10 Flop Movies That Somehow Got Sequels
2. The Chronicles Of Riddick
Despite 2000's Pitch Black performing modestly at the box office - just barely doubling its $23 million budget - Universal became interested in developing a sequel following the success of Vin Diesel's The Fast and the Furious.
In fact, Universal sweetened the deal by offering Diesel $11 million to star in The Chronicles of Riddick, granting him a producer credit and considerable creative control, and also giving the film a $120 million budget - more than five times that of the original.
Universal was presumably extremely confident that Diesel's surging popularity would allow the larger-scale sequel to succeed, and yet, The Chronicles of Riddick cratered commercially, ending with a total of just $115.8 million.
Though this seemed to kill the franchise stone cold, in the years that followed, Diesel - who had since acquired the rights from Universal in exchange for making a cameo in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift - fought hard to get a third Riddick made.
Ultimately 2013's Riddick was produced because Diesel agreed to fund a large portion of the pared-down $38 million budget himself, even re-mortgaging his home and spending most of his own money to make it happen.
On a more sensible budget, Riddick grossed a solid $98.3 million globally, proving successful enough that Diesel is currently developing a fourth film in the franchise.