It has been revealed that Pineapple Express 2 was never made because it would've cost more money than Sony was willing to spend on the sequel. Pineapple Express hit theaters in the summer of 2008, where the action-comedy followed box office juggernauts, Iron Man, and The Dark Knight. Despite being met with a lukewarm reaction from critics, the film went on to be a hit with mainstream audiences, scoring a fresh 73 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes and grossing $101 million worldwide against a budget of just $27 million. In fact, the film is even considered to be one of James Franco's best films.

Pineapple Express follows a process server named Dale Denton (Seth Rogen). After inadvertently witnessing a murder, Dale must go on the run with his marijuana dealer, Saul Silver (James Franco), and evade hitmen and a corrupt police officer who intend to kill them. The film was directed by David Gordon Green, who recently directed the highly successful Halloween sequel, and also starred Gary Cole, Danny McBride, Kevin Corrigan, Craig Robinson, Rosie Perez, Amber Heard, and Joe Lo Truglio. Despite the fact that the film was financially successful and considered to feature one of Rogen's most iconic roles, a sequel never saw the light of day. Apatow revealed last month that Pineapple Express 2 would've dealt with legalized marijuana, and now it has been uncovered why that sequel never happened.

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When sitting down with Howard Stern on The Howard Stern ShowRogen revealed that the crew of Pineapple Express were open to a sequel, but that Sony wasn't as willing to make Pineapple Express 2 due to budget concerns. Rogen explained that the original made a profit due to the low budget but that Pineapple Express 2 ultimately fell through because it would've cost Sony more money than what they were willing to spend. Rogen stated, "I think we probably wanted too much money… Studios, they don't like giving away money. Weird thing." A segment of his interview with Stern can be seen in the clip below:

During the Sony hack back in 2014, a thread of e-mails was uncovered between producer Amy Pascal and other executives at the time that discussed Judd Apatow's $50 million pitch for the sequel. It appeared that Sony was standing their ground, only willing to give $45 million. The e-mails detailed the $5 million dispute between the studio and Apatow, with neither party budging, causing the sequel to never see the light of day. Rogen mentioned this in his interview above, but it now seems that money was the sole reason for the film not getting made. Following the success of Pineapple Express, Rogen kept moving full-steam ahead, churning out more comedy hits, such as Sausage PartyThis Is The End, and Neighborswhich grossed $270 million at the worldwide box office and spawned a sequel that was also financially successful.

Considering the box office success of the first film and the passionate built-in fanbase, it came as a shock that Sony never gave a sequel the green light. Rogen has proven to be one of the most consistently reliable and successful comedy writers/performers in the years since the comedy's release. In fact, during the time of the Sony hack, Rogen's star was starting to rise considerably, hot off the heels of successful and well-received comedies, such as Knocked Up, Superbad, and This Is The End. Naturally, it seems surprising the studio wouldn't give the film an extra $5 million to make a sequel that could've easily been just as successful as the original, if not more so. Regardless, curious fans can now rest easy in finally knowing why Pineapple Express 2 never made its way to theaters.

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Source: The Howard Stern Show