Movies that are intended to be the opening chapter in a multi-film series don’t necessarily have to be good in order to generate sequels, but Eragon proved to be so thoroughly terrible in every respect that it was decided to simply abandon the property instead of even trying to assemble a follow-up.
A 16 percent Rotten Tomatoes approval rating and a reputation as one of the worst blockbuster fantasy epics to arrive in the immediate aftermath of the scramble to launch as many adaptations onto the screen as possible in the wake of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter it may hold, but it can’t be overlooked that the film was a lot more profitable than you might think.
Not only did Eragon net $250 million at the global box office on a $100 million budget, but the live-action adventure inspired by Christopher Paolini’s The Inheritance Cycle also sold close to $90 million worth of copies on home video in the United States alone, so it was far from a fiscal catastrophe.
It did suck, though, and it sucked so hard that news of Disney Plus rebooting the IP as an episodic series was greeted by widespread enthusiasm by fans who’d suffered through the ill-fated feature. When pressed by Collider for a status update, Paolini offered that things could be picking up a gear once the strikes end.
“We were getting really close to seeing some real progress right when the strike happened. Obviously, that put everything on hold. Now, my agents and everyone are talking about gearing back up. So, we’ll see. Disney’s kind of an interesting place these days, but I’m very hopeful that we’ll get a good team in place who can care about the story and will do justice to the world and the characters.”
Eragon has boundless potential, and with Rick Riordan fully on board with the platform’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians, terrible mid-2000s fantasies getting rebooted could be the next big thing.
Published: Oct 31, 2023 11:55 am