The first horrible, cringeworthy sequel, with none of the great actors of the original-- not one recognizable name in the whole bunch. Plus, directed by author of original books, who, unlike DW Griffith, did unabashedly have the agenda of trying to revive the Klan.
Judges is a sequel to Joshua, and most scholars agree that Joshua is a sequel to one of the four threads present in the Torah, although I forget which one. (Cite: Richard Elliot Friedman) And yeah, scrolls had a standard length, because they were very heavy, so we can estimate how much material on a theoretical source was on a single scroll.
You need to see Bride of Frankenstein. It’s probably a better movie than the original Frankenstein, has better special effects, was treated with respect and reverence at the time it came out, and still is, both by fans and the industry. It consistently makes lists of “Best Sequels Ever.” It came out in 1935.
Add to this both Shakespeare’s tetralogies of Henry VI and Henry IV/V; though other playwrights probably did similar before Shakespeare. In fact it’s been argued that Henry VI part I is Shakespeare’s version of a prequel. Some of the dates on these plays are fuzzy.
I’ve read very little Dickens, so I can’t either. But there were other 19th century sequels:
James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales
Dumas wrote a couple sequels to The Three Musketeers (these may have been mentioned above, but I’m not sure if they were refering to the books or movies)
Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women had a couple sequels.
Sherlock Holmes stories are a series rather than sequels, although some refered to stuff in a previous story (notably the one where he returns from the “dead”).
In the very early 20th century, there were the Oz books by L. Frank Baum and the Scarlet Pimpernel books by Emma Orczy.
Cervantes’ Don Quijote (early 1600s) had both a cheesy (unauthorized) sequel by a different author (rather like Jaws 2), AND an awesome sequel by the same author, respected by fans as much as the original (rather like Empire Strikes Back).
Cervantes cleverly included the unauthorized one’s writer as a character in his sequel. All very meta.
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, which got a bigger budget and was a bigger box-office hit than DOCTOR NO, is generally hailed as equaling or surpassing its predecessor.
Wiki has Bambi released on August 13, 1942, and Bambi II on February 7, 2006 - 63 years, 178 days - being the longest time between sequels, so I suppose the criteria of being a sequel can be quite lax.
Trying to the of “big, successful movies” using the definition of “Academy Award Best Picture Winner” (yeah, I know, every SDer is going to yelp how stupid the Academy voters are) 1929 winner “Broadway Melody” arguably had three, but they weren’t direct sequels.
1942 “Mrs Miniver” had a 1950 sequel with Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon returning.
1970 “Patton” had a TV movie in 1986 with George C Scott, 1971 French Connection, 1972 Godfather, 1973 The Sting, sort of, different actors, 1976 Rocky with about 1,786,754 sequels. After that, they kind of faded away, as far as Oscars go.
In 1901 his company, meaning director Edwin S. Porter, produced “Fun in the Butcher Shop,” in which a dog is placed into a machine and instantly converted into a string of sausages. In 1904, they did “Dog Factory,” a sequel in which a string of sausages is turned into the original dog.
The concept was stolen from the American Mutograph & Biograph Co., whose “The Sausage Machine” was filmed in 1897. A sequel, “Making Sausages,” followed in 1898 but the concept wasn’t switched; they just used both cats and dogs.
Another early pair was “Liquid Electricity” (AKA “The Inventor’s Galvanic Fluid”) from Vitagraph in 1907, followed by “Galvanic Fluid” (AKA “More Fun with Liquid Electricity”) in 1908.
“Dog Factory” can be seen on YouTube. None of the others have survived, AFAIK.
Especially notable since the Kettles were strictly supporting characters in the first film, The Egg and I, but were so popular, they spun off into 9 subsequent movies and a TV series.
Something a little similar (but not really) happened with the Dr. Kildare movies. For the first 9 of them, Lew Ayers played Dr. Kildare, and Lionel Barrymore played his associate, the paternal Dr. Gillespie, but when Ayers was drafted and became a conscientious objector, he was fired by the studios, and the rest of the movies were about Dr. Gillespie mentoring two young doctors, played by Van Johnson and Keye Luke.
Oops. Also you can say “Gone with the Wind” had a television miniseries sequel in 1994 based on a novel that was authorized by Margaret Mitchell’s estate. Solved the problem of portraying Reconstruction by having Scarlett move to Ireland.