Fans of Alita: Battle Angel took their demands for Disney to greenlight a sequel to the 2019 film to the Oscars, by hiring a plane to fly over the event trailing a banner emblazoned with #AlitaSequel. The high-flying stunt comes on the heels of a busy week for fans of the Robert Rodriguez-directed film, which is based on a popular 1990 manga called Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro. Previously, fans dubbing themselves the Alita Army took to Twitter and managed to get the #AlitaSequel trending.
Alita: Battle Angel follows a cyborg woman named Alita (Rosa Salazar) as she seeks to recover her lost memory in a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk future. The journey takes her to some dark places, including a few rounds of the violent sport Motorball and becoming a bounty hunter. The film adaptation of the manga was a pet-project for Titanic director James Cameron for many years. Cameron eventually got the film made, but only attached as a producer due to his busy schedule making the Avatar sequels.
Internet personality Jessica Chobot managed to snap a pic of the banner as it flew over the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, where the 92nd Academy Awards are held. Chobot posted the image to her Twitter account, noting the "passion" fans have for Alita: Battle Angel. The banner was paid for by the Alita Army, an online collective of fans, who raised $1,810 in donations, according to their blog.
Alita: Battle Angel was an expensive movie that took years to develop, only to grossly under-perform with American audiences. The film eventually made $400.15 million globally, but that only translates into about $170 million in profit. With a budget of roughly $170 million, Alita: Battle Angel barely made back what the studio spent, and that's not counting marketing costs. Which is all to say, a sequel seems like a longshot, no matter how many petitions the fanbase creates. Although, another of the film's producers, Jon Landau, has encouraged fans to continue "peppering" the studio with requests for a sequel.
Should the studio eventually respond to the fan campaign by actually greenlighting an Alita 2, the original creative team is ready; Cameron, Rodriguez, and Salazar have all said they would return for a second movie. However, 20th Century Fox released the film, before being acquired by Disney. With blockbuster franchises like Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe to continue expanding, it doesn't seem likely that a sequel to Alita: Battle Angel is high on Disney's priority list.
Source: Jessica Chobot via Twitter, Alita Army Blog