels to remakes that are themselves also remakes of sequels. (Pay attention, because there will be a test about this at the end.)
I’m not sure we’ve gotten to the point that a remake that got sequels then got remade again and got sequels again, but after 120+ years of the cinematic arts, that feels like a matter of when not a matter of if. The game never stops.
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