SucMore and more standalone movies are becoming franchised, and when they get so big, studios get ambitious with principal photography. With certain films making so much money at the box office, studios will take the risk of green lighting two sequels, and even have them shot back to back.
At one point, John Wick 4 and 5 were even planned to be shot back to back until the pandemic halted it. It’s one of the most strenuous things to do in the movie industry, with several producers who did it claiming to never do it ever again, but it has made for some incredible results.
Back To The Future Part II & Back To The Future Part III
Though the first movie might not be as good as fans remember, the Back to the Future franchise has so many great moments in every entry, and there’s just as much to love in the sequels. Considering that the franchise was never planned to be a trilogy in the first place, the back-to-back production of the sequels worked phenomenally well.
It’s surprising to find out that the Back to the Future movies were shot back-to-back, as they are so different from each other. Part II is set in the future, with flying cars and hoverboards, while Part III is set in the Wild West.
Fifty Shades Darker & Fifty Shades Freed
Fifty Shades of Grey might be one of the worst romance movies in recent years, but due to its huge box office numbers, making well over half a billion dollars, two sequels were quickly greenlit. Both of the sequels were shot back-to-back, and just like the original movie, the follow-ups were negatively received.
However, they were almost as successful at the original, shockingly making the series a billion-dollar franchise. And with a fourth novel being released very soon, it’s likely that the movie series will be revived too.
The Matrix Reloaded & The Matrix Revolutions
After The Lord of the Rings changed the way films were made forever by inspiring other studios to shoot movie sequels back-to-back, Warner Bros. did it more than anyone else. From LotR to The Hobbit to Harry Potter, it was as if Warner Bros. had found a franchise-building cheat code, and the first series to do it after LotR was The Matrix.
The two movies were shot back-to-back and released just six months apart, but the Wachowski siblings actually wanted the two movies to best released just one week apart. And the long-awaited fourth movie will be released in theatres and HBO Max later this year.
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - Part 1 & Part 2
With the final Harry Potter novel being split into two films, The Deathly Hallows was filmed back-to-back and shot as if it was one movie. Out of all the movie adaptations that split a novel into two movies, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows was the one that needed it more than any other.
The Deathly Hallows book is close to 200,000 words. And considering that The Hobbit, which has less than 100,000 words, was split into three three-hour movies, The Deathly Hallows movies don’t suffer from being stretched too thin, unlike a lot of the two-part movies that followed.
Kill Bill: Volume 1 & Kill Bill Volume 2
Celebrated movie director Quentin Tarantino has had a lot of plans for sequels in the past, as he considered making one to both Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction throughout his career.
But Tarantino has made one sequel, Kill Bill: Volume 2. Just like with Harry Potter, Tarantino shot it like it was one movie, and the director even intended for the saga to be one whole movie. There was actually a limited release where the two parts were edited together as one movie, which was called The Whole Bloody Affair. And there was even intended to be a proper sequel to the movie(s,) but it was ultimately canceled.
The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy
Though there had been countless movies that were shot back to back before it, some of which even dated back to the 1940s, it was The Lord of the Rings that seemingly made studios realize it was possible, and financially beneficial too.
The Lord of the Rings not only had two movies shot back to back, but the whole trilogy was shot from start to finish, and it took 438 days in total according to director Peter Jackson himself. And 10 years later, Jackson did it all over again with the Hobbit trilogy.
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest & At World’s End
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was an astounding success, so it was no surprise that Disney greenlit two sequels. However, where the first movie was very much a standalone film that told a full story without any pretense of setting up a franchise, it’s surprising that Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End were shot back-to-back, as it went deep into the lore of the series.
And even despite At World’s End's critical response, the series now has spanned five movies, and there’s even a reboot in development.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 & Part 2
After Warner Bros. split the final Harry Potter book into two movies, so many other studios followed the same path. Splitting books into two movies is a win-win. The audience gets more of the novel’s content, which has been a problem with previous adaptations, and it’s so lucrative for the studios, as it’s basically doubling what it would have made at the box office otherwise.
Mockingjay, the third installment in the Hunger Games franchise, did the same thing, and just like Harry Potter, the two movies were shot back-to-back. But where there are so many fictional characters fans want to see in the Hunger Games, there wasn’t actually a focus on Hunger Games competitions in either of the movies, so the novel arguably didn’t need to be split into two films.
Avengers: Infinity War & Avengers: Endgame
Though it seems like the Russo brothers have been directing MCU movies back-to-back ever since they made Captain America: The Winter Soldier all the way back in 2014, the first MCU movies to be truly shot that way were the two last Avengers films.
Both Infinity War and Endgame were shot back-to-back, and it’s why Disney was able to release them just one year apart. However, surprisingly enough, it’s something that some people over at Marvel Studios regret, as it was massively strenuous, and something they won’t do again.
The Avatar Sequels
What’s going on with the Avatar sequels is a complete mystery, as the development and production have been kept mostly under wraps. But one of the few details that have come to light is that they will be shot back-to-back. According to Variety, principal photography for Avatar 2 is finished, and Avatar 3 is 95% complete.
And not only that, but Avatar 4 and 5 are all being shot back-to-back too, and they all already have scheduled release dates!