Director George Miller returns to the post-apocalyptic desert with “Furiosa”, the prequel to “Mad Max: Fury Road”, of which Warner Bros. released the first trailer, in which Anya Taylor-Joy shaves his head to take on the role of Imperator Furiousthe fierce war captain played by Charlize Theron in the Oscar-winning 2015 action film.
The prequel, which is the fifth installment of the franchise “Mad Max” by Miller, follows a young Furiosa who regains her life after being taken from the “Green Place of Many Mothers” and plunges into a sinister world, in which Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke complete the cast. And it represents a twist on the original plot and the films starring Mel Gibson in the ’80s. A spinoff from a reboot that revisits the origins of the heroine who drives trucks on dusty roads.
A logic that Hollywood embraced a long time ago with disparate successes, and especially in Disney-style animated action or adventure films. In fact, another recent example comes from the John Wick saga. When the fourth sequel hit theaters, and became a favorite among fans and critics, Erica Lee, the film’s producer, made it clear that she was interested in making a spinoff starring Rina Sawayama, who played the assassin Akira.
Fans loved this decision by the production company since her character was wonderful and, despite having a lot of screen time, fans wanted to see more of the character. And a series based on Laurence Fishburne’s character was also considered. “The world of Bowery King is something we’re really interested in exploring more. He runs the underground and it’s a very interesting world. Bowery King appears everywhere, he has homeless people running through the streets and information through pigeons. He is low-tech and analog in a digital world, he knows everyone and reaches everywhere,” Lee explained.
Successes
The formula of review and expand stories from secondary characters is not new. The 1990s series “Frasier,” starring Kelsey Grammer, was a spinoff of her character in the popular 1980s drunken comedy, “Cheers.” Since then, spinoffs have proven that they can be even as popular as the originals, and often in the movies, save the franchise.
This is the case of “Cruella“, Disney’s hit about 101 Dalmatians, but also “Creed”, the saga derived from Rocky, which maintained its fighting spirit but with visual enhancement by Ryan Coogler, which continued with Michael B. Jordan in the double role of actor and director, leading the third installment (2023) to surpass its predecessors at the American box office: it raised $150 million.
During its debut, the film raised the extraordinary sum of $58.7 million, exceeding expectations ($40 million), guaranteeing the continuity of the story, even if Sylverster Stallone stepped aside. Something similar happened with the spinoff of Transformersstarring Hailee Steinfeld, the first film in the franchise not directed by Michael Bay: grosses $364 million worldwide
Set in the late ’80s, the film follows Charlie Watson (Steinfeld), who becomes the owner of a yellow Volkswagen Beetle, only to discover that he is a disguised, broken and battle-scarred Autobot. She nurses him back to health and they team up to save the world from the Decepticons, setting up the origins of the saga. A hit that attracted new fans and female audiences.
In the same way that “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” made it possible to enhance the action heroes who were overshadowed by Vin Diesel in the street racing car saga, the most profitable film franchise today. The film starring Jason Statham and The Rock raised $173.7 million in the US and ranks 5th in the saga, ahead of the first three installments and the spin off “Tokyo drift.”
Failures
Of course, not all of them can be goals. And some go from successes to failures when the formula is worn out and the dramatic arc is stretched: the prequel inspired by Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts, is the best example. Celebrated by fans and critics in its beginning, which highlighted Collen Atwood’s “1920s” setting, it took a turn from the second installment, and the third was such a failure that it put the plans for “Fantastic Beasts 4” at risk. ”: the narrative focused on the love relationship between Albus Dumbledore and the dark wizard Grindelwald, added to the problems brought by COVID and an inflated budget ($200 million), achieved a negative balance. About $20 million less than Fantastic Beasts 2 earned and a new all-time low for the franchise.
Proof that big studios and box office tanks also collide. A path to failure with many stones: it happened to Pixar with a spinoff of the iconic Toy Story franchise: “Lightyear” reported losses to Disney that exceeded 100 million dollars: it is estimated that it cost 373 million dollars between production and marketing , and raised 267 million between box office receipts and other sources.
And it is not Disney’s only failure: “Solo: A Star Wars Story”, a spinoff Based on the popular Star Wars character, it was released in 2018 and crashed harder than the “Millennium Falcon” on countless occasions. During production, directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were replaced by Oscar winner Ron Howard, who undertook extensive reshoots, causing costs to skyrocket. A total of 330.4 million dollars was spent, and another 50 on advertising, and the collection only reached 392.9 million dollars, which left Disney in financial red.
Battle
But Disney didn’t abandon the Star Wars franchise because of it. Other spinoffs of the Skywalker saga have been successful even without having Jedi. The most notable case is “RogueOne”, from 2016, which achieved a return on investment (ROI) of 1.3. Disney spent a total of $280.2 million on “Rogue One,” which was a tremendous gamble as it largely featured little-known actors: Felicity Jones and Diego Luna, who recently returned to the role of Andor for the series. namesake of Disney+.
And similar setbacks suffered Fox with the spinoffs of “X Men“: after the box office failure of “Dark Phoenix”, he collided again with “New Mutants”. “A world theatrical release requires a monumental commitment of resources: time, energy, money. And this movie didn’t have it. But he managed to recover in streaming. Considering it didn’t have the expense of a worldwide theatrical release,” explained director Josh Boone.
Black Adam, the spinoff from “Shazam” starring Dwayne Johnson. A debut of the superstar in the DC Universe that was not what was expected. Although the film exceeded $250 million worldwide after ten days in theaters, and equaled other films in the Warner superhero genre such as Aquaman (2018), it was destroyed by critics and the studio reconsidered the sequel. and the freedom they had given Johnson.
There is no perfect formula, specialists agree when it comes to spinoffs. It will depend on several factors: a more limited budget that leaves better profit margins is essential. But an original script that brings surprises to a known universe, and finally the approval of the fandom (to which permanent winks will have to be made), will seal the equation. They register there “Logan”, starring Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds’ “Deadpool,” two stories that will come together in one of the most anticipated releases of 2024
by RN
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