'Independence Day' sequel seeks to be another game-changer
Does the 20-year absence of alien attacks make moviegoers’ hearts grow fonder? Independence Day: Resurgence is bound to test that theory.
In a summer of sequels that haven't exactly been tearing up the box office — from the lukewarm reception for X-Men: Apocalypse (which has earned $147.6 million to date) to the tanking of Alice Through the Looking Glass ($71.3 million) — hopes are hanging on the few that have kept their fans waiting. So far, so good: Finding Dory rang up a $135 million debut last weekend, the biggest ever for an animated film, 13 years removed from Finding Nemo’s seas. Next month offers the first Ghostbusters film in 27 years, with a fresh new female cast and social media buzz on its side.
This weekend, all eyes are on the return of those pesky space invaders from Independence Day, the top movie of 1996, “because it is such a big brand,” comScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian says.
The trend toward long-gestating follow-ups is “all about studios going into their vault and seeing what could be a money maker if updated/rebooted/reintroduced to the marketplace,” he says.
It certainly worked for last December’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the all-time domestic box office champ ($936.7 million), released a decade after the last Star Wars film. Resurgence (in theaters Friday) has a harder row to hoe: While its special-effects destruction was groundbreaking two decades ago, it isn't as much of a game-changer in 2016, and the movie could have difficulty defeating the second weekend of Dory.
“It wrote the script for the next alien invasion movie, what went on to become the ‘disaster porn’ genre,” says Erik Davis, managing editor for Fandango.com and Movies.com. “I definitely think there’s a curiosity out there, and more people than maybe we would think will show up opening weekend to see it.”
Davis adds that the sequel's success depends on whether the franchise evolves and takes a next step. Plus, its human personalities need to be just as memorable as its effects: “One thing that made the first Independence Day a special movie was, (given) how dorky and goofy as some of the lines were, you were really invested in the characters.”
Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman and Vivica A. Fox all return to a cast that adds Liam Hemsworth and Maika Monroe to the sci-fi spectacle, but missing is Will Smith, who was one of the most popular actors in the world when Independence Day topped the global box office.
“We’re always talking about how star power doesn’t matter anymore and it’s all about the concept,” Dergarabedian says. “Well, this kind of puts that to the test.”
The most glaring negative of the Independence Day franchise is that, like other Roland Emmerich big-budget action films such as The Day After Tomorrow and 2012, it hasn’t aged well, says Jeff Bock, senior box office analyst for Exhibitor Relations.
“Simply put, they are popcorn fodder," he says. "Overseas, however, this will be a sure-fire hit — big-budget spectacles with lots of bells and whistles still play well internationally.”