It came out at a similar time as PotC, right?
People expected something different and didn‘t like it as much?
Not enough overexaggerated swashbuckling and rum jokes?
I think that was basically it. It happens occasionally where movies fail because audiences are expecting a different style of movie than what we got.
Pearl Harbor flopped because audiences wanted a war movie, not a love triangle with a historical backdrop.
King Arthur (2004) underperformed because people were hoping for the next
Lord of the Rings and instead got a version that eliminated the supernatural elements and added some Roman stuff so that they could ripoff
Gladiator.
Solomon Kane: The first movie wasn't bad, but it's basically an extended origin story so you don't actually get the Solomon Kane from the original stories until the very end. The movie ends where the stories begin, which is a bit frustrating. (Kind of like watching a Batman movie in which Bruce Wayne doesn't become Batman until the closing scene.)
Kinda like how
Man of Steel doesn't set up the proper status quo until the final scene.
Man of Steel 2 (is that still a possibility? Cavill's Supes redeemed is the best part of JL).
I think Cavill still has 1 more film on his contract and he seems eager to do it. It's just a matter of when/if the DCEU gets their act together. I seem to recall Matthew Vaughn saying that he was interested in taking a crack at Superman, which sounds like a good idea to me.
"Riddick 4" (a sequel that actually explores what "The Chronicles of Riddick" set up but then dumped in favor of re-treading old ground)
"Ghostbusters 3" (if Bill hadn't been such a dick about wanting to come back only to get killed off and be a ghost; now Egon is dead -- thanks a lot, Bill)
Sadly, I think that a proper sequel to
The Chronicles of Riddick would have been too expensive, thus why we got the low budget
Pitch Black rehash instead.
I hold no ill will towards Bill Murray but I do think that the clock ran out on making the kind of
Ghostbusters and
Indiana Jones sequels that we really wanted to see back in the 1990s.
Same, I'd love to see another Tron movie. But apparently the loss Disney took with The Lone Ranger prevented that. Speaking of which, I would have liked to see them continue the Lone Ranger movies too. I actually liked the movie, especially the train chase, as ridiculous as it was! The only problem with it to me were the pace-killing scenes with the kid.
I love the look of
Tron Legacy. I'm glad that Disney is incorporating it into their theme parks and I hope that this leads to another movie.
I love the train chase in
The Lone Ranger too. I think that what killed the movie was its bloated running time, the framing device (good on its own but a definite pace-killer), and the fact that you can't put an Indian in a western anymore without touching on how horribly they were treated IRL (not the kinda heavy guilt trip you want in your popcorn blockbuster).
I want another Downey/Law Sherlock Holmes movie.
They keep announcing it or at least hinting at it. (But then, RDJ isn't above lying about long awaited sequel projects just to generate click bait headlines so he can promote his current movie.)
- Constantine (surely Keanu would have done another)
- True Lies ( I read this was in the works before Arnold became the Governator)
Constantine is on my short list of tragically underrated comic book movies, alongside Affleck's
Daredevil and
TMNT (2007).
True Lies II was, IIRC, derailed by 9/11. Cameron and Schwarzenegger felt it would be in bad taste to make a quippy action comedy about terrorism. Personally, I wanted to see Eliza Dushku do a spinoff TV series where his daughter became a spy too.
Can't believe I'm the first one to mention
Reign of Fire.
Also,
The Grand Budapest Hotel. (Not so much a sequel as an anthology film narrated by Jude Law's character about the lives of the other eccentrics staying at the hotel.)
I've also got a pitch for
Galaxy Quest II-- The studio makes a dark, gritty reboot of "Galaxy Quest," causing the aliens who believe that it's all real to descend into civil war.
TV shows that got one movie but I wish had gotten more--
Cowboy Bebop, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, South Park.