Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets Director Believes Sequel Still Possible

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets will go down as one of the biggest box office bombs of the year. Like other would-be franchise-starters such as King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and The Dark Tower, the visually spectacular but otherwise lacking sci-fi epic received an equally awful critical reception and total gross. So, it wasn’t too much of a leap to suppose that any plans for future movies had been scrapped.

That’s not what director Luc Besson thinks, though. Speaking to Italian site Bad Taste, Besson believes we should wait and see how Valerian does in the countries it’s yet to hit before decreeing that the franchise is dead.

“I value the Italian option. And there’s still Japan also to open. We still have a couple of countries. But so far there’s a huge, huge fanbase for Valerian. I’m very surprised. Like I receive messages every day, I mean like people screaming for Valerian 2 already. So there’s a community for sure. So it’s positive.”

So far, Valerian has grossed $220 million worldwide. This wouldn’t be too shabby, if it wasn’t for the fact that its budget was around $180 million – earning it the title of the most expensive French film ever made. Despite this, Besson remains positive about the movie’s disappointing box office takings.

“I wish for every director around the world to do this level of admission, you know? (Laughs) Because we’re like pretty high already. What happens today, you know it’s a little different than like 5 or 10 years ago. Because the way people consume the film is very different. Like people are very busy, so they go to the cinema, but you stay on screen like three weeks. Before when I start my movie like The Fifth Element or Leon, you stay 12, 15, 20 weeks in theater.”

Finally, the director argues that we have to wait until the DVD and VOD releases of the film to see how well it’s done on the whole.

“Now you stay on screen for like two, three weeks and the VOD very soon, you have the DVD, the TV, so sometimes people they want to see a film and miss it, so they go there. So let’s wait till the end of what we call the first circle. The first circle is really theater, VOD, DVD and to see what is the audience.”

It’s understandable why Besson’s holding on to his hopes of making more Valerian movies. Based on a series of French graphic novels that the director has loved since childhood, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a passion project that he’s been attempting to get off the ground for the past twenty years. Sadly, we highly doubt there will be enough of a spike in box office gross, or even home video, to warrant a sequel. But still, you never know. Only time will tell.