Despite whether you enjoyed John Luessenhop‘s Texas Chainsaw 3D or not, Leatherface scared up $10.2 million his opening day alone, and is looking at earnings between $20 – $30 million for the entire weekend, pretty much assuring our chainsaw-wielding maniac will be the king of Hollywood for at least one weekend.
I personally didn’t find much to love in Texas Chainsaw 3D, as you can see from my review, and most critics have echoed the same complaints – but studios don’t care about reviews. If the monetary gain is there, and people are showing up for their film, a sequel is almost inevitable in today’s market.
Thanks to Bloody Disgusting, we can now officially confirm Luessenhop’s film is looking to be the start of an entirely new Texas Chainsaw franchise, with a sequel already in motion. Honestly, news of a sequel isn’t all that surprising really, but it’s what Lionsgate is planning even farther down the line which has this horror fan rather worried. Check out the exclusive news from Bloody Disgusting themselves:
We’re the first to receive word that the people behind TCM 3D will in fact move forward on a sequel to the continuation of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 classic.
Again, anyone could see that coming in today’s remake/revamp, sequel centric horror world, but this is the information we didn’t see coming:
Bloody Disgusting has heard through the grapevine on various occasions that the producers behind Texas Chainsaw 3D had acquired the rights to make up to 7 more films (including this one), and that this Leatherface adventure is the beginning of an entire new franchise at Lionsgate.
Um, six more Leatherface films? I don’t even think Texas Chainsaw 3D itself warrents a sequel, but to have an entire franchise based upon such a weak and poorly scripted direct sequel to Tobe Hooper’s now classic original slasher flick? In my review I pointed out how Luessenhop’s sequel picks up chronologically right after survivor girl Sally escapes Leatherface’s clutches, meaning we are supposed to forget about every other sequel to that point, starting over anew. A sequel or two under the new time-frame was surely on the horizon, but a 7 film franchise? Sorry I’m throwing so many questions around, but I can’t imagine sitting through six more Texas Chainsaw films of the same caliber.
Let’s think realistically though. It’s only been one winning weekend for Texas Chainsaw 3D so far, and with so many negative reviews surfacing, it’s hard to see such profitable numbers continuing over time, especially with highly anticipated films like Gangster Squad being released in the next few weeks. Also, we’ll have to see how another Texas Chainsaw film does after this sad debacle, as another quality-lacking entry should pretty much put a nail in Lionsgate’s coffin – until another remake arises decades down the road of course.
For me, I’d love to see an entirely new creative team take a crack at Texas Chainsaw 3D‘s sequel as I had far too many problems with Luessenhop and company. The gore was grossly awesome, but so many plot holes made the script look like swiss cheese – and that’s in a genre already known for lackluster story work.
There’s no word on whether Alexandra Daddario or Dan Yeager will be back for the sequel yet, although Daddario voiced her want to return in an interview, and Yeager did a fine job as Leatherface himself, so there’s no reason for either not to come back.
Anyways, what do you guys think, how many more Texas Chainsaw entries will we get from Lionsgate? More importantly though, how many do you want to see?
