Random Movie Sequels Came Out So Long After Original That No One Cared Anymo (13 items)

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  (#7) My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2

  • Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Lainie Kazan, Michael Constantine, Andrea Martin, Ian Gomez, Elena Kampouris

  Sequel to: My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)

  Year released: 2016

  Gap: 14 years

  My Big Fat Greek Wedding was very much lightning in a bottle. The indie romantic comedy's budget was a manageable $5 million, but it went on to have unimagined success. The film made more than $368 million at the box office and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. While the film was charming, critics remarked that it felt like a sitcom from time to time and the amount of success it achieved made no sense.

  Not surprisingly, the sequel wasn't able to replicate that success, especially since it hit theaters 14 years after the original charmed its audiences. When reviewing the 2016 follow-up, critics were less forgiving of the sitcom-y gags, and it only scored $88 million at the box office.
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  (#1) Zoolander 2

  • Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson

  Sequel to: Zoolander (2001)

  Year released: 2016

  Gap: 15 years

  Hot off his Meet the Parents success, Ben Stiller directed and starred in Zoolander. The film received mixed reviews, as is the case with many comedies, but favorable critics praised the satire for being a purposely silly film that knew how to have fun with itself. It performed well at the box office, and Stiller's "Blue Steel" pout was a genuine pop culture moment.

  However, Zoolander 2 wasn't able to achieve the same purposely dumb fun, even with a slew of celebrity cameos. The film's failure showed at the box office - it was barely able to make back its budget.
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  (#9) The Strangers: Prey at Night

  • Christina Hendricks, Martin Henderson, Bailee Madison, Lewis Pullman

  Sequel to: The Strangers (2008)

  Year released: 2018

  Gap: 10 years

  Very loosely based on the Manson Family murders, 2008's The Strangers effectively scared the pants off audiences by featuring a group of masked murderers who preferred to torture their victims - a couple at a secluded cabin - through slow-paced scare tactics before finally and quite brutally murdering them. Though the body count was low for a horror film, the game of cat and mouse brought terror and dread to audiences through casting the murderers in shadows and playing a country song on repeat. With a budget of $9 million, the film made more than $82 million at the box office.

  The sequel bucked the quiet, slow-building horror of the first film for an '80s-style slasher movie that made a measly $27 million at the box office and disappointed critics and fans of the original's tact.
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  (#10) The Odd Couple II

  • Jack Lemmon, Christine Baranski, Amy Yasbeck, Walter Matthau, Jean Smart, Jonathan Silverman, Jay O. Sanders, Barnard Hughes, Myles Jeffrey, Rex Linn, Liz Torres, Mary Beth Peil, Ellen Geer, Doris Belack, Lou Cutell, Lisa Waltz

  Sequel to: The Odd Couple (1968)

  Year released: 1998

  Gap: 30 years

  The Odd Couple was a huge critical and box office success, becoming the fourth highest-grossing picture in 1968. The film's success spawned ABC's The Odd Couple, which ran for five seasons. So this was a franchise that worked on the big and small screen at the time. Thirty years later, the franchise did not work.

  In 1998 The Odd Couple II, which broke the standing record for the longest time between an original film and a sequel starring the same cast, came out to reviews stating it was a flat reunion and a weak showing at the box office. With 30 years between, the original and the sequel were in theaters for different generations.
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  (#2) The Rage: Carrie 2

  • Mena Suvari, Zachery Ty Bryan, Rachel Blanchard, Amy Irving, Jason London, Charlotte Ayanna, Emily Bergl, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Dylan Bruno, J. Smith-Cameron, Justin Urich, Robert C. Treveiler

  Sequel to: Carrie (1976)

  Year released: 1999

  Gap: 23 years

  Carrie is a landmark pop culture film, with the image of Carrie covered in pig's blood serving as the grimmest representation of being a high school outsider. Not to mention it was the first Stephen King book adapted into a movie. The film was a box office success and critically acclaimed, even receiving Academy Award nominations for Sissy Spacek's and Piper Laurie's performances.

  Critics and audiences alike widely panned the sequel, The Rage: Carrie 2, which lost money by making just $17.8 million on a budget of $21 million. All in all, it was a bomb. Critics even commented that the film was painful to watch because the entire time, the sequel reminded them what a masterpiece the first film was. The 2013 reboot didn't fare much better than the sequel, either.
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  (#11) Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

  • Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Jaime King, Powers Boothe, and Bruce Willis. Newcomers to the series include Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eva Green, Dennis Haysbert, Ray Liotta, Christopher Lloyd, Jamie Chung, Jeremy Piven, Christopher Meloni, Stacy Keach, Lady Gaga, Alexa Vega, Julia Garner, Juno Temple

  Sequel to: Sin City (2005)

  Year released: 2014

  Gap: 9 years

  Sin City was both a critical and commercial success. The film earned praise for its visually groundbreaking way of bringing Frank Miller's graphic novel to the screen. It was also terrifically violent for a comic book movie of the time. The stylish, brutal film paved the way for 2014's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which was neither a critical nor commercial success. Critics said the sequel was as visually striking, but it failed to deliver across the board in the same way the first film did. Most damning of all for the franchise was the sequel made $39 million on a reported budget of $65 million.

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