You may have an incredible open ending that completely causes a buyer to salivate over the possibility of sequels, a franchise in the making. Still my instincts would be to focus on that first story, immerse yourself in all aspects of it, and craft the hell out of it. As I say, if it works, Hollywood will make sequels. You can count on that.

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Well, how 'open' does an ending really have to be in order to make a sequel possible? You need to have 1) your hero still alive (probably), and - 2) the possibility that the nemesis, or a similar nemesis appropriate to your hero, will return. Apart from those two necessities, surely everything else can be (and should be?) as 'closed' as you like.

Ideally if your concept is big enough, a sequel could come easy. All the "closed ending" movies you mentioned did have... well, not sequel hooks, but you can imagine the idea being expanded upon or more things happening in that framework. Someone else could find the downed Alien ship (there were plenty of eggs), there are always aliens for the Men In Black to defend against in funny ways, John McClane and Kevin McAllister both have rotten luck. I would avoid an "uh oh, here we go again!" ending or even hinting at the idea that the viewer is obligated to watch another movie, I would just have some idea for an answer in case the question "well, what happens next?" pops up. Because it could.

Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads.