There’s been plenty of Green Lantern 2 talk over recent weeks, so what has been said and how likely is a sequel?
Before Green Lantern’s release it was said that anything less than $70 million opening weekend would put it on shaky ground to get a sequel. After all, the movie reportedly cost around $300m to produce and market. So the $53m it ended up earning on opening weekend is seen as a disappointment. But there’s a bigger problem. The reviews (26% on Rotten Tomatoes) and word of mouth have been very poor, and even over the first weekend the effect was notable – its Friday to Saturday drop was 22%, compared to 8% for Thor and X-Men: First Class. Expect the decline next weekend to be substantial.
The question is how much this will derail Warner Brothers’ plans, because they have been doing everything they can to set this up as a franchise, hiring writers to come up with a treatment, and then screenplay, a year ago.
If there is a Green Lantern 2, director Martin Campbell announced weeks before the movie’s release that he won’t be returning. This is not what typically happens, so it’s easy to see it as a reaction to having a hard time on the movie, perhaps from producer interference or the daunting number of fx. But then again Campbell has a history of (re-)starting franchises successfully then walking away (GoldenEye, Mask of Zorro, Casino Royale).
[GREEN LANTERN SPOILER ALERT] Plot-wise, the end credits scene shows Sinestro putting on the yellow ring. There’s little doubt he’s intended to be the main villain of any Green Lantern sequel. Readers of the comic will know that Hal’s love interest Carol Ferris also becomes an enemy of sorts when she’s made into ‘Star Sapphire’. The Star Sapphires are similar to the Green Lanterns except their rings (or sapphires) are powered by love, not will. She finds controlling that power increasingly difficult and ends up in brutal battles against Hal. In the movie Carol’s call sign while flying is Sapphire and her helmet has the Star Sapphire symbol on the side.
With Green Lantern likely to sink fast in the US, the studio’s mind will probably be swayed by foreign box office. and it’s not too tempting to plough on with an expensive franchise on the back of strong audience negativity.
What would you like to see happen in a Green Lantern sequel? how can they improve on the first? who should the villains be? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
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Source: BoxOfficeMojo
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