In recent weeks, we've been reading reports about how success at the Chinese box office could wind up not only saving Terminator Genisys from being considered a failure, but also convince the studio to make a sequel. If new reports are to be believed, it seems that Sony's RoboCop series might be in the exact same boat.
This story comes from Den of Geek, and while we're not exactly at the point where a RoboCop 2 is going to get the greenlight, the site says that the door isn't completely shut on the idea. When the film was released in theaters in 2014, it only managed to pull in $58 million here in the United States - which was considered pretty damn bad considering that the project came with a $100 million price tag. Helping to balance the scales, however, was the international box office, which boosted the movie's total worldwide performance to nearly $250 million. Add in the estimated $15 million that the movie has made on home video, and you have numbers that suggest that the movie didn't actually do so bad.
Of course, there will be some debate from movie-goers as to whether or not Sony should actually make a RoboCop 2. The film got very mixed reviews when it came out early last year - but I will actually stand up for it. While the film certainly has its shortcomings, director José Padilha does honestly fill the feature with a number of good ideas and sharp commentary - plus he gets really great performances out of Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, and Gary Oldman. There's enough established within the continuity to build on in another story, and I wouldn't mind getting another peek into that universe (even if the last RoboCop II we saw was rather awful).
Den of Geek's unnamed sources say that Sony has been open to pitches from filmmakers who have ideas about possible directions - though it doesn't look as though the project is at the top of their to-do list. This is probably the best position for a potential sequel to be in: it will probably only get made if there's an idea that is really worth pursuing. Most follow-ups in Hollywood aren't developed with this in mind, so it really could wind up being for the best of the franchise.
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