By Staff Writer Zach Lunghi.
John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place saw a huge amount of success during its time in theaters. The film grossed $340 million, split between $188 million domestic and $152 million foreign. Krasinski and his team at Paramount Pictures look to repeat these accomplishments with the newly announced sequel which has been confirmed for a May 15, 2020 release date.
However, as the story goes for many movies who dominated the box office, their ensuing films must live up to the expectations set forth by fans and critics alike.
The sci-fi horror flick was Krasinski’s debut into the world of directing, it was also the first project he and his wife, Emily Blunt, have collaborated on.
Together they play roles of husband and wife who attempt to raise a family all while warding off the dangers brought upon them by a post-apocalyptic world.
Throughout the film, the writing trio of Bryan Woods, Scott Beck, and Krasinski were able to cast a feeling of uneasiness over the audience with the way they play off the emotions and fears of being a parent.
Movie critic, Mihir Fadnavis writes, “A Quiet Place uses its pace to build up stressful moments…” and Sandy Schaefer at Screen Rant referred A Quiet Place as a “compelling and suspenseful journey.”
So, the question still stands, even though A Quiet Place has now been accredited as a legitimate force in cinema, with it’s Oscar nominations and booming performance at the box office…will the sequel be a flop?
This is the age-old question that plagues many movie franchises and can make or break them depending on how well their movies do. Take the Dark Knight trilogy for example.
Earning 14 awards and $375 million in ticket sales, Batman Begins provided the proper foundation for director Christopher Nolan to add 2 more movies in the series (The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises), both of which performed extremely well, with The Dark Knight grabbing a pair of Oscars and each production taking home around $1 billion.
On the other side of the spectrum, you’ll see the more lackluster sequels, such as Robocop 2 and, S. Darko.
The original Robocop received high praise from critics for its action-packed fight scenes and memorable acting. Although the film didn’t win anything, it was also nominated for two Oscars back in 1987. However, when it came time for the sequel, Robocop 2 did not deliver. Many critics noted that the writers relied too heavily on overly dramatic fight scenes and basically reused the same humor from the original.
As for S. Darko, it vastly under-performed the blockbuster D.Darko. An almost overwhelmingly amount of critics berated the movie for it’s scattered plot and inability to follow a central storyline. When compared to its predecessor, which earned 11 awards and $7.5 million, S.Darko was hardly an afterthought.
The difference between The Dark Knight trilogy and S. Darko/Robocop 2, or any successful sequels versus non-successful, is the movie’s ability to tell a familiar story but take hold of a new identity. The Dark Knight was never fighting the same villain twice and even his personal struggles varied in each film. Critics and fans noticed this, which is why this trilogy saw such popularity.
Whether it was the Joker or Bane, an ethical dilemma, or climbing out of a pit with a broken back, the writers gave the fans a fresh plot which in turn rewarded them.
Its important to have a director that knows what they are doing and is confident in the film they are making. The sequel needs to stand with its prior film, not live in its shadow. While horror movies usually do not make the best sequels, Krasinski has proven himself capable.
Although it’s too early to speculate, Krasinski and his fellow writers seem to have a grasp on what direction they’d like to take this film. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Krasinski informed them that they’re looking to reinvent the previous story by fleshing out the world the movie is set in. He mentioned the possibilities of another story based around an entirely new family or simply emphasizing the “rules” of the world with the existing members.
At this moment, nothing concrete has been confirmed so there’s still a lot of routes they could take this film. They quite literally have a whole world of possibilities.