A new film would require a new motivating set of circumstances. At the end of “Ultimatum,” Jason Bourne remembered everything about his past as a highly trained government assassin and swam off in the East River, having dispatched the corrupt agency officials who had tried to have him killed. The films were not only grueling to make, but the original trilogy also felt of a piece, one unfolding story when watched in succession. Greengrass, coming off “Bloody Sunday,” his dramatization of a massacre by British troops of Irish protesters in 1972, was recruited for the 2004 “Bourne Supremacy.” Critical acclaim joined box-office success for “Supremacy” and, in 2007, “The Bourne Ultimatum,” which won Oscars for film editing, sound mixing and sound editing.īut Mr. Though “The Bourne Identity” performed only decently on its opening weekend - “Scooby-Doo” nearly tripled its box-office take - word of mouth buoyed the movie, and it ended up making more than $120 million domestically.

And he wasn’t kitted out with the latest technological marvels or a souped-up Aston Martin he made do with found objects or whatever car he could steal. He didn’t punctuate his pummeling of foes with well-aimed quips. Jason Bourne was a new kind of action hero. The movie’s mix of visceral, kinetic action and contemporary political concerns felt fresh to audiences. But something odd happened in the summer of 2002. “But you have to give them enough of something they recognize that they feel like they’re getting what they paid for.” “It’s this weird thing where you can’t give them exactly the same thing, or they’ll be resentful,” Mr. The creative team and studio behind “Jason Bourne” hope their film performs more like this year’s few outliers, “Captain America: Civil War” and “Finding Dory.” But they all recognize that the calculus behind successful sequels is tricky. The results were even worse for sequels with significant time lags since the previous film, like “Zoolander 2” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.” “The Huntsman: Winter’s War,” “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising,” “The Divergent Series: Allegiant” and “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” just to name a few, landed with a thud at the box office. But the simply titled “Jason Bourne” emerges in a moviegoing environment very different from the one the superspy found himself in in 2007.įor franchise films, 2016 has been an annus horribilis. The road to yes involved a fragmented political landscape, an insistent fan base and gently prodding studio executives.

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