So Night at the Museum 2 was pretty much a wash. The popcorn element of the franchise had fizzled out, and so did Fox’s profits along with the notion that the franchise could reach trilogy status. Surprisingly enough, the studio just announced that a third installment of the series was in the works from The Internship director Shawn Levy. The man behind Real Steel will be steering the ship for the Ben Stiller-starrer which has already been set for Christmas Day 2014.
While we still do not know much about the story, it does appear to be unique enough to warrant the green light. This definitely was not an easy decision though as the last installment only found $413 million on a budget of $150 million. That may seem like a win, but the original banked $574.5 million three years prior. The difference was likely the release calendar as round one bowed in December with the sequel coming in the month of May. Hopefully, for the studio’s sake, that is the only real problem because this property has been shown to be very pricey thus why many will continue to think Fox should have taken the money and ran.
We are still looking for an entire slate for December 2014; however, things are looking really crowded right now in the family category. Disney’s Tomorrowland from Brad Bird bows six days prior as does the Despicable Me minions spin-off. This could prove to be a problem and might lead to one of the trio being bounced to spring or summer 2015 although it should be noted that the feature from the Mouse House will likely end up being a PG-13 offering therefore creating a bit of room to work around although many expect a third, still-being-written Sherlock Holmes movie to surface at that time as well.
As for Ben Stiller, this is yet another follow-up to The Watch. We expect to see the Zoolander star in two films this year including He’s Way More Famous Than You and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty which he actually directed.