Top 7 most collapsed sequels in terms of collections

In the world of cinema, success is not only measured by the quality of films but also by their box office performance. Sequels to popular movies often come with enormous expectations, both from studios and dedicated fans. However, not every sequel lives up to the hype, and sometimes, even the most anticipated follow-ups turn into financial disappointments. In this article, we’ll take a look at the "Top 7 Most Collapsed Sequels in Terms of Collections," exploring the factors that contributed to their unexpected box office downfalls.

7. Suicide Squad: Mission Accomplished (2021) - 581 million

Now, Suicide Squad from David Eyre and James Gunn is an interesting case study. The movie from Eyre, widely disliked as a chaotic teen comic book film, surprisingly managed to gross a huge box office at the dawn of the superhero era. Gunn’s version, on the other hand, is a well-regarded, adult-oriented comic book movie that launched during the peak of COVID restrictions. The film faced nearly impossible odds; a $185 million R-rated blockbuster trying to recoup costs under the shadow of the 2016 version’s negative reception. Released simultaneously in cinemas and on digital platforms, it hit the screens when almost half of theaters were out of business. This combination of setbacks made it nearly impossible to break even, much like the challenges faced by various online platforms, such as casino Sloto zen, which competes in the dynamic world of online casinos to capture the attention of gaming enthusiasts. All these factors ultimately led to the film falling significantly short of its budget, securing its place on this list.

749 million → 168 million

6. Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) - 654 million

We continue to look at the hapless DC film universe being mercilessly hit by the pandemic. ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ was one of those films that literally opened cinemas in late 2020. Only ‘The Argument’ made any decent pennies in that period, and everything else flopped mercilessly.

So ‘84’ got off to the worst start for the film universe at the domestic and worldwide box office. And then came the bad reviews. And a streaming release. So there was no chance of payback here either. And the original was one of the most successful films in the DC film universe.

823 million → 169 million

5. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023) - 712 million

God, this makes the third DC comic book film in a row. After Covida, DC's business became quite bad, but the main comic book fall still happened in 2023. But at that time, the projects that were relatively original were falling heavily in the collection. ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ dropped over 200 million, but that wasn't enough to make it into the top 20.

‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ was DC's biggest failure in 2023, but still the drop relative to the first film was quite significant. ‘Aquaman’ in 2018 was the highest-grossing film of the film universe with a result well over a billion dollars. The sequel went to work quite quickly, but reshoots, loss of faith in the franchise as a whole both in the audience and producers prevented it from becoming a success.

With a bloated budget of 215 million, ‘The Lost Kingdom’ was released on New Year's Day, which helped the film not deflate even more. Prior to that, the comic book film was predicted to do even worse.

1,151 million → 439 million

4. Alice in the Looking Glass (2016) - 726 million.

Let's leave the comic books for a moment. ‘Alice in Wonderland’ in 2010 became one of the first films to conquer the billion-dollar bar. The result was quite unexpected, as to break this bar regularly blockbusters began a little later.

One of the main components of success was conversion to 3D. When Avatar became the highest-grossing release in history thanks to its breakthrough visuals, all subsequent blockbusters wanted to do the same. However, they weren't shot on special cameras, so these things turned out mostly weird. So only ‘Alice in Wonderland’, ‘Clash of the Titans’ and ‘Resident Evil: Life After Death’ were able to play on the laurels of ‘Avatar’. But all of those films also received very average scores, so all of the sequels collapsed in one way or another.

But ‘Alice in the Looking Glass’ was straight up very unlucky. The sequel came out quite late - after 6 years. The director changed. The quality of the film also did not shine, so word of mouth did not save.

It could also be noted that the creators did not hope for the same resounding success, so the budget was reduced by 30 million. However, the first ‘Alice’ cost 200 million including conversion, without which the budget is quite comparable to the sequel.

1,025 million → 299 million

3. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) - 736 million

You probably didn't expect Star Wars to be on such a list, especially since among over a dozen feature films, all became one of the box office record holders except for Han Solo.

What's interesting is that in each of the three trilogies, the first one is the highest-grossing. And the sequels collected less (for example, the second episode would be on the 21st place of this list, ‘Attack of the Clones’ lost 7 million to the 20th place). But in the case of the seventh and eighth episodes, the drop is kind of insane. ‘The Force Awakens’ was the third film in history to take the $2 billion bar. It's also still the highest-grossing film on U.S. soil.

That being said, the reception of the seventh episode outside of the CIS was very warm. The film was a smash hit, which did not prevent the box office from falling by more than 700 million. The US lost more than 300 million. But the eighth episode was not too badly criticised anyway. So I don't understand that kind of box office collapse at all, at least in the US.

Episode 9 continued its precipitous decline too, barely getting over a billion. Which doesn't make the difference between episodes 8 and 9 capitally huge, but it's still significant. But since the entire trilogy passed the billion line, such a collapse in collections is perceived as not too deplorable. Although, as of 2019, not a single feature film based on ‘ST’ has been released, and many projects have been cancelled.

2,068 million → 1,332 million → 1,074 million

2. Joker: Madness for Two (2024) - 877 million

You thought DC was done? Not so. It seems like with the end of the DCEU Warner will finally stop taking tonnes of losses on their ridiculous comic book movies. James Gunn's new universe is starting, and yes, the separate Batman or Joker universes are living a pretty good life.

‘The Joker’ in 2019 became the first billionaire with an adult rating. So resounding success no one expected, so a sequel was not planned. But with such collections, the prospect of a second money-printing machine couldn't be passed up.

‘Joker 2’ brought its budget from 55 million to 190 million, and the network overflowed with photos from the set of the wonderful musical with Phoenix and Lady Gaga. Everyone seemed to be expecting a new hit. Yes, maybe without a billion in their pockets already, but clearly not one of the major box office failures of 2024.

‘Madness for Two’ has already been released online, but the box office is still rolling. Some pennies the film will still be able to collect. But to move to 3rd place clearly will not be possible - for this you need more than a hundred to get. But the gap from the first place is quite rapid.

1 074 million → 201 million

1. Marvels (2023) - 922 million

DC decided to beat quantity, while Marvel decided to beat quality. KVM were, until recently, considered an incredibly successful assembly line. Their products made a profit whenever and wherever they were released. The only dismal result was The Incredible Hulk in 2008, and since the success of The Avengers, almost every release in the franchise has put up a different box office release.

2021 was a bit of a letdown for even an unbroken pipeline, with ‘Black Widow,’ ‘Shang-Chi’ and ‘The Eternals’ doing very modestly in a row. But they had a lot of excuses: covid, low visibility of new characters, and hybrid release for some. Nevertheless, ‘No Way Home’ took almost 2 billion. ‘Dr Strange 2’ almost took the bar of billion. There are questions about the quality of some releases, but all films seemed to collect properly and well.

Until Phase V happened. First, the third Ant-Man did very poorly. The third Guardians seemed to collect, but much more was expected from the film. And then ‘Captain Marvel 2’ hit the box office. The billionaire sequel from 2019. Which suddenly became the lowest-grossing film in all of CWM history, also the universe's most powerful box office failure. There was even talk of the film making more losses than the long-suffering The Flash.

1,128 million → 206 million