During the past couple years, Disney has created quite a lot of interest after announcing sequels to some of their older movies, such as 2003’s Finding Nemo and 2004’s The Incredibles. Last year, a sequel to the classic 1994 comedy Dumb and Dumber finally made its way to theaters. And just a few weeks ago, the stars of the 2001 comedy Zoolander announced that a sequel is due next year. Every single one of these movies is over a decade old, so why are they getting their follow-ups so long after their initial releases?
Most popular movies today are planned with sequels in mind. Franchises like the Marvel Cinematic Universe have their sequels planned years and years in advance, sometimes before the original movie is even released. In fact, the argument could be made that a lot of today’s sequels didn’t even deserve to be created, including the sequel to the lackluster 2013 horror comedy A Haunted House or the sequel to the critically-panned 2013 animated film Planes. But then again, movies such as Boyhood or Interstellar are created to stand on their own, each a unique piece of art rather than a planned installment in a story.
The movies with these long-overdue sequels do not fit into either of the two aforementioned categories. They were not created to be standalone features, but the creators did not see a reason to produce a sequel when they were originally released. The possibility existed but was not executed at the time.
The actual reason for these sequels is the legacy each original movie has left in its wake. Young kids growing up today still enjoy and reference movies like The Incredibles and Finding Nemo, while older audiences fondly remember the laughs they got from movies like Dumber and Dumber and Zoolander. These movies retain such a large following that making a sequel is guaranteed to be a financial success for studios. Thus, the studios have no reason not to greenlight sequels to older movies, regardless of whether the new installments are artistically necessary to the franchises.