10 Hugely Successful Movies That Amazingly Never Got Sequels

3. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial

E.T.Box Office: $792,965,326 To be fair, here's one movie I'm glad never got a sequel. Steven Spielberg's heartbreaking sci-fi classic means so much to children the world over that a bad sequel would have tarnished its legacy forever more. Just a month after E.T. was released, Spielberg and scribe Melissa Mathison wrote a treatment for a sequel, titled E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears, which would revolve around evil aliens kidnapping Elliot and his friends. It barely featured E.T. himself, save for his appearance at the end to save the kids, and it's generally agreed that not pursuing the sequel was a smart move. Still, knowing Hollywood's crass nature, it's surprising that the film was never made anyway; so often they seem to care so little about actual quality when box office dollars are involved, but the decision to nix it by Spielberg was nothing if not a total integrity move.
Contributor
Contributor

Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.