Francis Ford Coppola has been responsible for many things in Hollywood, from one of the greatest movies of all time in The Godfather to one of the most divisive, with this year’s Megalopolis, but it seems that the Oscar-winning director believes he has to apologize to the public for one thing in particular. According to Coppola, he is “the jerk” who is responsible for Hollywood’s obsession with two-part movies and numbered sequels.
2024 has been an unprecedented year for sequels. The ten highest grossing movies are all sequels, with titles like Inside Out 2, Gladiator II, Dune: Part Two and more all making good use of every written form of the number two possible. Heading into the future, there are many more numbered movies to come, such as next year’s Wicked – Part 2, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 (and two more beyond that if Kevin Costner’s coffers are topped up), The Batman – Part II…the list goes on.
As far as Coppola is concerned, it is his fault that so many movies are continuations of an original story, thanks to his 1974 sequel to The Godfather. While speaking to The Washington Post, Coppola addressed his feelings of responsibility for beginning the trend that just continues to grow with each passing year explaining how it all came as a result of his demands he made when trying to avoid directing The Godfather Part II.
“[Paramount] said, basically, ‘Francis, you’ve made Coca-Cola. You’re gonna stop making colas?’”
After making several demands that he believed would get him kicked from the movie, including a $1 million paycheck and having “Part II” in the title of the movie, Paramount agreed to them all in order to secure the director. While he would deliver one of the greatest movie sequels of all time, Coppola now feels that was the moment that multiple-part movies and sequels became a big thing in Hollywood. He said:
“So I’m the jerk that started numbers on movies. I’m embarrassed, and I apologize to everyone.”
Hollywood’s Sequel Obsession Has Reached New Heights
Making movie sequels and remakes is not a new thing. Essentially, the 1930s and 1940s were full of remakes of silent movies from 20 to 30 years prior, and subsequently there were many movies starring the same actors in the same roles, such as Bogart’s Sam Spade, and follow-up movies to popular hits such as Bride of Frankenstein and Son of Kong, which expanded on the original stories.
While many people bemoan the influx of remakes and sequels currently in development, it is hard to deny that they are popular in terms of financial results, even if many of them feel like jaded cash-grabs. Coppola’s candid reflection on this decision to call his movie The Godfather – Part II certainly could have gone someway to highlighting how audiences reacted to such movies, but the director is not technically responsible for what has become standard practice in Hollywood.
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Audiences flock to cinemas for sequels, but they don’t tend to show up as much for movies that have not been tried and tested. With streaming platforms now allowing people to see movies within months of them hitting the big screen, it is quite easy for someone on the fence about making a trip to the cinema to simply hold on and wait to watch at home instead. The proof of that can be seen when comparing Disney movies such as Inside Out, which was a substantial hit with a $859 million box office in 2015 but managed to double that with 2024’s Inside Out 2 taking $1.7 billion. Currently, Moana 2 is breaking records and is expected to challenge the top spot for the highest grossing movie of the year, and follows from the $643 million haul of the original movie back in 2016. Meanwhile, new movies such as Strange World completely bombed on their release.
In short, movie sequels with numbered titles may not have been a thing when Coppola released The Godfather – Part II, but over time someone else would have been the first to create the trend if he had not. Either way, it has become something that is unavoidable in modern cinema, with cinematic universes continuing to deliver big results, and sequels resulting in some of the biggest financial wins of the year. In contrast to new movie ideas like Coppola’s own Megalopolis… we will just leave that thought there.
The Godfather Part II
- Release Date
- December 20, 1974
- Rating
- r
- Cast
- Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, James Caan, Diane Keaton
- Runtime
- 202minutes
- Genres
- Drama, Crime
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