In 2014, a Need for Speed live-action feature made its way into theaters with Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul playing the role of Tobey Marshall, a mechanic who races muscle cars underground. After Dino betrays Tobey and frames him for a crime that he didn’t commit, Tobey exits prison two years later hell-bent on revenge. The only way he’ll get it is if he takes down Dino in a high-stakes race that’s flooded with cops and bounty hunters. Upon release, the video game adaptation was blasted by most critics, with Need for Speed scoring a weak 22% on rotten tomatoes. However, we all know that executives only care about numbers, and domestically Need for Speed garnered $43.6 million. Obviously, that’s not a good box office number, but a sequel was actually confirmed with a planned co-production between EA and the China Movie Channel Program Center. Why? Because Need for Speed was an international success, with its worldwide total ending at $203.3 million. Based on a $66 million production budget, the video game adaptation ended up being a box office success despite flopping hard in the US. Other than Paul himself stating that he’s heard rumblings about the sequel, executives have gone silent since then as there’s been no update in six years. At this point, it seems unlikely that Need for Speed will get a sequel. Let’s speculate the reasons the video game adaptation won’t be getting a Part II anytime soon.
Need for Speed Felt Like a Poor Man’s Fast and the Furious
The Need for Speed franchise has been a thrilling video games series since 1994. So, in turn, The Fast and the Furious could be described as a poor man’s Need for Speed. At the least, the first three films can be. Even though the original Fast and the Furious came out in 1954. Still, the 2001 feature has no ties to the John Ireland vehicle nor is the material based on that crime drama. The craziest thing 2001 feature is that the inspiration didn’t come from any other source material but a magazine article title Racer X, which was published by Vibe in 1998. The franchise was highly established by the time 2014 hit and Need for Speed felt like an imitation when it arrived on the scene. Even though the Fast franchise had gone full over-the-top and cartoonish by this point, the reason that the series remains so successful is due to the fact that it’s essentially the only game in town. Given the crazy stunts that the series has had thus far, Need for Speed had to make a film that would separate itself from the Vin Diesel projects. While the car chases are great in the 2014 feature thanks to the use of practical effects, Need for Speed is a mindlessly convoluted film with generic characters you’ve seen in the Fast franchise before. Unfortunately, The Fast saga already staked its claim in the entertainment and movie landscape despite Need for Speed popping up in media before the first film was released in 2001. The film flopped with American audiences and given the budget that has to go into these types of movies, studios likely bulked at making a sequel because it never caught any fire during its original run. Could a sequel be under way in the future? It’s definitely possible, but only after the Fast franchise finally finishes up their long going saga. Audiences would want something to satisfy their drag racing itch and Need for Speed may be the perfect franchise to swoop in and take over the genre.
Video Game Adaptations Don’t Do Particularly Well at the Box Office
It’s insane how badly video games have translated to the movie screen. We’ve only gotten several good and decent films, whereas everything else is mostly trash. Unfortunately, video game adaptations just don’t have a good history at the box office. The highest grossing video game movie is 2016’s Warcraft, grossing $439 million worldwide. No video game adaptation has ever made it to the $500 million mark. Obviously, studios can’t guarantee whether a movie will be a success or not, but they will look at the statistics to see if a film has a high chance at success at the box office. This is why the movie landscape is currently plagued by superheroes. Studios are willing to spend crazy amounts of money of these intellectual properties because they’ve proven to be a valuable commodity. We see less of movies like Malignant or Nightmare Alley because they don’t particularly have the main stream appeal that superhero flicks do. Of course, Nightmare Alley has yet to be released, so the Guillermo de Toro feature may end up being a smashing success, but the only reason that the film was likely made in the first place is due to the fact that the Oscar winner’s name was attached. Aaron Paul is a star, but he’s not a movie star as he hasn’t exactly found that movie role to skyrocket his career past Breaking Bad. The studio likely examined the probability of the sequel’s success and dropped any immediate plans because they may think that the video game adaptation just isn’t worth the risk.
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