According to imdb and filmsite.org, Godfather II made a paltry 57 million compared to Godfather I with its 134 million box office gross. Both films today are considered classics, and Godfather fans will argue over which is the better film. Both won best picture.
I would assume there would have been great interest in Godfather II, and I’ll also assume it got great reviews at the time. I’d think that if anything, Godfather II would have equalled or exceeded the original film’s gross.
No. It’s fairly typical that sequels do worse than the original (though they can be counted on making a set minimum percentage of the original gross, so if you budget correctly, you can cash in nicely).
Remember, Godfather II came out two years after the first, so the buzz had cooled off. Also, anyone who went to The Godfather and didn’t like it wasn’t going to the sequel. And the sequel didn’t have Marlon Brando (his performance got a lot of buzz). Pacino and DeNiro weren’t the draws they later became.
The film was a critical smash – it won Best Picture, among other things – but that doesn’t necessarily mean popular success. And its gross was actually pretty damn good for the time.
They might be including the proceeds from the 25th aniversary re-release in 1997. I remember the Star Wars re-releases really skewed those numbers as well. I don’t think GII was ever re-released (at least in the US).
Pash
Okay, maybe I should do my research before I post instead of after. If I’m reading the chart below correctly (from IMdBs GI page), the original had made $133,698,921 by the end of its initial run. The relrelease only added another $1M and change.
Gross
$134,966,411 (USA) (11 May 1997)
$134,821,952 (USA) (4 May 1997)
$134,775,387 (USA) (27 April 1997)
$134,703,440 (USA) (20 April 1997)
$134,594,635 (USA) (13 April 1997)
$134,443,639 (USA) (6 April 1997)
$134,219,881 (USA) (30 March 1997)
$5,679,971 (USA) (26 March 1972)
$415,569 (USA) (19 March 1972)
$133,698,921 (USA) ( 1973)
$81,500,000 (USA) ( 1972)
$245,066,411 (Worldwide) (11 May 1997)
$244,900,000 (Worldwide)
ESP 344,665,770 (Spain)
SEK 11,201,000 (Sweden)
GFII was more “convoluted” in certain ways:
The dual story line. Switching back and forth between young Vito’s and Michael’s stories. This was widely complained about at the time.
There was a lot of misdirection thrown out as to who was trying to kill Michael and all that. Made it seem confusing if you didn’t know why it was happening.
These sort of things tend to confuse the run-of-the-mill casual movie goer. So I think the “friend buzz” was poor.
I also think GFI was more of an (in part) “upper” film and GFII was more of a “downer”.