Hey, just kidding. But seriously, why was there never a sequel made to LIS? Granted, the movie was shite, but that never stopped hollywood before. Surely it made some form of profit to warrant a sequel, even a straight-to-video release with a different cast. This gets my curiosity due to the ever-growing list of movies which are getting (largely pointless, and largely crap) s.t.v. sequels: American Psycho, Starship Troopers, Bring it On, Wild Things, Species… surely there must be some wicked politics in play to deny the continuing adventures of the Robinson family!! And so that this is not strictly a Lost In Space thread, any other movies that could spawn shitty s.t.v. sequels? Driving Miss Daisy’s Daughter, anyone? Catwoman’s litter?
All the movies you mention, though, had at least some kind of cult following. (Much as Lost in Space did, before that god-awful movie came out.) Is there any record of anybody, anywhere in the world, watching that movie twice (not counting people who were screaming “Please, officer, I’ll talk, I’ll talk, just make it stop!”)
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and drink until I forget that movie again.
Cost of production: $80 million
Total US Gross: $69 million
Even including foreign grosses, the movie looks like it barely broke even. Since a sequel generally makes less money than the original (though at a predictable percentage of the original gross), no one was interested.
Or maybe Danny Kaye’s heirs understood why he refused to allow to have a film made (Kaye owned the rights until his death).
The reason is the same reason any movie is or isn’t made: because of money. According to imdb **Lost in Space ** cost about $80 million, and made about $70 million in the US. Even with whatever foreign business, it did make enough to break even, much less make a profit. Therefore no one has any interest in maknig a sequel.
You can always go to the “box office and business” tab for a movie on imdb to see about how much it cost and how much it made, or you can look up the movie at www.boxofficemojo.com, and see what business stats they have there. They are pretty much all just estimated, but they give you an idea of how much a movie made.
Oh, come on! They’ve already made Wild things3. And Cruel Intentions3. Surely there’s some money to be made. The first movie cost 80 million? Make a sequel for twenty. Granted, I would never watch it, or any of the movies I mentioned. It just seems odd that a potential s-t-v franchise is being ignored. Or are shitty s-t-v sequels the playground of horror and erotica movies? Theres at least 5 wishmaster movies for fricks sake!
At one point, there was going to be a new LIS TV show.
Any word about that?
Battlefield Earth II.
Beyond the Black Hole.
Mars Needs More Women.
Eliminators, the Sequel (I notice upon perusing Denise Crosby’s bio that they’ve let her make another movie…)
The Son of the Mask
How did Danny Kaye own the rights to LIS?
Plan 10 from Outer Space
Son of Tron
Godzilla vs. the Global-Warming Monster
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (no, wait, they actually made that one . . .)
Buckaroo Banzai vs. the World Crime League (hey, waitaminnit, why didn’t they make that one?)
Those are intended as jokes (I hope), but that last idea actually is a real movie now.
IIRC, his production company helped produce it.
You do know this got here first?
The Day After the Day After.
29 Days Later.
Saving Pvt. Ryan Jr.
I’d bet money that those sequels were green-lighted on the basis of good DVD sales. That’s really important in the business any more. On the other hand, the twelve people who bought the DVD of Lost in Space all requested that it be put in the case for Girls who do Horses so that fewer people would laugh at them.
Excuse me, I have to go and drink again.
I, uh, LIKED the movie, for the most part.
You’re a brave man, Mr. Blue Sky. You have rotten taste in movies, but you’re a brave man.
Well, I was always different.
Braveheart: Brave Harder
Cast Away Again
Born On The Fifth Of July
I got the movie for free as part of a promotion (5 movies free for buying the DVD player; no choices, just those five), and I’ve only seen it once. God, that was hideous.
Well Cruel Intentions 2 was actually a pilot for a TV series based on the movie. It wasn’t picked up and eventually was released on video.