This list of sequels and threequels (and SQUEAKels!!! Damned chipmunks will never go awayyyyy!!!) is rather surprising. Some of these films didn't score much coin their first go-round, why revisit a mildly dry well? Hoodwinked and Johnny English spring to mind and I don't recall Happy Feet exactly lighting the box office on fire either.

Squeakels, snort. Shame the reliance on former glories, or, as Jeff points out, former non-glories. I wouldn't think working with an existing property would necessarily doom the project to failure (same heart, new twist, done, right?), so why aren't sequels better? Why so hard to take a sequel to next level? (Of course I condone the behavior by seeing eg Transformers 2, so we as audience contribute to problem as well.) Huge passion, singular vision, perhaps requirements for moving movie experience, maybe hard to come by in sequels.

Friend just sent me this, Everything is a Remix Part 2 (deals with films, part 1 was about music):
http://www.everythingisaremix.info/?p=58

From last 10 years, of the top 100 movies, 74 were sequels, remakes, and adaptations.

@Atlanta: I covered Everything is a Remix, Part 1 here. Thanks for the heads-up re 2. I'll do an updated post on both of them.

Hi Scott, meant to give a shout out, that you might well have covered this already (has happened before, you find good stuff from all over), but day got crazy, by time posted link, thousand other things filled my pea brain.

Nice Kill Bill bit at end, and he could have gone much further (Tarantino lifted entire fight scenes from relatively obscure movies). Nothing is new, it's all what you do with it. Which is why there's no excuse for boring sequels/remakes!

From this morning, too long and comic book focused for your audience, and covers ground you've well, well covered, but still a good kick in the pants for any one needing it, reiterates sentiment keep writing, every moment you have, and if you're not producing finished work, you're not doing it right.