20 Movie Sequels That Took WAY Too Long

14. Escape from L.A.

Escape from L.A. is a classic example of striking while the iron is ice cold, because 1981's original sci-fi action film Escape from New York was a huge box office hit, making $50 million against a mere $6 million budget.

Though a sequel swiftly entered consideration, this one took a full 15 years to come out, in large part due to Carpenter's own disdain for sequels per his involvement in the Halloween franchise.

It was reportedly star Kurt Russell's persistence which got the film made, but the end result received considerably worse reviews than Escape from New York while making less money on a much, much larger budget.

Even accepting Escape from L.A. as the deeply weird cult sequel it is today, we might've had an actual franchise of these movies if the sequel got made just a few years after the original where its budget could've been kept in check.