It used to be that a film had to be a runaway success to get a sequel, but now it looks like it might not even have had to break even. Despite fervent reviews in some sectors of the online press, 2010’s MacGuyver spoof MacGruber didn’t really do much at the box office, falling short of even making back its modest, $10 million budget. But that is not stopping director Jorma Taccone and star Will Forte from developing a sequel.
Taccone was speaking with Screen Crush and stated –
It would be me, Will and John [Solomon] writing it again. Every time I hang out with Will, we talk about all our cool ideas for the sequel. We have the idea for it and we have a title, but I won’t tell you what it is.
Taccone does let slip that a sequel would take place at Christmas time, just like Die Hard, and that MacGruber and Kristin Wiig’s Vicki St. Elmo character would not have a baby.
This may not happen soon though, as Taccone states he is currently developing two other projects – The Great Unknown and a mystery, as-yet-unannounced Adam Sandler project. In the meantime, Forte has just signed on to Alexander Payne’s next project, Nebraska, while a post-Bridesmaids Wiig’s schedule is filling up fast.
While the original MacGruber bits on Saturday Night Live were amusing, stretching a one joke premise out to feature film length just felt tedious. And now they want to do it again? The first film fell short of making back its reported budget by $700,000 and even if it has managed to gain a cult audience since then, I am not sure that DVD/blu-ray sales would still be enough to push this over into the black once you factor in the usual advertising and publicity costs. They certainly can’t be counting on co-star Wiig’s new found heat to help drive box office for a second film, could they?
